Recently I came across an article mentioning how the Tampa Bay Lightning are playing a style of hockey that resembled that which was played by countless teams in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. As most will remember teams like New Jersey, Buffalo and amongst others, played a system that was known as “The Trap”. It was nothing new as teams years prior had played a defensive first system, although in eras where the game was not broken down, let alone analyzed to the extent it had started to in recent years.
These statements and comments not only had me shaking my head but had me wondering how anyone would observe what is taking place in Tampa Bay right now and compare it to past systems used in the league. For the casual observer who hears ‘1-3-1” the easy line of thinking would be to tie the systems together. I mean, why not, it avoids having to actually see how the forecheck works and if executed properly, the opportunities it provides.
Such was the case in this past round vs. the Washington Capitals; one of the more offensively talented clubs in the league and home to one of the biggest threats in the game, Alexander Ovechkin. What the Lightning did in this series was nothing out of left field nor would be anything brought back from the ghosts the NHL’s past. They neutralized the Capitals in their grey zone as well as the neutral zone by taking away their time, space and passing lanes. As a result creating turnovers and forcing the play back into the Washington zone. The old saying goes “time creates confusion” and this was the case for the Washington Capitals as the series progressed. With added responsibility placed on the club to maintain composure and discipline in the defensive zone, the breakdowns started to mount and as a result they weren’t able to finish off the games they subsequently lost.
As a result players like Martin St.Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Stamkos were able to maintain their presence in the offensive zone, giving players like Steve Downie, Dominic Moore and Sean Bergenheim to play important roles in the Lightning attack as well. You throw in strong performances by Ryan Malone, Victor Hedman and Dwayne Roloson, and this series quickly became Tampa Bay’s.
For Guy Boucher, the selling of the system did not take long with the results speaking loud and clear around all hockey circles. In 2009-10 the Bolts finished with a record of 34-36-12, scoring 217 times and giving up 260 goals against; a year later the results show a vast improvement as the club went 46-25-11 with 247 goals for and allowed 240 goals against. Mind you, these numbers probably would have been slightly better if not for some early issue with their goaltending which was addressed swiftly when Steve Yzerman acquired Dwayne Roloson from the New York Islanders.
As the playoffs continue to progress into the Conference Finals and eventually the Stanley Cup Finals we will see how teams will handle new schemes brought on by their opponents. It would be easy to place the blame for the Capitals downfall on any collection of their players, in the end they are accountable as is the coaching staff. But the reality in this case is they simply lost to a team that did not stray from their game plan, did not let anything they could not control affect their game on both a team and a individual level. The discipline and work ethic, along with having the skilful depth throughout their line-up helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win this series.
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