Between the second and third periods of their 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets J.J. Moser spoke to the Lightning’s broadcast crew about their struggles,
“We’re just not executing. We’re not breaking out well, we’re spending way too much time in our d-zone. We’re not killing plays fast enough. We’re not fast enough in the d-zone, and then they have a lot of time in their o-zone. It’s always hard if they have the puck all of the time.”
The sweaty and out-of-breath defenseman summed up not only the Lightning’s struggle in that particular game, but also what has been plaguing them over their last seven games, which include six losses. What does he mean when he says that they aren’t “killing plays fast enough”.
In short, they aren’t stopping their opponents before bad things happen. A key trait during their run of success was their ability to stop dangerous plays from happening before they happened. No, they weren’t pre-cogs like in Minority Report. Rather, when they had the chance to control or clear the puck, they took it, and executed it. That’s not happening right now.
For the most part, when the Bolts start in the defensive zone, they have been in good position, however, there have been too many instances where, when given the chance to control things, they’ve fumbled it away. One of the big issues with that is that it gets them out of their structure and makes it more difficult to defend. The opponents are also gifted more scoring chances, which they have been taken advantage. Case in point, the Conor Garland goal which made it 2-1 on Tuesday night.
The Lightning had more than enough opportunity to stop this play before Garland got his shot off. Couple that with some bad coverage, and it led to the goal. Let’s go ahead and break it down frame by blurry frame.
The Lightning’s coverage on the entry here is pretty good. Declan Carlile and Charle-Edouard D’Astous have the center of the ice covered, which prevented Sean Monahan from driving through the slot. Brayden Point is there to pressure him from behind and is in position to break up Monahan’s pass back to Kent Johnson.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t. If Point gets his stick on the puck right there, the play is shut down.
Point did at least tie Johnson up enough that the puck is loose. Now, it’s a 50/50 race between Gage Goncalves and Zach Werenski to get to the puck. Goncalves swiped at it, but doesn’t clear. This speaks to Moser’s comment about being faster in the defensive zone. If Goncalves is a half-of-a-stride quicker, he can clear.
Werenski is able to backhand the puck down low and keep it in the zone, where the Lightning still have pretty decent coverage.
This is where things went off the rails a little. Carlile has the puck on his stick, but can’t control it. If he had handled it cleanly, there were options. D’Astous and Point were open for passes, or he could have banked it off the near boards and out. The puck rolled on him a bit and he tried to swat it out of danger.
Instead, the puck went behind him to Monahan in the crease. Andrei Vasilevskiy watched this play develop and was ready for the shot down low from Monahan. He made the save and the puck rebounded off to his left. Again, despite the play now officially being broken, the Lightning had decent coverage. D’Astous covered the front of the net, Carlile can cover Monahan, Point can track Johnson while Jake Guentzel is right on Conor Garland at the top of the screen.
Carlile and D’Astous end up both on Monahan and Point is late in covering Johnson, who collected the rebound. Vasilevskiy was in good position to stop a backhand attempt, leaving just a small window above his shoulder for Johnson to to shoot at. From that angle it was a tough shot.
The problem came from the fact that all four of the Lightning in the frame were focused on Johnson. No one took a second to look over their shoulder to see Garland behind the defense. As they collapsed down on the player with the puck, no one covered Garland.
Let’s give a little credit to Kent Johnson here. He made a no-look, backhand pass through two defenders and put it right on Garland’s stick. That’s a heck of a play. Still, Guentzel had to know where the secondary danger was coming from. If he had stuck with Garland, he could have tied him up or knocked the pass down. Vasilevskiy isn’t able to slide over to stop the shot, and just like that it’s 2-1 in favor of the Blue Jackets.
These are the little types of plays that are haunting the Lightning right now. A month ago, that play is shut down either at the blue line or when the puck is on Carlile’s stick. The quickest way for the Lightning to get back to their winning ways is to eliminate these extra chances for the other team. As Moser said, they have to be a little bit quicker in their zone.
If/when they get back to doing that, it will give them a little more possession time. It will lead to cleaner breakouts and the Lightning can get back to pressuring the other team instead of being the ones under pressure. That will lead to wins and securing a playoff spot.
