What’s left to say at this point? The Detroit Red Wings stifled the Tampa Bay Lightning’s attack, won puck battles, and generated opportunities of their own. The Lightning failed on multiple power play opportunities, while the Red Wings converted on theirs. This is the tried and true story through five games of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series; the result on Saturday night was a 4-0 loss for the Lightning at Amalie Arena.
If you’re looking for a way to sum up Saturday’s game between the Wings and Lightning, look no further than the 20-plus-minute stretch of time that spanned between the first and second periods in which the Lightning failed to generate a single shot on net. You need evidence of how Mike Babcock’s adjustments after Game One worked for his team? Look right there. You need evidence that Jon Cooper hasn’t learned much from what happened in last year’s series with the Montreal Canadiens? Pull out the tape from that stretch. The team, from the coaches to the players, wasn’t good enough.
What’s perhaps most disappointing about the way things went down in this game is the way Tampa Bay faltered after such a hot start. After stealing a win in Game Four, the Bolts returned home knowing that they had a great opportunity to take a big advantage in the series. As a result, they came out flying. For the first half of the first period, the Wings had no answer for the Lightning’s speed and attack. It was somewhat reminiscent of their performance in Game One, but this time around the good stuff only lasted about ten minutes. What happened? Likely a combination of two things: Babcock made his adjustments, and the Bolts just fell of the rails. From that moment on it was all Red Wings.
The downfall started with a power play goal scored by the Red Wings late in the first period. With only 23 seconds left on the clock, Riley Sheahan beat Ben Bishop for his second of the series to make it 1-0. Good teams make opponents pay with the man-advantage. One of the major differences in this series is that Detroit has made the Lightning pay, while Tampa has let the Red Wings get away with things thanks to their feeble power play unit.
If the Lightning’s performance to start the second period was any indication, the team was really rattled by that late first period goal. As mentioned above, the Bolts waited a long time before they were able to throw a puck at Petr Mrazek in the middle frame. Despite the shutout, Mrazek looked a little bit shaky all night long. He struggled with rebounds, and fought off the puck awkwardly on a number of occasions. None of that mattered, as the Lightning just weren’t able to beat the Wings to second chances or loose pucks. Give Detroit full credit for playing incredibly well in that regard.
That good work in the possession department paid off for the Red Wings once again, as they extended their lead to 2-0 at 15:46 of the second period. This time it was Drew Miller who did the damage, with help from Luke Glendening and Jonathan Ericsson. The Bolts found themselves down by two, and the deficit felt insurmountable.
It ultimately was.
Unlike in Game Four when Tyler Johnson was able to singlehandedly salvage a victory for his team after being down two, the Bolts allowed Detroit to score a dagger in the third period. With Steven Stamkos in the box for hooking, Pavel Datsyuk wired a great wrist shot past a screened Bishop to make it a 3-0 game at 15:47.
If the Datsyuk goal had the ‘Fat Lady’ warming up, Danny DeKeyser’s empty net marker at 18:22 of the third had her singing at center stage. That made it a 4-0 game, and allowed Mrazek to coast to his second shutout of the series and third of the season against the Lightning. The game was over, and home-ice advantage was relinquished once again.
Moving into a must-win Game Six, the Lightning will have to be a whole lot better. They simply can’t play the way they did on Saturday at this time of the season and expect to win. Without some serious changes, golf courses in the Greater Tampa area will likely experience a surge in tee time bookings. The concern for Lightning fans now is that this coaching staff has shown an unwillingness to make the changes necessary for two consecutive playoff seasons.
After stepping out of his comfort zone in Game Four and inserting Jonathan Drouin into the lineup, Jon Cooper reverted to his same-old, same-old game plan in Game Five. Brenden Morrow was in. Vladislav Namestnikov was in. Cedric Paquette was in. Drouin was out. He took a risk in Game Five and was rewarded for it. He went back to his failed plan in Game Six and paid the price.
Whether you believe that Drouin could have made a difference in this game is inconsequential and impossible to prove or disprove. What matters is the fact (yes, fact) that Drouin is an upgrade on a number of the players who seem to have the coach’s trust. For evidence, consider the following:
The three strongest possession lines for Tampa this year all have one thing in common. pic.twitter.com/kWKszPGNXu
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) April 26, 2015As if that wasn’t confusing enough, one of the few changes Cooper did make late in Game Six was with his Captain. Stamkos, who had been playing with Alex Killorn and Ryan Callahan, was moved (read: demoted) to a line with Brian Boyle and Cedric Paquette. The way to have Stamkos’s shooting percentage regress back to its mean isn’t to play him with players like that. As one writer aptly put it:
He must be jealous of Kucherov/Johnson/Palat RT @MBakerTBTimes Stamkos working with Boyle and Paquette.
— James O'Brien (@cyclelikesedins) April 26, 2015Don’t get me wrong; Cooper isn’t the only one who deserves blame for what has transpired through six games in this series. The players need to be and can be better than they have been. But, if you’re not at least willing to admit that this coach has made some questionable decisions in this series, I would politely ask that you take your blinders off. Further, Cooper is the power play coach for a group that has gone 2-for-24 in the series. He hasn’t been good enough. The fact is that Mike Babcock has outcoached him at every turn, just as Michel Therrien did last season:
@BrooksRoland82 Two playoff series, two times getting out coached. Not good.
— Mike Corcoran (@MikeCorcoranNHL) April 25, 2015After regaining home-ice advantage with their Game Four victory, the Lightning have once again thrown it away. Their entire season comes down to a must-win game in Detroit on Monday. They need to be better.
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If you’re someone who doesn’t like criticism of the team, here’s a section of the blog for you:
The Lightning were great! Cooper was great! I don’t know how they lost.
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As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.