The Lightning entered the third period with a two-goal lead over the Senators, but the Bolts surrendered four goals in the final frame and lost 6-4. A layman observer not familiar with the squad might suggest that they got complacent, “played not to lose,” and allowed four unanswered tallies because they were in prevent defense. But that isn’t what happened, and the Lightning do not play that way. They stayed aggressive, and continued to attack, but they were felled by a foe uniquely capable of neutralizing their usual advantages. And that starts with the skating.

The Senators are a curious team. They lost Erik Karlsson and Mike Hoffman in the last 12 months, but they are miraculously still one of the fastest teams in the NHL. On the game-winning goal by Ryan Dzingel. the Senators won three different races and against the fastest line on the Lightning.

With 9:45 left in the third period, and the score 4-4, Brayden Point attempted to rocket out of the corner and generate a rush opportunity. But Dzingel skated with him for several strides, preventing him from cutting into the middle. Point ran out of race track when Matt Duchene, who was the high forward, continued to shunt Point toward the boards, forcing the dynamic Lightning forward to toss an area pass to Tyler Johnson.

Johnson’s acceleration is his biggest strength, yet Maxime Lajoie was able to keep pace with him, and force Johnson to attempt a no-look backhand pass to Point. The pass didn’t connect, and the Senators’ counterattack was initiated. Dzingel proceeded to work a wing-to-wing, give-and-go with Duchene, and easily beat the very quick Yanni Gourde to the left circle.

After Dzingel received the pass from Duchene, he roofed a shot on Andrei Vasilevskiy, hardly breaking stride. The Senators have wheels. They move the puck really quickly, and the Lightning struggled to mitigate Ottawa’s speed at passing the puck and skating to open spaces.

Additionally, their speed was exemplified without the puck, which is what engineered the counterattack. There was excellent transition defense by the Senators forwards cordoning off Point on the transition sprint, a superb play by an Ottawa defenseman preventing Johnson from gliding to the inside, and impressive speed by the Senators forwards in open ice. These are the most consequential examples, but the Senators used their speed to force turnovers and were winning races to the puck after shot attempts. With the team’s talent so conspicuous, one was left wondering how the Senators’ record is so mediocre.

The game was unfortunate because the Lightning played well after they spotted Ottawa the first two goals. The narrative heading into the third was that this was Mathieu Joseph’s coming out party. Joseph had failed to score for the first dozen games, but Coach Jon Cooper showed faith in him and he has posted four goals in his last five games.

Joseph’s speed is nearly impossible to contain. Since his first game, he has won races to the puck and also dashed past opponents when he was carrying the puck. But what made his first goal different was that, after he exploded through the outside lane and around the net, he turned around and fired the puck toward the net. The hope was it would be deflected by a teammate or an opponent, and that prayer was answered.

Joseph may still be figuring out what his best choices are once he enters the zone: u-turning and trying to find a trailer, slowing down and looking for a teammate cutting, or attacking the net himself. But while he is still working on how to change speeds and manipulate a defense in more condensed space, whipping the puck toward the net is never a bad option. Especially with the Lightning defensemen pinching consistently, there will always be multiple skaters alighting in the slot.

It is also increasingly clear that Joseph has taken on a different significance on his line. The Lightning try to get the puck on their playmakers’ sticks before they leave their own zone and in the neutral zone, and at first that meant Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, J.T. Miller, and Tyler Johnson—essentially, the players most dangerous off the entries. But, more and more, Joseph is that player on the third line. Give him the puck and let him create. And that is a victory in its own right because any team would covet this type of depth from their third line.

Joseph’s second goal was more special than the first because he generated the chance off the cycle, not in transition. He captured the pass by transferring the puck from his right skate to his stick, and hammered a shot from the top of the circle past goaltender Craig Anderson. The fluidity of the movement, how Joseph was able to keep stride while moving the puck out of his feet to his blade, and then the quick snapper without dusting it off—all of this bespeaks a player replete with skill who is just beginning to find the register for his voice in a large crowd.

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