Adapt, learn and terminate – Tampa Bay Lightning are the Skynet of hockey

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 23, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – The Lightning enter the three-day break for Christmas sitting atop the NHL standings for the first time in franchise history, sitting six points clear of the second place team.

The way Tampa Bay has played this season, that’s not exactly breaking news.

And there are a myriad of reasons which can be discussed to explain why the Lightning sit on top after knocking off Minnesota 3-0 on Saturday behind Andrei Vasilevskiy’s fourth shutout of the season.

But what Tampa Bay was able to do on Saturday might sum it all up.

Like Skynet, the Lightning will adapt and learn before terminating their opponent.

Entering Saturday’s game, Tampa Bay’s penalty kill looked like a train wreck. In the previous three games, the Lightning allowed seven power play goals. It cost them the game against Vegas on Tuesday as the Golden Knights scored four times with the man advantage, including the winner with 2.3 seconds left in regulation.

In the third period against Ottawa on Thursday, the Senators scored a power play goal to take the lead before Tampa Bay rallied to tie it and win in a shootout.

So as the team returned to practice on Friday, an extended amount of time was spent working on the penalty kill. The coaching staff slowed things down with Rick Bowness and Brad Lauer acting as the puck carrier while directing the players where to go and the route to take to get there in order to take away passing seams and shooting lanes.

That went on for about 30 minutes toward the tail end of the 60-plus minute on-ice session. That doesn’t count any of the video work the coaches would have done as well.

So on Saturday against the Wild, Tampa Bay killed off six power plays against including four consecutive between the end of the first and beginning of the second period. The Lightning also killed off a Minnesota power play with 6:32 left – minutes after Tampa Bay failed to convert on 1:08 of a 5-on-3 power play chance – to keep the game scoreless at the time.

”We calmed ourselves down a little bit,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “The past few games we had been running around so we made a couple of adjustments, the staff with Rick Bowness and Brad Lauer got together. … I thought we had good sticks, we were in lanes and then our down-ice pressure, we didn’t really let them get in clean so they didn’t have a ton of time in the zone, so that was good for us.’’

The Wild had their chances with the man advantage, including one by Mikko Koivu on the late third period opportunity in front of the net, and had 10 of their 22 shots on goal while on the power play. But they never felt dangerous and some of the uneasiness that seemed apparent the previous couple of games wasn’t really felt during Saturday’s game. They knew the job was going to get done this time.

”It was tough to see the penalty kill struggling,’’ said center Yanni Gourde, who played 4:07 of shorthanded time on Saturday. “We try to work hard . . . lately we kind of got away from our game, our pressure points and our right reads. I think tonight we did the right things, we pressured at the right moment and we won our one-on-one battles.’’

It proved to be a lift to the team as a whole.

”The penalty kill really responded to the tough stretch,’’ captain Steven Stamkos said. “I’m very proud of those guys. Everybody on the PK, including Vasy, did an outstanding job. They gave us a chance to make a play at the end.’’

Which brings us to another area where the Lightning are so adaptable – while they are known for playing a fast-paced style of game, Tampa Bay can find ways when the game gets slowed down and still win the game.

The Wild are a team that can grind the game down, take away space and play a tight-checking game. And after Tampa Bay jumped out to a 10-1 lead on the shot clock as the Lightning utilized their speed through the neutral zone to generate scoring chances, the game slowed down.

While the extensive special teams play disrupted some of the flow – there were a combined 21 power play minutes – there was not a whole lot of space on the ice for either team to move when the game was played at even strength.

”I haven’t seen a game where there were no odd man (rushes),’’ Cooper said. “It was a strange game. We haven’t had one of those in a while where there were a lot of penalties and power plays and penalty kills, but it was tight checking.’’

But at no point did the Lightning step outside themselves. They stayed patient and kept their emotions in check. Never did sticks start to squeeze.

”We didn’t get frustrated tonight and that was the key,’’ Gourde said. “We knew that we were going to score a goal at some point, we have too many great players on this team. If we stick to the system and play the right way, pucks are going to bounce our way.’’

Eventually, the Lightning did find that break, though it wasn’t any sort of fortunate bounce, it was a brilliant play by Brayden Point. The second-year center weaved his way from his own end, through the neutral zone and in to the Minnesota end. As he drew toward the left side boards, he brought the Wild defenders along with him. But a slight seam opened up that allowed Point to saucer a pass right to Dan Girardi, who had followed along the play and found his way toward the front of the net where he got his stick on the puck to score the opening goal with 2:42 left in the third period.

Tyler Johnson would snap off a terrific wrist shot 52 seconds later before Nikita Kucherov scored in to an empty net with 53 seconds left for his league-leading 24th goal of the season which allowed Tampa Bay to extend its streak of consecutive games with three or more goals to 10, second longest streak in franchise history, bested only by the 15-game stretch set in 2003-04.

In the span of 1:49, a tight-checking, strong defensive game turned in to a lopsided result. That’s what Tampa Bay can do – adapt, learn and then terminate with ease.

”You are going to wake up and see the box score and it was 3-0, and nobody really is going to know the three goals were all scored in the final three minutes,’’ Cooper said. “I thought we grinded and in the end, we had a few more looks than they did and it was just a matter of trying to get one.’’

Postgame notes: Johnson scored his 98th career goal, tying Chris Gratton for ninth on the all-time franchise scoring list. … D Slater Koekkoek and D Andrej Sustr were scratched. … C Cedric Paquette played his 200th career NHL game. … RW Nikita Kucherov extended his scoring streak to seven games … G Andrei Vasilevskiy has allowed four goals in four career starts against Minnesota. … Tampa Bay is off until Wednesday when the team returns to practice in preparation to host Montreal on Thursday.

My three stars:
1.Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy – Stopped 22 shots for his fourth shutout of the season

2.Lightning D Dan Girardi – Game-winning goal, assist, plus-2

3.Lightning C Tyler Johnson – Goal, plus-2, nine shot attempts, 11-for-14 on faceoffs