The Lightning are as good as any team in the league when they play with urgency. The clearest sign that the Lightning are playing with heightened awareness and resoluteness is when their forwards exhibit vigor and focus during transition defense. Therefore, it was revealing when in the second period, with the score at 1-1, Ondrej Palat stole David Pastrnak’s pass to Patrice Bergeron in the slot on the transition, and promptly flung the puck out of the zone.
It was a pass with a purpose. Palat’s quick release of the puck was not a blind clearing of the zone, but rather an indirect, area pass to a linemate. A turnover in transition can scramble the opponent, and more importantly create separation between the forward and defense. This was the case for Boston, and the cannon ball quality of the linemate – step on stage, Brayden Point – caused an awkward switch by the defense.
Suddenly it was the cheetah-like Point sprinting after the puck, with acceleration that forced Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy to break off the right side and move to cover the left side, since his partner, Matt Grzelcyk, had the angle to halt Point’s path toward the net. Once Point snatched the puck, he sharply stopped and found a seam to pass to teammate Tyler Johnson, who McAvoy failed to adequately check in transition. To be fair to McAvoy, Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh was right behind Johnson, so two Lightning skaters made for a more daunting assignment. But Johnson buried the shot, thanks to Tuukka Rask’s momentum carrying him in fifty different directions.
Some fascinating stats emerged from last night’s contest. Brad Marchand had 1 shot attempt at 5v5. Pastrnak had 2. So stats aren’t being cherry-picked, Bergeron did register 6 shot attempts and 5 Scoring Chances. But that line was contained because Point, Palat, and Johnson were relentless in their pressure on the puck-carrier, and at sealing lanes. The Lightning forwards and defensemen worked in tandem to create traps for the puck-carrier, which makes it slightly easier to disrupt some of the Bruins’ most gifted playmakers.
The Lightning’s speed forced uncharacteristic turnovers from the Bruins. Marchand’s rudderless pass through the middle, which Point corralled and shoveled to Palat for the back-breaking goal, was emblematic of this trend.
But the speed at defending also applied to when the Lightning carried the puck; both forward and defensemen made quicker decisions in last night’s game. The Lightning were snappy on breakouts, efficient in the neutral zone, and expeditious shooting the puck on net or passing the puck in the offensive zone.
The stats underscore how much the Lightning controlled the puck. According to naturalstattrick.com, the Bruins recorded their fewest shot attempts at 5v5 for not only the playoffs, but also the regular season. The only number close to this game’s paltry 26 was on February 11th against the Devils when they registered 27 shot attempts for. The last time they collected 14 Scoring Chances at 5v5 was on April 1st against the Flyers. During the regular season, the Bruins dabbled under 14 Scoring Chances a few times, accruing their regular season lowest of 13. So yes, last night they nearly tied the lowest amount of Scoring Chances the Bruins recorded all season at 5v5. Woof! Some of the Lightning’s best moments came in the faceoff circle. The Bruins finished the regular season tied for tenth in the NHL in faceoff win percentage. That put them 2.5 points higher than the Lightning, who finished 27th in the league. But the playoffs have seen a role reversal. The Lightning are 2nd in the postseason, with a 52.8 faceoff, which is several points higher than the Bruins, who sit in tenth. Partially, this may be due to the strange phenomenon of Bergeron being thrown out of seemingly every draw he attempts. It occurred against Toronto and has continued against Tampa Bay.
The effects were disastrous for Boston. The Lightning killed off a 5-on-3 thanks to Ryan Callahan’s big faceoff win against Bergeron. Then Steven Stamkos purged the remainder of the two-man disadvantage when he won the draw off David Backes. On the Lightning’s first goal, it was Johnson winning a faceoff against Sean Kuraly. That lost draw really stung because the faceoff occurred with 26 seconds remaining on the man advantage. If Kuraly won that and Adam McQuaid cleared the puck, roughly 15 seconds would have expired before the Lightning attempted what would be their final entry.
For all the joy evoked from last night’s victory, there is one problem that cannot be dismissed heading into Wednesday. Zero shot attempts for Stamkos at 5v5. Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller were making plays last night on the forecheck and on the rush. If the Lightning don’t want to break up the Point line, that makes sense, especially after last night, but it is foolish to waste the first line when one player is ill-equipped to play on it and is ruining offensive chances.
There was a sequence last night with less than four minutes left in the second period when Kucherov, right before he was drilled, made a slick pass off the wall to trigger the transition for Stamkos and Miller. It would have created a 2-on-2, but Stamkos, with no pressure to speak of from the Bruins’ forwards, failed to adequately carry the puck in on the entry, and an innocent poke-check by Kevan Miller interrupted the pass to J.T. Miller to force the Lightning offside. An angry Miller swatted at the puck after the whistle.
Torey Krug and a few members of the Bruins’ core seemed rattled that the Lightning were finishing their checks, and the punishment doled out did appear to precipitate a few takeaways by the Lightning. As long as the Lightning can keep their emotions under control – keep in mind that Pastrnak hit a post on the power play last night –then incorporating a little nasty in their game is in the right spirit.
After a brutal Game 1, Point’s line deserves credit for winning Game 2 for the Lightning. Now, the question is where will the offense at even strength come from for the remainder of the series?