Lightning at Devils Game Preview: Midwaying through the Metro

Game Forty: Tampa Bay Lightning (22-15-2) at New Jersey Devils (25-15-4)

Time: 7:00 PM EST

Location: Prudential Center, Newark

TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, MSGSN, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App

Odds: Lightning +130

Know the Opponents: All About the Jersey

The Tampa Bay Lightning are hitting the midpoint of the season (finally) with a quick two-game road trip through the Metro Division. They kick things off tonight with a stop in Newark to face the Devils and then on to Pittsburgh to take on the suddenly relevant Penguins on Sunday. It’s the second of four back-to-backs this month for the Bolts and could be one of the more challenging ones.

Much like the Lightning, the Devils haven’t been firing on all cylinders over their last few weeks, but are still bound for the playoffs. Over their last nine games, the two teams are sporting almost identical records (the Devils are 4-4-1 while the Lightning are 4-5-0) and both had less than stellar recent road trips. New Jersey returns home from a 1-4-1 road trip (where they lost to San Jose, Anaheim, and Los Angeles) and, as we are all well to aware, the Bolts dropped all three on their recent visit to California.

[Speaking of California, the Los Angeles Kings posted a list of resources to help those affected by the wildfires. For any of our readers in those areas, we hope you are safe.]

For the Lightning, it was a case of playing mostly decent hockey, but going through a team-wide scoring slump while losing focus just long enough to allow the other teams to score. It was an issue that they seemingly rectified with a couple of home wins against Carolina and Boston.

New Jersey did pick up points in their last two road games, a win in Seattle and an overtime loss to the Rangers, and they’re looking to keep the points’ streak going against Tampa Bay and Florida. Our friends over at All About the Jersey broke down what some of the defensive issues have been of late, and the good news for Bolts fans is that the Lightning’s game plan fits well into exploiting those issues.

As much as the Lightning want to be a puck-possessing, cycle-the-puck, work-from-low-to-high, forechecking team, their best players are at their best when they’re rushing the puck up the ice with purpose and danger.

As the data from All Three Zones shows, five of the forwards that are consistently in the Lightning’s top six are above average in the league when it comes to shots off of the rush. (the two players clumped together without names are Conor Geekie and Jake Guentzel). At their best, Tampa Bay plays with pace generated with speed through the neutral zone.

One of the ways they’ve been getting that this season is by being aggressive at their own blueline in denying entries and quickly reversing the direction of play. That allows their top puck-carriers (mainly Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point) to drive into the offensive zone and either take a shot at beating a defender one-on-one or pulling up and setting up the second and third wave of teammates charging up the ice.

Their struggles come when they can’t link up through the neutral zone and their entries get bogged down, forcing them to dump the puck in and fight for it along the boards. The good news is that, at least according to the data that AATJ was looking at, is that New Jersey has been prone to attacks through the neutral zone and odd-skater rushes against. The Bolts will be looking to exploit that tonight.

Overshadowed a bit by the Lightning’s struggle in scoring, was their incandescent penalty kill. No coach likes to see their team short-handed, but of late, the Bolts have been killing penalties with panache. The Bolts have not allowed a power-play goal over their last eight games, killing off seventeen penalties in a row. That, in and of itself is pretty good, but the Bolts have taken it another step by scoring four short-handed goals over that time frame.

Their may not be a bigger momentum swinger than a short-handed goal as a team turns a potentially dangerous situation into a fortuitous one. As Coach Cooper pointed out following the Boston win, just knowing that a penalty kill unit can score can be a psychological edge,

“You want your special teams to be momentum grabbers,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s not that you can sit here and write it up and say, okay, great, we’re on the PK, we’re going to go score. But it sure can be a weapon, and it can hopefully change the way a power play thinks when you have guys that are threat to score.”

[Ed.Note – If we were commissioners for the day, a team would lose their power play opportunity if they surrendered a short-handed goal. That has nothing to do with the story, but we wanted to be on record that we support that idea.]

While it’s always nice to pick up a bonus goal short-handed, the Lightning can’t get caught up in the idea. The chances they’ve generated of late are a result of defending their own zone first, making sure the puck is cleared, and then attacking. They aren’t cheating the defensive side of things to produce offense. Anthony CIrelli’s most recent shortie is a prime example of that.

The play starts with Cirelli disrupting the entry, allowing Ryan McDonagh to gather up the puck. McDonagh, as he usually does, makes the smart play. He doesn’t try to pass it Brandon Hagel directly as there is a Bruin poised just outside the blueline ready to step up and intercept the pass. Instead, he fires the indirect pass off the boards and allows Hagel to skate into it. Get the puck. Clear the puck. THEN make the magic happen.

If the Bolts keep playing smart hockey, they can pick up a few more points during this brief road trip, and shore up their spot in the standings.

Potential Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning

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Defense:

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New Jersey Devils

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Defense:

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