Over at Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman dropped a summertime edition of his 32 Thoughts column, and for once it had some tidbits regarding the Tampa Bay Lightning. Friedman was in Europe, “from Warsaw to Prague to Bratislava to Vienna” as he put it as part of the NHL European Media Tour. There are some really nice tidbits in the column, and while he was in Slovakia he had a chance to chat with Lightning defenseman, Erik Cernak.
Friedman opens up the section with Cernak talking about attending Alex Killorn’s wedding over the summer where it was a mini-reunion of the Stanley Cup-winning Tampa teams. That quickly delved into the departure of Steven Stamkos. It’s noticeable that the quotes that Friedman used didn’t concern Stamkos’ on-ice play, rather it was his off-ice persona that Cernak mentioned,
“[I]t’s even hard to talk about right now because he was a big part of my career. Great player, great leader, great friend. I will miss him because he’s an unbelievable person. First guy who texted me and welcomed me to the team: ‘Don’t worry about anything, we’ve got you. Just feel comfortable here.’”
When a captain moves on, especially a long-time captain, those are the types of stories you usually hear from the players. In a sense, it is like an older sibling heading off to college or moving away for a job. That person who was a role model is now gone. It happened when Marty St. Louis left. It happened when Dave Andreychuk left, and it happened this summer with Stamkos leaving.
Time moves constantly forward, just as Tim Taylor and Vinny Lecavalier took over for Andreychuck, and Stamkos taking over for St.Louis, someone will step up in The Captain’s absence. Will it be Victor Hedman? Or Ryan McDonagh? Heck, it could be Cernak himself. He’s not the young rookie being welcomed to the team by a text, but could fill that role for the next generation of Lightning players.
Speaking of younger players, Cernak went out of his way to credit Benoit Groulx and the role he had in Cernak’s development. Groulx, currently coaching in the KHL with Traktor Chelyabinsk, was in his second year as the Crunch’s head coach when Cernak debuted as a rookie in the 2017-18 season. That would be the Slovak’s only full season in the AHL as he played in 71 games for Syracuse that season. The next year he would play in 9 games before making his way to Tampa and never looking back.
Despite the relatively short time together, Cernak praised his former head coach for teaching him the small details and pushing him to be a better player. He may not have liked it at the time, but he realizes now that, he needed that push to make it to the NHL. Hopefully, some day Groulx can realize that dream as well. It’s a shame that he hasn’t landed a NHL gig yet, and the Lightning players and staff have nothing but kind words for him.
The biggest testament to his coaching is the number of players that went through the system while he was there and are still in the NHL. Not only did they make it to the league, but they arrived prepared to play. It’s not easy being a coach in the AHL. Sometimes doing what is best for the team is at odds with the mandate from the NHL affiliate to prepare the players to play in a certain style. Groulx did an excellent job of maintaining that balance. Hopefully his time in the KHL is short and he’s back in North America soon.
There wasn’t a lot of talk about last season, but Cernak did tell Friedman that some of the additions the Lightning made in the off-season addressed a concern with other team’s having success on the rush against them. The numbers do back that up, slightly.
In the chart above from All Three Zones, the Bolts were slightly above league average when it came to shots against off of the rush, allowing 12.057 shots/60 at 5v5. Natural Stat Trick had Andrei Vasilevskiy facing 1.77 rush attempts per/60 over the season, which ranked 20th out of goalies that had at least 1,500 minutes of ice time last season.
However, those numbers don’t take into account the number of rushes that might not have led to a direct shot against, but did flip the play on the ice. There were numerous times, especially in the beginning of the season, when the Lightning would have possession in the offensive zone, turn the puck over, defend the rush initially, but get caught in their own zone for extended periods of time.
More responsible play in the neutral zone and fewer turnovers in the offensive zone should help alleviate some of those concerns. Bringing in Ryan McDonagh and adding Zemgus Girgensons to the bottom-six should help in that regard. As much as they might miss Mikhail Sergachev’s ability to kickstart the offense, his occasional foilbles with the puck often led to some rush chances by the other team.
In regards to the moves the Lightning made, Cernak is putting his faith in the Lightning brass,
“… they’ve been so successful over the years, so you just have to look forward. They are always right about stuff.”
Hopefully, he’s right about them being right.
