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Lessons from Loss to Bruins |
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Last night’s Lightning-Bruins game foreshadowed a possible playoff matchup, and the game didn’t disappoint. As far as intelligence gathering goes, it was a rich game to study, especially with Tampa Bay losing 2-1 in a tight-checking contest. The Lightning and Bruins both showed their hands in certain areas, so let’s look at the good and the bad.
The good
The Lightning finished with their 4th worst 5v5 expected goals for of the season. In a game where the Bolts were statistically dominant, it makes one wonder what positives can be gleaned?
First off, the Lightning got affirmation that their forecheck can work against the best of the East. Mitchell Stephens’s goal came off a Barclay Goodrow dump-in, and if given another try, maybe Cedric Paquette buries the pass from Yanni Gourde that also came off the forecheck. As hard as it was for the Lightning to get pucks through, they demonstrated that they can force the Bruins into turnovers on their breakout, and also retrieve, albeit in fits and starts.
Another positive is that Jon Cooper deployed the Anthony Cirelli line against Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak and it mostly held its own. The Erik Cernak shot that rang off the crossbar came off a Cirelli feed, and that was in a transition opportunity against the Bergeron line. It’s worth noting that the first goal the Bruins scored came off a Mikhail Sergachev icing where the Cedric Paquette line got stuck on the ice against the Bergeron line. Had the Cirelli line been at the faceoff dot, I suspect there would have been a different outcome.
If Tampa Bay can neutralize the “Perfection Line” in a series, Boston’s offense suddenly looks far more wobbly. Jake DeBrusk notched the eventual game-winner last night, but he hadn’t scored in ten games. The Bruins lean on their first line, and the Lightning demonstrated they may have an answer.
The bad
The DeBrusk goal is a demonstration of everything that is infuriating about the Lightning. Yanni Gourde head-mans the puck to Goodrow, and as Goodrow falls down, Johnson snatches possession to continue the rush, looking like he is going to challenge Matt Grzelcyk. Johnson declines to shoot the puck on net and wiggles his way into the corner. He then passes it back to Gourde, who is arcing around the goal line. Gourde attempts a pass through the middle to the defensemen, but his pass is deflected, and DeBrusk races to the puck and beats Zach Bogosian for a breakaway goal.
Johnson initially controlled the puck on his backhand and Grzelcyk had a fairly tight gap on him, so maybe that is Johnson’s rationale for not pulling the trigger before he halted his momentum. But by the time he hemmed himself in the corner, Johnson had two Bolts forwards crashing the net. True, Grzelcyk could block the attempt from the off-slot, but the Lightning cycled and moved the puck toward the middle of the ice, and last night they were consistently shooting the puck into layers of bodies. At least, with Grzelcyk, there was only one body Johnson had to bypass with the puck.
Worse yet, when Gourde received the puck, Johnson just stopped skating, so instead of covering over the top for Hedman and sprinting back to support the plodding Bogosian, Johnson just stared ahead. This one sequence highlights the weaknesses of the Lightning against a skilled team like Boston. They are inconsistent in transition defense, and they pass instead of shoot when they are in the off-slot. Mind you, in this game Gourde scored from the far right side and from distance, but it was waved off due to offsides.
The Johnson line was not the only party guilty of complicating their game. Kucherov had an outstanding pass to spring Cirelli for a breakaway, but he also had a lot of frustrating moments. Again, with a team as well-coached and talented as Boston, Kucherov cannot try to deke his way through the slot. If he gets the puck in the off-slot, he needs to hammer it on net, not try to carry or pass it into the slot. The Johnson goal was a great example of why the Lightning need to attack from areas besides the middle of the ice. Johnson picks up the puck in the corner, and powers it past David Krejci to the front of the net. It is off that loose puck that Stephens stuffs the puck past Tuukka Rask.
The funny thing is that the positives and negatives all tie together. If the Lightning shoot more from places besides the middle of the ice, where Boston almost always has at least two bodies waiting to block the shot, then they’ll be able to get more pucks to the net. In turn, the Lightning can have more opportunities to retrieve, which they demonstrated they can do—and because of that good puck management, they’ll supply more energy to transition defense. When the Lightning choked off the Boston rush, and created turnovers in the neutral zone, the subsequent forecheck and rush produced some of their best chances of the night.
At the trade deadline, the Lightning invested all of their capital in the forwards. The message has been clear from the franchise that it’s the forwards who will buoy the defensive play to consistently keep the puck in their opponent’s zone. Against Boston, the Lightning surrendered a 2.55 expected goals against which is their 5th worst game of the season in that metric. If the Lightning simplify their game more and embrace shooting from all angles in lieu of holding onto the puck or passing it into traffic—like they did in the third period when they tripled the Bruins in high-danger chances—they will be much better equipped to foil Boston.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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