When Connor Clifton drilled Onrej Palat in open ice early in the first period, it was an inflection point. It forced coach Jon Cooper to put his forward lines in a blender, but the Lightning still managed to tally five goals at 5v5. How they did it was with puck support.
Puck support is a catch-all term, and it is broad enough to apply to a variety of situations. For the Lightning last night, puck support meant collaboration after faceoff wins and on the cycle, along with finding opportunities in the chaos of transition. Ultimately, the Palat injury demonstrated that the names on the jerseys may change, but the will of the Lightning’s talent to work jointly is terrifying for their foes.
Everything Steven Stamkos touched was boosted by puck support. On the first goal, Adam Erne supported Stamkos in the corner and swung the puck toward the weak side. When Mikhail Sergachev scooped the puck off the wall and dragged it toward the middle, he needed Ryan Callahan there as the high man supporting or he would have likely been forced into a turnover. Instead, Callahan received the puck up high and fired it diagonally to Stamkos in the off-slot.
To set up the Stamkos one-timer for his second goal, the Lightning completed five consecutive passes off a won faceoff by Anthony Cirelli.
That is one element that separates the Lightning from their adversaries: the versatility of the role players surrounding their stars. The Lightning can move Stamkos and Kucherov, their star shooters, around on the ice. Both players can score from the slot and off-slot, and are even a threat to score from above the circles. Therefore, won puck battles and retrievals feel like they have an elevated importance when either player is on the ice. Maybe one more won puck battle or retrieval will lead to a Stamkos or Kucherov shot attempt.
This also allows the other four skaters to position themselves in a way that will give the Lightning multiple options. Hedman would ultimately pass to Stamkos for the one-timer, but Cirelli and J.T. Miller were both posted up in the low slot for a deflection, rebound, or to screen had Victor Hedman fired a shot. And if that shot was blocked, they could scurry to the corner and have two men in support.
Jumping ahead, this was the case in the game-winning goal as well. From the initial Mikhail Sergachev pass that connected to Cirelli for the clean entry, to the final one from Joseph to Cirelli in the slot, the Lightning completed six passes. And that puck moved from the inside of the ice, to the outside, and then back to the inside.
The passes ranged in distance, but that variety of puck movement is a testament to the speed, support, and positioning of the Lightning’s second power-play unit, even without Palat.
The third and fourth Tampa Bay goals came after miscues by the Lightning that gave the Bruins a transition opportunity. On the Hedman goal, the second turning point in the game occurred when Sergachev took a horrendous angle on a pinch and the Bruins produced a four-on-two. The puck was fired over the net, and Mathieu Joseph darted to the corner to retrieve the missed shot and sling the puck up ice to the flagging forwards, who did not make an appearance in transition defense. Miller provided Stamkos with a perfect saucer pass, and it was Hedman in support who guided the missed breakaway shot into the empty net.
On the Nikita Kucherov goal, a turnover by No. 86 led to a heavy one-timer shot by David Pastrnak, but a great pad save by Andre Vasilevskiy allowed Stamkos to connect with Kucherov for the two-on-one where Kucherov buried the shot.
Not all transition opportunities came off foiled Bruins’ scoring chances. With seven minutes left in the second period, Patrice Bergeron had just missed on a pass to Charlie McAvoy in the neutral zone. Kucherov was in the lane to pluck the loose puck away from the Bruins and slap it toward Johnson, who quickly headmanned it to Point for the two-on-one chance. Point would loft a shot that clanked off the far post, but layers of support in the neutral zone are one reason why the Lightning can seize on missed passes and spring a counterattack. There were certainly echoes of the missed pass from Nicklas Backstrom to T.J. Oshie that Johnson swatted into the net against the Capitals only a few games ago.
The Palat injury didn’t spoil last night’s outing, but it should produce tremors for Tampa Bay. The Lightning have already clinched the Presidents’ Trophy, yet they are not treating the last half-dozen games like an exhibition. Kucherov is playing double shifts, Point is getting nailed along the boards when the Bolts hem their opponents in the offensive zone, and Vasilevskiy still plays every game. It is clear this team has a drive to compete that makes Cooper reluctant to take his foot off the pedal, but the possible injury cost makes each game frightening. Fortunately, Stamkos’s bar-down one-timer and goals in the final 60 seconds help dull the nerves.