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Stralman's Outsized Influence on Lightning's OT Loss |
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Anton Stralman was at the center of the action in the Lightning’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Wild last night in a game of highs and lows. His was a long fall in which he managed to pull the safety cord on the parachute just before he crashed. The Lightning had a terrific first period and were poised to obtain two points, then zero points, and then ended up snatching one point. Stralman would have his absolution. But first, there was a scroll of sins.
In the second period, it was Stralman’s turnover that prevented him from getting off the ice on the long change and allowed the Wild to regroup. The Wild slung a pass toward the weak side, and Stralman whiffed on intercepting that pass attempt, permitting Marcus Foligno to bury the breakaway. Tampa Bay’s 3-1 lead became 3-2, and the Lightning’s firm grasp on the game loosened.
Stralman also had foibles that did not result in goals. With six minutes left in the second, Stralman allowed Zach Parise to get behind him on a rush chance and on the same shift let Mikko Koivu deke through him one-on-one. Right after a Lightning power play expired, with 3 minutes and 15 seconds left, Stralman, fresh from the bench, let Matt Read outmuscle him for a retrieval after an Eric Staal shot attempt. Read proceeded to pound the puck on Vasilevskiy on a jam attempt along the blue paint.
On the third Wild goal, the Lightning had a defensive breakdown that resulted in a Wild two-on-one below the circles. Andrei Vasilevskiy took the shooter and stopped the shot from Koivu, which left Stralman to take care of Parise and prevent him from converting on the rebound opportunity. Stralman lost the battle and the Wild were able to tie the game seconds after the Minnesota power play had expired.
On the fourth goal for Minnesota, after a poor chip attempt by Ryan McDonagh to clear the zone, Stralman and Cedric Paquette both latched onto Staal, which allowed Jason Zucker to seize on the sloppy rebound and smash it past Vasilevskiy. It was a communication breakdown between forward and defenseman, so Stralman is not the only guilty party, but, all told, the accumulation of Wild chances that were collected when he was on the ice was disconcerting.
But there would be redemption for Stralman. With five minutes and 20 seconds left, Point attacked the Wild with speed from the neutral zone. His shot attempt was blocked, and Stralman’s first important moment in the sequence was plugging the boards and swatting at the puck to drive it below the goal line. It was a very near loss of offensive zone possession, but Stralman’s speed retrieving the blocked shot attempt would enable the extended zone time for the Lightning. With under five minutes left, Yanni Gourde dispossessed Staal when he tried to carry the puck out of the zone and found Stralman cutting to the net. Stralman undressed goaltender Alex Stalock and got his sweet vengeance, especially since the player who Stralman got behind to enable the offensive opportunity was Zucker.
In a book or TV series, it can be useful to slice off a portion of the whole and focus on its virtues. Perhaps in full it was imperfect, flawed, and yet a segment is worth celebrating. Overall, the Lightning suffered from a few costly miscues, but they jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first period last night because they rediscovered the joys of high-low interplay that can be achieved by using their defensemen to grease the wheels of the offense.
Aside from Stralman, the Lightning’s skaters played really well. Forwards were exploding to the outside, kicking it back to the Lightning defense, and lodging themselves in the shooting lanes for deflections and rebound opportunities. The first period was a nice stretch of 20 minutes, one where the Lightning accrued 21 shot attempts to the Wild’s 10 as the puck pinged between sticks and the Lightning shot first and asked questions later.
On the forecheck, the Lightning’s F1 and F2 were winning races to the puck and forcing turnovers along the wall. There was actually a rush in the first period that had Dan Girardi and Victor Hedman fording the blue line with Girardi as the puck-carrier on the entry. The message was written in bold: All five skaters are working together to engineer offense. Tampa Bay was moving the puck quickly, vacillating less when they had a shooting lane, and the forwards and defensemen were in constant motion. They were also really quick to the puck, and that saw them generating offense in every capacity—the rush, the cycle, and on special teams.
One issue that vexed the Lightning that is worth keeping an eye on going forward was their breakout, specifically when Vasilevskiy handled the puck on dump-ins. On the first goal by the Wild, Charlie Coyle scored off a Vasilevskiy misplay, and after that gaffe the Lightning goaltender would hurl the puck up the boards hoping for his outlet to be there as a release valve. But too often, instead of a Lightning forward being there to initiate the zone exit, the Minnesota forward was winning the race to the puck, which enabled the Wild to gain a foothold in the offensive zone.
Stralman altered the outcome of last night’s game, but there was a lot to encourage the Lightning. When the Lightning forwards utilize their defensemen on offense it prevents their offense from being stifled. Most of the Lightning defensemen are not a threat to score unless there is a complete defensive breakdown like there was on the Stralman goal. But that misses the point. When any player can attack, with or without the puck, it spreads the level of accountability for the opposing defense. The opponent can’t shade toward shooters and are less inclined to overload in the corners. This simultaneously makes the Lightning offense less predictable and lightens the heavy burden that is on Tampa Bay’s forwards to provide consistent offense. That is bad news for Chicago.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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