The Lightning had the luxury of last change in Sunday's Game 1 matchup against the Bruins, the one true perk that comes with higher seeding in this revamped playoff slate — given that home-ice advantage is null and void within the empty confines of Scotiabank Arena and Rogers Place.
Being able to dictate matchups is a luxury that bench bosses for the "home" club often try to make the most of. But against some of the top offensive threats in the league, "last change" functions more as a necessity.
Whether it be consistently deploying a defensive specialist or a grinding, checking-line crew against an opposing top-six grouping or — vice-versa — giving your top lines favorable matchups against the opponent's weaker talent, "last change" can go a long way toward shifting the momentum of a series, especially one as contested as Boston/Tampa.
Such was the strategy that Jon Cooper tried to roll out on Sunday, at least when it came to slowing down Boston's proven triumvirate of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.
Whenever Bergeron and his crew hopped over the boards, Cooper answered with a prescription of big-bodied bruisers on the blue line, with Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak, Ryan McDonagh and Zach Bogosian all logging at least 3:40 of 5v5 ice time against the B's top-line pivot. Up front, rather than roll with defensive ace Anthony Cirelli, Tampa opted to fight fire with fire and stick its top line against Boston's best in the form of Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Brayden Point (an elite two-way talent in his own right).
And yet, even with the matchups on his side, Cooper could only shrug his shoulders following Boston's eventual 3-2 victory up in Toronto. It's a familiar postgame routine for many coaches after going up against Boston's big guns — a trio that often has little regard for whatever X's and O's are drawn up against them.
"They make big-time plays at high rates of speed, so if you let up for a second — they're going to get you because they compete really hard, they never give up on plays and so clearly that's what happened there," Cooper said of the Bergeron line. "We have a recipe for them, but in the end you hope to just control them. And I thought in some aspects of the game we did a pretty good job and some we didn't. There's a reason they've been one of the best lines in hockey for a while and they proved it tonight."
Look no further than the opening minutes of the third period, with both the Point line and the McDonagh-Cernak pairing deployed against the Bergeron line.
Much as he did earlier in the contest when he set Charlie Coyle's opening tally in motion by breaking into Tampa's zone and extending O-zone time, Marchand attempted to shield the puck from Palat shortly after crossing the offensive blue line. This attempt didn't go nearly as well, with the Bolts winger knocking the puck loose and pinning Marchand against the boards.
The skittering biscuit was picked up by McDonagh next to Tampa's net — his skating strides speeding up as he envisioned a counter-rush down the other end of the sheet. But such a retort didn't come. The Lightning's pushback was grounded before it could get clearance for takeoff —given that McDonagh's breakout pass had no puck to even offer to Point near the blue line.
Bergeron managed to pick McDonagh's pocket before the defenseman even knew what hit him, with the B's defensive star slipping past Kucherov and lifting McDonagh's stick ahead of his outlet feed.
A counter-rush had suddenly mutated into a defensive calamity for Tampa, one that the Bruins capitalized on in short order against goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. By the time McDonagh swiveled his head around to process Bergeron's larceny, the puck was already dished to Pastrnak in the slot. Boston's top scorer might have had the puck on his backhand, but with Marchand staring at nothing but twine, Pastrnak made the easy call — dishing it away to his fellow winger for the one-time finish.
Vasilevskiy, much like his coach, could only sit and shake his head at what transpired.
(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Bruins
Ryan: Even with matchups on their side, Lightning could only shrug shoulders at Bergeron line's brilliance in Game 1
"He has a gift that – the way he reads the game and his stick positioning and his ability to read plays, there’s just very few guys in the league that have that ability on the defensive side of things," Marchand said of Bergeron's defensive play. "Lots of guys are good offensively and can cheat and pick pucks off. He does it from a defensive standpoint. He creates so many opportunities out of our zone, through the neutral zone and on the forecheck, the way he did where he’s picking pucks and lifting sticks. Just his back pressure is incredible. That goal was all him, his forechecking there, a great read. That’s why he’s going to be a Hall of Famer."
David Krejci
“When our offensive players are doing that, we’re going to be hard to stop," Bruce Cassidy said of his top line. "Because they can finish some plays. What I’m learning is it’s a second-effort league. There’s very few guys that are that good that don’t need second effort on pucks. I think our guys do very well, our top guys. Now it’s bleeding into our middle guys to understand, and hopefully our young guys that are here watching. That’s what it takes in this league.”
Loading...
Loading...