The first nine minutes and four seconds were unexpected. Cedric Paquette scored a rare goal, and it was against Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Ovechkin. Dmitry Orlov, arguably the Capitals’ best defenseman and easily their most dynamic, committed two costly turnovers. But the most peculiar occurrence, without question, was that the Capitals forfeited their greatest strategic advantage: their unassailable rush.

For all of this series, the Lightning have struggled to contain Washington’s puck-handlers and the offense the Capitals’ playmakers engineer in transition. And then Saturday happened, and the Capitals decided to embrace the dump-and-chase instead of carrying the puck in. From the start of the game to the Ondrej Palat goal that put Tampa Bay up 2-0, I recorded the Capitals with 13 dump-ins. The Capitals collected one shot attempt in those forays, and it was from Orlov. After the first period, I had the Capitals with 19 dump-ins and 1 measly shot attempt. It was a perplexing relinquishing of power, like LeBron James trying to play a basketball game without jumping or shooting.

Also, it should be highlighted that the second goal by Palat, while accelerated by a possible missed call on the Orlov tumble, began with a Nicklas Backstrom dump-in. Heck, there wasn’t any pressure near Backstrom either. He could have caught the pass and strutted into the Lightning’s zone. The Capitals’ forecheck isn’t very good, and Dan Girardi was able to retrieve the puck and complete his pass to Palat, who was his outlet. In the first period, the Lightning were able to exit their zone with little resistance.

One has to imagine that the proliferation of the dump-and-chase in the first period was intentional, because once the Capitals started to challenge the Lightning on their rushes instead of surrendering possession, they were able to gain entry consistently. This was true even when the game got closer. If coach Barry Trotz thought the Capitals needed a different method of attack, a departure after their two losses, that is bad coaching. The Capitals’ forward group had plenty of scoring chances in Games 3 and 4; they lost because goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy played spectacularly. It was a good process/bad outcome situation. And to switch gears from a strength (the rush) to a weakness (dump-ins) because of the consecutive losses was crazy.

The biggest surprise of this series has been the effectiveness of the Ryan Callahan, Paquette, and Chris Kunitz line against Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. Last night, Paquette led the Lightning in shot attempts at 5v5 with 6! He also accrued more shot attempts at 5v5 than Kuznetsov and Ovechkin, who both finished with four. While the Bolts’ fourth line on paper would seem destined to struggle against the speed and skill of the Capitals’ star players, its wizened veterans win a shocking amount of races to the puck on retrievals and compete ferociously in board battles. It is a cliché, but it applies: They make the Capitals’ best players fight for every inch of ice.

The forwards on the Lightning’s fourth line combine with Ryan McDonagh and Anton Stralman to form a shutdown pentad to choke off any offensive flow. The angles and anticipation by the fourth line seal off the passing and shooting lanes to shrink the time and space for Washington’s forwards and defensemen. Seconds into the game, it was great stick positioning by Paquette in the neutral zone on Orlov and Kuznetsov that led to the Lightning’s first tally. (Paquette’s stick positioning would save the Lightning in the third period when he denied Backstrom from ramming the puck into the open net.) In transition defense, the fourth line allows McDonagh and Stralman to stay in front of the first wave and the forwards provide support in trapping the puck-carrier and swallowing the trailers.

Tampa Bay did a nice job in this game of using the cycle to defang the Capitals. At least for the first period, when they finished with 25 shot attempts to the Capitals’ 8, and in parts of the second. The Lightning’s only way of sustaining pressure is by authorizing their defensemen to participate on the rush and cycle and exhaust the Capitals by forcing them to defend.

One instance that comes to mind was in the second period, with a little less than 11 minutes to go. Palat led a rush with Victor Hedman on the left wing and Steven Stamkos on the right. The cross-ice pass from Hedman to Stamkos failed, and Capitals forward Lars Eller was there to collect the puck. With pressure from Stamkos as Eller turned up ice, Eller tossed a careless pass through the middle, and instead of retreating, Hedman broke off his backchecking trajectory and intercepted the pass, forcing a two-on-one with Stamkos on the weak side.

Hedman’s pass to Stamkos was blocked by Michal Kempny, but Palat was there to pester Brett Connolly, which affected Connolly’s attempt to clear the zone. And standing at the blue line was Nikita Kucherov, who prevented the puck from leaving the zone—the cycle was initiated. Great puck support all around and, throughout the cycle that followed, Hedman and McDonagh were interchanging with the forwards and both Lightning defensemen proved influential sliding up the wall. Palat and Kucherov both had opportunities to score.

Vasilevskiy continues to be the difference in this series. He has been better than Braden Holtby, and the Lightning are eking out sufficient offense from their power play and depth players to squeak by. They have also been fortuitous with puck luck, as Capitals’ fans would be the first to point out. The Kucherov and Brayden Point lines have been inconsistent in their impact, but Game 6 offers the opportunity to close the door on Washington and avoid a Game 7 elimination contest. Oh, and earn a trip to play for the Stanley Cup.

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