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The Tampa Bay Lightning are dead.
After finishing the regular season with a record 62 wins, the Tampa Bay Lightning came out of the playoffs with barely a groan. One of the most dominant teams of the modern era has been swept away – and swept away quite easily – by a franchise that has never won playoffs for more than 20 years.
There is no doubt that this is one of the most dramatic upheavals of the recent memory of the NHL, but also the recent sports memory … period. So how did it go? Let's break down where things went oh so bad for Tampa Bay.
The best attackers were silent
Tampa, the best offensive hockey team, averaged 3.9 goals per game, nearly half a goal more than any other field team. They were led in front of a three-headed monster: Nikita Kucherov (128 points), Steven Stamkos (98 points) and Brayden Point (92), all of whom finished with more than 40 goals.
When they are on their game, it's almost impossible to match the Lightning's frontal talent. But not only were they not on their game in this series – they were almost invisible. None of the three types mentioned above scored a single point before the fourth match, when Stamkos and Point were finally able to end up in the goal column. Too little, too late.
Stamkos, who led the team with 45 goals this year, had just 10 shots on goal in the series, is whitened in Game 3. By equal force, Stamkos scored only four goals against Lightning. As captain of the team and one of their most important players, you expect better. You need better.
Kucherov not only failed to score in the series, but withdrew from training for the third match due to a suspension won with a headless check that he delivered in game 2. Going out of a 2-0 series hole as the series moves towards building your opponents is quite difficult, but do it without your best striker in training for a swing match? Salt in the wound.
Point, considered one of the best two-way players in the league, just did not do enough at each end of the ice. He had just one point in the series (a power play goal in the fourth game), but he also had the second-worst share of the Tampa Bay forwards (47.5%). He was just not the difference maker that he was known. None of them were.
But we must also pay tribute to Sergei Bobrovsky, who became a net force for Columbus after the period of opening the series. Bobrovsky made two massive saves in the first match to prevent Stamkos from getting 4-0 and later 4-1.
When Bobrovsky is at the top of his game, he is an elite goalie who can change the game. That's what we've seen for much of this series because it has helped keep Tampa relatively quiet. This is why the Blue Jackets have chosen to retain him for this playoff round rather than sell it as an expiring good at the trading deadline. He has so far rewarded this decision by posting a stopping percentage of 0.932 in the first round.
Special teams
The Lightning finished the season as the squad of the league's top teams, finishing first in the power play and penalty kill percentage. You would not know it based on how they played in this series.
Columbus took part in the playoffs with the power play of the 28th Division, but burned the Tampa PK in the first round, scoring a 5 for 10 on the men's advantage. On the other hand, the Tampa power play team recorded a meager score of 1 to 6 and did not get its total points until the fourth match.
The amazing victory of the Blue Jackets match 1, which set the tone for the rest of the series, was largely generated by their special teams. CBJ not only denied Tampa in all three power play opportunities, but a shorthanded goal from Josh Anderson served as an equalizer in the final stage of the third period. About two minutes later, the eventual winner of the game, a power play goal from Seth Jones, followed.
We have seen so many times that special teams can generate huge momentum and help run a series. After the Columbus special teams helped them win the first game, the Lightning seemed to lose control of the series and went through a crisis of confidence. They needed help to get back on track and they could have been shot in the arm by their power play unit.
Unfortunately, they did not play well enough to win these opportunities and, to Columbus' credit, they did a great job playing aggressive, but playing clean and not taking penalties. The Lightning have had only three opportunities to play on the power play in the last three games of the series – including zero in the third game.
Injuries on the blue line
Tampa Bay defenseman and reigning Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman returned to the series after another injury to the ice following an apparent concussion (officially classified as an upper body injury). He missed the last four games of the regular season Lightning, but was back for the first game.
However, it soon became clear that he may not have been ready to do it. Hedman glanced at the beginning. He was far from the imminent presence of the blue line that he was in the last few years. The most striking example is that of the second goal of the Blue Jackets series: an unassisted countdown by defenseman David Savard.
After recovering the puck with space and an exit near his defensive partner, Hedman has just decided to throw the goal-free puck into the neutral zone. Savard collected it and transported it to the offensive zone and easily swung around Hedman before fooling Andrei Vasilevskiy.
It was Savard's clever move, but Hedman decided to turn to the boards for no discernible reason, giving the attacking player clear access to the net.
It is clear that Hedman was not himself in the first two games, that's why he did not play in the last two games. The lightning coach, Jon Cooper, has removed him from training and his absence has made him feel at the back.
To make matters worse, Tampa was also stripped of Anton Stralman, another veteran of the four best defensemen in the series. Tampa Bay needed the best offense or the best goaltender to make up for those losses in the final, and nothing happened. Andrei Vasilevskiy was strong at the points of the net, but finished the series with a .856 efficiency percentage, which was far from enough.
framing
With all due respect to Jon Cooper, who is a very good coach who has made the most of this group during an outstanding regular season, he has quite sunk behind the bench of the series.
It took far too long to shoot the goaltender in Match 3, as Tampa, down one point, was looking to equalize. He saw his team being repeatedly maltreated by Columbus's failure before and failed to make the necessary adjustments to stop the bleeding. Tampa was extremely gentle mentally throughout the series. As soon as Columbus started exerting a semblance of pressure in the first game, the Lightning is bent like a house of cards. They never recovered and never again led.
Perhaps the worst thing is that Cooper did not seem bothered by this.
There is a difference between keeping a cool head and showing a lack of urgency, and the distinction is very often a game of results. But Cooper's behavior in this series was to be infuriating for many Lightning fans. Even after Tampa bowed 3-0, Cooper kept his attitude polite and tried to understand the situation, getting minimal results. Nothing that he said has inspired a ton of confidence.
On the other side of the hall, this is how John Tortorella addressed his team when it faltered.
Once again, Cooper is an excellent coach – probably better than Tortorella. But at the end of the day, when you're almost exhausted, for which of these guys are you going to play harder? The guy who gives you an ice pack and rubs your belly telling you it's going to go, or the guy who is visibly upset and hurts you in the face because he knows you can do better?
There is no doubt that the coach has better inspired his guys in this series.
Cooper has shown no urgency in this series and his team has followed suit. After the collapse of the first game, you expected Tampa to come out of the door shooting in the second game to make a statement and recover some pride. Instead, they laid an egg. By giving up the first two games at home, you expected them to remind everyone that they are the best dogs and take control of the series. Nothing. Down 3-0 with the risk of a historically embarrassing starter, they are still slowly coming out the door.
I mean, come on … take your pulse. The most emotion that Cooper showed on the bench of all the series came in the fourth game after the Lightning managed to defeat an offside.
If you're a fan of Lightning, you might want to re-evaluate how much you like the multi-year contract extension that Cooper signed in March.
The Curse of the Presidents' Trophy
I laugh. This lazy story is a joke, just as the Lightning finished this season.
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