The Lightning squeaked out a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, boosted by spectacular goaltending from Andrei Vasilevskiy. The behind-the-back save Vasilevskiy made on Anze Kopitar is what will fill the highlight reels, but some of his other stops, like his insane save on Kings forward Adrian Kempe, salvaged the win for Tampa Bay. A staple of a Stanley Cup winner is starting a goaltender who can steal his team a game or two during the grind of the postseason, and it is a very good sign that Vasilevskiy easily checks that box.
But the reemergence of Steven Stamkos as a highly influential player is the dominant non-goaltending storyline for the Lightning. Since Stamkos has been skating with Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson, he has been thriving, and the Kings struggled to contain his line all game. The crazy part is, that line has not even had that much success off the rush. The line’s imprimatur has been an unrelenting forecheck. The first goal of the game by Stamkos was a textbook example.
The puck was dumped in and Gourde was quickly in pursuit as the first forechecker. Kings Goaltender Darcy Kuemper came out to play the puck and steered it toward defenseman Christian Folin. Folin tried to pass it away from Gourde to his defensive partner, Derek Forbort, but Gourde shrewdly led with his stick and took away that passing lane. The pass was blocked, and the puck returned to Folin. Gourde and Folin would wrestle over possession as the puck gravitated toward the left corner.
Even as the Kings’ breakout stalled, Folin was still able to find relief with Kempe down low as an outlet, and Folin progressed the puck to Kempe. Unfortunately, the Lightning F2 and F3 had Kempe between their talons. Stamkos was underneath and Johnson over the top, and Kempe’s pass through the middle to teammate Tanner Pearson was blocked by Johnson.
Gourde then corralled the loose puck to Stamkos, but it was fumbled toward the half-wall. Stamkos knew he needed to seal off the lane leaving the zone, so he extended his stick to prevent the puck from being passed forward while he charged in to stymie the advancement of the puck by Kings forward Dustin Brown. Stamkos did not totally succeed and the puck skidded forward, but Johnson was there as the F3 to whack the puck down low. The puck found Gourde, who back-passed it toward Stamkos, who released off the wall. Stamkos hammered the shot from an acute angle upstairs past goaltender Kuemper for the first goal.
Impactful actions on an effective forecheck are less obvious than what happens on the rush. On the rush, an individual’s success or failure is more visible because there is less congestion. With a forest of bodies around the puck, the crucial work of the F1, F2, and F3 can be underappreciated.
At some point as people mature, they can see the complexity in what seems to be a familiar event or, in this case, sports sequence. The forecheck that leads to the cycle is like this. It is commonplace but essential. In painstaking detail, one sees that a remarkable chain of events needed to unfold for Stamkos to score that goal. Without Gourde’s initial pressure, and Johnson’s work as the F3 over the top, Stamkos’s shot attempt is not recorded. That speed and positioning is what makes them such a perfect complement to Stamkos. But to the glazed eyes of the viewer, it can seem like a welter of bodies that randomly led to a goal. Good process is worth dissecting. The seemingly ordinary is revealed as intricate and fascinating.