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Five Keys For The Tampa Bay Lightning To Continue Winning Games

By Garrard Renshaw

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After struggling to win games through most of the month of December, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been able to find some momentum and establish a four game winning streak. When the bolts went from leading the standings to losing 7 of their next 10 games, they learned a lesson in how quickly momentum can shift. With nearly half of the season already completed, it’s time to break down what the team will need to do in order to hold that momentum straight into the playoffs.

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Be Unpredictable

One of the biggest flaws that caused the downward spiral of the Bolts in the month of December was that nothing changed from the beginning of the season. When you’re sitting on top of the standings, other teams will always be watching. They watch the film and put their best lines against yours in order to suppress your talent. Sometimes in the NHL you just have to change things up a bit, even if they are working.

Don’t keep a line together for the entire season just because for a while they are difficult to score against. When teams start to adjust and score against that line you need to adjust as well.

Get Stamkos Going

This relates to the last topic because that is likely the biggest culprit of Steven Stamkos‘ recent drought. Everybody knows Stamkos is going to take shots from the top of the circle and pass when he is deeper into the zone. Before everybody knew that Stamkos could score with little help from his line. At this point the captain needs another scoring threat on his line that will compliment him. This would likely draw defenders towards Stamkos while his linemate has the ability to fire away.

In order to get Stamkos scoring goals he needs to be playing with two other legitimate scoring threats on his line. Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, Ryan Callahan, Ondrej Palat , and Jonathan  Drouin could all be good linemates for Steven Stamkos. Although it could compromise other lines, they need to be searching to see what combination works the best. After a few games, when Stamkos is able to get his rhythm back, the Kucherov-Johnson-Palat “triplet” line can be put back together.

Fix The Power Play

It is no secret the bolts power play has been struggling recently. A lack of ability to hold the puck in the offensive zone has resulted in few shots and ultimately a power play scoring drought.

On the power play the Lightning typically use a single defenseman diamond formation with a man in front of the net. This is common among NHL teams, but if you don’t do it right it simply does not work. The biggest issue is that if the defenseman attempts to hold the puck in the zone he doesn’t have another defenseman to drop back and cover for him. This can lead to breakaways in the other direction.

Best case, the defenseman doesn’t try to hold the puck in and simply drops back and has to chase the puck all the way into his own end and waste time.

For the Lightning, it is either have a forward spend most of the powerplay playing defense, or put a second defenseman on the power play until the turnover issue can be fixed. With the dominating 5-on-5 units the Lightning have, the best option may be just to add on a second defenseman and play it very similar to a 5-on-5. Although it may not be the most effective power play in the league, it could work as a temporary solution to keep the puck in the zone and prevent the other team from getting shorthanded opportunities.

Stay Fresh In Net

One of the biggest problems for the Lightning in the Bishop era has been reliability in goal. Bishop has been hurt constantly, even missing out on the playoffs last season. The Lightning need to be making sure the goalkeeper that starts is healthy and ready to play. No, Bishop does not have to play every game for Tampa Bay to make it to the postseason. The most important thing with Bishop is giving him enough starts to stay fresh but also allow him plenty of time to rest.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, who can provide a solid relief option for Ben Bishop, is only a phone call away in the AHL. Anytime Bishop has any sort of complication that may cause him to miss a game, there is a good chance we will see Vasilevskiy on the ice.

Having backup goalie options who can win games on a consistent basis is one of the biggest strengths of Tampa Bay. There are more than enough options to keep Ben Bishop healthy and playing at his best. All the Lightning have to do is use those options properly.

Play 60 Minutes

So often this season the difference between a win and a loss has only been the team not playing their hardest for the entire game. In the last few minutes they pound away at the opposing net and more often then not, it is just too little too late.

If the bolts just showed that desperation early in games, results could be much different. Instead of trying to make a third period comeback all they have to do is play a sound defensive game. The first goal is the most important goal of every game.

If the Lightning are able to follow these five keys you can expect them to keep winning and carry momentum into the playoffs. Over the course of an 82 game season all teams will have hot and cold streaks. We can only hope that this is just a small hiccup in a long season for the bolts. The 2003-04 cup winning Lightning saw a very similar cold streak but once the playoffs roll around all bets are off and any team has a chance to win.

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