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What Was Learned in Loss to Golden Knights

January 19, 2018, 12:17 PM ET [3 Comments]
Sam Hitchcock
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Through a hockey lens, what is the difference between precision and timing? Precision suggests intent. Several actions systematically occur and a desired plan unfolds. Good timing is less stringent, like a defenseman making a good read or a lucky bounce of the puck. After last night’s 4-1 loss to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, it is evident that the Lightning are going to need doses of both going forward. Without Victor Hedman, the margins for error are slimmer.

A misread is a good example of timing gone amuck. The guilty party was Mikhail Sergachev, who will see increased ice time in Hedman’s absence. Less than 45 seconds into the game, the Golden Knights got an A-grade scoring chance because Sergachev got caught flat-footed at the blue line. It’s a shame, because Tampa Bay’s forwards had just spent 30 seconds trying to engineer offense in the offensive zone, and the entry was achieved by a precise pass from Anton Stralman to Ondrej Palat to obtain access to the attacking zone.

In this instance, the shot attempt by Golden Knight’s forward Reilly Smith was denied by a remarkable save by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, but Sergachev’s propensity to take chances between the blue lines felled the Lightning on the third goal of the game. Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland sailed a pass past Sergachev in the neutral zone, and it created a 2-on-2 rush chance for the Golden Knights. David Perron made a dandy toe drag to get to the inside on Stralman, but this was a case where Sergachev’s timing had to be impeccable to try to intercept the stretch pass, and because it wasn’t, it left the Lightning vulnerable.

There does seem like a roadmap for letting Sergachev be Sergachev while removing the Edward Hyde. When he glided past James Neal and almost found Steven Stamkos on the backdoor, that was the kind of offensive-zone brilliance that the Lightning should continue to foster. Sergachev has the ability to tightrope walk the blue line, and even when it results in a turnover in the future, his ability to pave skating lanes for himself and open up room for the forwards is valuable.

The benefits of Sergachev trying to create on the edges of the blue line outweigh the cost in the aggregate. Not the case with his lurch at the puck in the neutral zone. If Tampa Bay was down several goals, this action may have had some context, but it was a one-goal game nearing the final frame. Timing is paramount. In close-game scenarios, Sergachev cannot find himself unbridled and rudderless, grasping at opportunities for takeaways. The Lightning should want Sergachev creating with the puck and guiding opposing puck-carriers toward the boards for isolation and removal.

When Hedman was healthy, the Lightning excelled at pushing the defense back with their forwards hurtling through the neutral zone and top half of the offensive zone and then finding the defensemen on the second wave. With Tampa Bay’s defense suddenly a much less potent force to score, precision becomes a focus. There was a first-wave chance generated when Stamkos threaded a pass through the middle slot to Nikita Kucherov on a transition opportunity. And at the end of the first, precision and timing fused.

After a turnover by Kucherov on a risky behind-the-back pass, the Golden Knights initiated a 2-on-2 counter attack. It was dissolved beautifully. Sergachev stepped up on the puck-carrier and forced the Golden Knights’ skater to push the puck into the corner behind Sergachev with the hopeful recipient being Las Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt. Kucherov closed in on Schmidt and the pass to the center slot went for naught as Tampa Bay squashed the crashing-the-net Golden Knights skater.

Now it was Tampa Bay’s turn. Stralman recovered the loose puck on the failed rush, passed it to Kucherov, and off the Lightning went. The Kucherov-Stamkos-Chris Kunitz line moved the puck through the middle of the ice while clumped together, and as the puck crossed the blue line, Kucherov slipped a pass across the middle to Sergachev on the top of the right circle. Sergachev looked back toward the left side, where the puck had come from, and saw a cutting Kucherov and Kunitz. Sergachev chose Kunitz as the best positioned to score, which resulted in a noble scoring chance.

This sequence is loaded with caveats. It happened against the Golden Knights’ fourth line. In this case, a transition through the neutral zone that was bunched together worked partly because it was on a counterattack and space was prevalent, but clustering players willfully comes with its own set of pitfalls.

Still, there is an insight to be gleaned here. Maybe the high-low interplay is diminished without Hedman, but if opponents are not being consistently preyed on by the second wave, then the first wave needs to be more effective. That means better precision plays, and likely shorter passes. (Defenseman Dan Girardi got involved on a rush chance that resulted in a great scoring chance by Stamkos around the paint.)

The loss of Hedman is also the loss of choice. When Stamkos tried to
find Kucherov on a first wave rush attempt, that might not have happened if Hedman were on the ice. Hedman would have provided a better passing option because he often enters the rush as an uncovered trailer. Without Hedman, the pass needs to be attempted to Kucherov, but maybe, other choices can be obtained, although not by spreading the opponent out like they did when Hedman was healthy. Choice could come through a bundled forward attack, like with the Kunitz chance, and the options offered – multiple skaters cutting to the net – are only fully realized through precision, and yes, some timing, too.
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