Bowness on defensive mindset: “We’ve lost it”

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 4, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – Defensive stalwarts.

That’s what the Lightning coaching staff strives to see out of the players.

Take care of the puck. Take care of your own end. Pay attention to detail.

Among all the offensive skill and firepower Tampa Bay can put on the ice, it’s been the defensive play that helped vault the Lightning in to the elite in the league.

But that was before this year. Now?

“We’ve lost it this year,” associate coach Rick Bowness said. “We have to have it, there’s no question.”

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For the final 40 minutes of Tuesday’s loss to Winnipeg, the Lighting played passive defense. It was difficult to keep track of the odd-man rushes and breakaways Tampa Bay gave up just in the second period. And after playing a quality first period, the Lightning completely broke down for the final two periods.

“To play the last 40 minutes like we did was disappointing, so you address it today, you move on and get ready for 60 full minutes against Nashville because they are an excellent hockey club as well,” Bowness said.

Defense has been the trademark that Tampa Bay has built its success on in the past two seasons. It’s a big reason why they advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015 and reached the Eastern Conference finals last season. They had learned to take care of their own end first and then let their skill level take over.

Last season Tampa Bay finished fifth in the league in goals against. This year they rank 20th heading in to Thursday’s game.

Already this season Tampa Bay has allowed four or more goals in a game 13 times and five or more goals six times through 39 games. Last season the Lightning gave up more than three goals 23 times and more than four goals 10 times.That’s not all on the goaltending.

It’s been an up and down ride along the way, as the past two games have proven.

On New Year’s Eve against Carolina, Tampa Bay played a sound game jumping out to a 3-0 lead and then doing enough to protect that lead. But on Tuesday against Winnipeg, it was the opposite as the were so many breakdowns and turnovers.

It’s a pattern the coaching staff has seen all too often.

“We see what’s wrong, let’s be clear about that, we definitely see what’s wrong and all we can do as a staff is continue to address it,” Bowness said. “There’s no question we know what is wrong and there are times that we are seeing it again and there are times where we are not. There’s been games where we give up nine or 10 scoring chances and then there are games we are giving up double that. So where is the consistency, that’s the biggest issue. It’s not like we don’t know what we are doing, it’s the commitment to do it on a consistent basis.”

Even as Tampa Bay continues to work on their defensive coverage over and over at practice.

“It seems like we haven’t been able to put a full game together,” left wing Alex Killorn said. “We’ve had great periods of hockey and in the past year we’ve had great games of hockey. Now, half-way through the season we have to show up with a little more passion. These points are too big. To have the first period like we did, then to come out flat in the second period was not good enough.”

After putting together a good string of games to start this stretch of 7 out of 8 games on home ice, one bad game took all that good feeling away and Tampa Bay almost has to start from scratch in a sense.

“It’s not a good feeling walking out of here yesterday, nobody was happy with the way we played – the second and third period we were like a different team,” defenseman Victor Hedman said. “That’s not good enough and that’s not going to get us anywhere near where we need to be.”

Now it’s about getting back some of their identity, which is a constant battle halfway through the season.

“You just keep addressing it until it hits home,” Bowness said. “There’s no secret to it. If we can do it one period why can’t we do it for the next two, if we do it for one game why aren’t we doing it for the next game. So there’s no secret to it, we know what’s wrong and we are going to keep harping at them and keep addressing it. We’ll get it.”

Notes: C Cedric Paquette returned to practice and could be ready to return after missing the past six games with a lower body injury. … RW Ryan Callahan did not practice as it was a planned day off as he returns from a hip issue stemming from off-season surgery. Bowness said Callahan will be back on the ice Thursday. … G Adam Wilcox was called up from Syracuse of the American Hockey League and will dress against Nashville. … G Kristers Gudlevskis, LW Michael Bournival and C Yanni Gourde were all sent back to Syracuse.

Line combinations at practice:
Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov

Vladislav Namestnikov-Valtteri Filppula-Jonathan Drouin

Alex Killorn-Matthew Peca-Adam Erne

Michael Bournival-Cedric Paquette-J.T. Brown

Defensive pairings:

Victor Hedman-Anton Stralman

Slater Koekkoek-Jason Garrison

Braydon Coburn-Andrej Sustr

Nikita Nesterov

Bowness video on defensive issues

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