Game #3 – Florida Panthers at Tampa Bay Lightning
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, BSFL, TBS, MAX
Opponent’s Site: Litter Box Cats
Florida leads the series 2-0
Game One – Florida 3, Tampa Bay 2
Game Two – Florida 3, Tampa Bay 2 (OT)
Know Thine Enemy
- Forward Sam Bennett is out for this game and likely out for at least a week after blocking a shot with his hand in Game Two.
- Ryan Lomberg, who missed Game Two with an illness, is feeling better and traveled with the team.
- Carter Verhaeghe has played in 14 overtime playoff games, he’s ended five of them with a goal.
One Question
Can the Tampa Bay Lightning win tonight?
That’s really it. It doesn’t matter how they do it, or who does it, they just have to win. After practicing following their Game One loss, the Lightning took the opposite approach following Game Two and just stayed away from the ice (for the most part). There was no formal practice as the coaching staff opted to let the players spend time with their family following a rough first four days of the playoffs.
With a clear purpose and clear heads, hopefully they can find the little extra needed to pick up the victory tonight. Outside of a slow start to Game One and a lackluster second half of the first period in Game Two, the Lightning have played stride-for-stride with the Panthers. Playing even isn’t good enough in the playoffs and they need to be better, primarily in the offensive zone.
Tonight is a night where they need to let it all hang out offensively and find a way to do something they haven’t all series – get and play with a lead. From the opening whistle of the series the Bolts have either been tied or behind for all of it. With the way most playoff games go, that’s to be expected, but the problem is that playing from behind allows Florida to dictate the pace of play.
As they protected their two late leads in the series, the Panthers were content to clog up the neutral zone and force Tampa Bay into a dump-and-chase style of game that hasn’t been their forte for most of the year. When the Lightning are on, they do like to speed through the neutral zone and drive the defenders back to open up their passing game in the zone. That has been decidedly lacking for most of the series because Florida hasn’t been forced to take chances or pull up their defenders for extra offensive opportunities.
If the Bolts can get the lead, especially late in the game, that would force Florida to take some risks and the Lightning have the speed to do damage on the counter-attack. The Lightning were doing some really good things early in Game Two, especially concerning possession, but just couldn’t finish off their chances. While it’s cliche to scream “shoot the puck” at any offense, in this case it might be justified. Throwing out his spectacular save on Matt Dumba, Sergei Bobrovsky has been good, he just hasn’t been challenged. Heck, even the big save came as a result of him misreading the play as tried to cover up the pass from Anthony Cirelli to Dumba.
Outside of that, he has let a few rebounds go and bobbled some pretty routine shots, especially early in the game. The Lightning’s issue, at least to this point of the series, is that they haven’t been able to make him pay on the rebounds on a consistent basis. Brandon Hagel’s goal has really been the only time Bobrovsky has been beaten on a second effort. Natural Stat Trick has Bobrovsky facing just 8 rebound attempts against, only five goaltenders who have appeared in at least two post-season games have faced fewer.
To make his life a little more miserable, they need to get into the front of the net. Referring back to NST shows that the Lightning have been credited with just 18 high-danger chances at 5v5 over the two games (Florida has 31) with Bobrovsky facing 12 high-danger shots. They’ve beaten him twice on those 12 shots which isn’t too bad, so they should really do that more.
They should do the complete opposite at the other end. Andrei Vasilevskiy has been a big reason why they’ve been in striking distance in both games. According to NST he’s faced 24 high-danger shots against (tops in the playoffs) and 17 rebound attempts against (second to the Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov). Vasy’s .941 SV% at 5v5 is the third highest number in the league while his 4.08 GSAx is second. Anyone worried that Vasilevskiy had fallen off of the mountaintop when it comes to pressure games can rest assured that he is still up to his old tricks.
Unfortunately, he can’t score goals. Coach Cooper loves to point out the importance of three goals in a hockey game. Hold a team under three goals and you’re likely to win. Score three or more goals and you’re likely to win. So far the Lightning haven’t been able to achieve that total. With a little more net-front action maybe they can and claw their way back into the series.
Lines
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines
Forwards
Anthony Duclair – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Steven Stamkos
Mikey Eyssimont – Nick Paul – Mitchell Chaffee
Tanner Jeannot – Luke Glendening – Tyler Motte
Defenders
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Matt Dumba – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Max Crozier
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Matt Tomkins
It was an optional skate in the morning. The only players not on the ice were Vasilevsky, Tyler Motte, and Nikita Kucherov. Nick Perbix could be back in the line-up, but we’ll have to wait and see during warm-ups.
Florida Panthers Projected Lines
Forwards
Vladimir Tarasenko – Alexsander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Kevin Stenlund – Evan Rodrigues
Nick Cousins – Steven Lorenz – Ryan Lomberg
Defenders
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
Goalies
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
