Have been watching quite a lot of The Lightning because why not and also game times are more favourable to me.
It is fascinating how much of their performance is based on intelligence on the ice that is capitalised (obviously) by some top end skills.
A lot of the work, with or without the puck- is centered about having a purpose to any action. Nothing is done without a good reason and all the players are focused on that.
Stick always on the ice, skating trajectory to always disrupt passing lanes and one D man really watching from the back, reading 'what's left' of the forecheck. Forecheckes will know when to go straight and hit a body and when to skate round and disrupt a pass.
When the opposite D is pinned down and manage an errant pass out of the D zone, Tampa's watching Dman will find a player and resend the puck with a one touch pass back in. It is suffocating, relentless and generally ends up with a scoring chance or a penalty on which they will capitalise on.
Dumping the puck in the offensive zone without any of their own forwards challenging the pass/dump is a very rare occurence. No freebies for the opponent.
When their D is under pressure, they often use a towering slow clearance to gain seconds to exit or change lines. The sort of lobed pucks (up and under in rugby) are very difficult to handle for the opponents. I have not seen many teams doing that this regularly/often so far but it seems to be a great strategy.
Again a lot of this is based on intelligence, awareness and a decent looking system that causes trouble to any opponent, and lead to penalties. Something that more teams - including the Coyotes- might be able to do.
The skill players then make them pay on the PP - obviously here Tampa has an edge. Diabolically efficient.
Personally I think unheralded Brayden Point is absolutely essential to this team.
