Like the old episodes of Batman 1960s, the Tampa Bay Lightning became predictable. But as with the adventures of Adam West and Burt Ward, it is not because we suspect the outcome that it is boring.
Updated at 0:02
Ondrej Palat scored the game-winning goal with 1:50 remaining in the third period to break a 1-1 tie, and the Lightning beat the Rangers 3-1 Thursday at Madison Square Garden in Game 5 of the Eastern final.
Jon Cooper’s men take a 3-2 series lead and can qualify for a third straight Stanley Cup final if they win Saturday in Tampa.
It is however to wonder if the Rangers are not already cooked, they who had the double defending champions in the cables when they led this series 2-0 and they began the third period of the third game with a lead. . It’s that the Lightning already seems to have gone into elimination mode.
What is this mod? This is a team that knows they don’t need to open the game, because they’ve been there before, and because they know the man with the big leggings – Andrei Vasilevskiy – can cope.
Since the start of the 2021 playoffs, the Lightning are 6-3 in games where they have the chance to eliminate a rival. The troubling stat for the Rangers: Tampa has won five of nine games by shutout!
Worse still, for the last three games where Vasilevskiy had the chance to eliminate opponents, he shows an average of 0.33. One goal in three games, on 102 shots…
His teammates are pretty stingy when it comes to chances given, mind you. In Game 5, Natural Stat Trick only listed five scoring chances for Rangers at 5-5, which is basically the way the game looked. The New Yorkers also scored their only goal on a harmless shot from Ryan Lindgren, a puck that deflected. And when things got hot, for example when that same Lindgren got a chance at the mouth of the net in the middle of the third period, the Russian goalkeeper was quick enough to close the opening with his pad.
At the other end, the Lightning aren’t doing anything complicated either. The first goal was scored by Mikhail Sergachev with a simple wrist shot while there were six (!) skaters between the shooter and goalkeeper Igor Shesterkin. It was Sergachev again who shot for the winning goal, but Palat managed the deflection.
Brandon Hagel completed the scoring in an empty net.
The Lightning therefore seems to have found the recipe to neutralize the powerful New York attack, which has scored only four goals in the last three games. But Gerard Gallant’s men didn’t show their sunny day confidence either, too often attempting the perfect game in the opposing zone. And when the perfect play is successful, the execution is not there, as in this sequence at the end of the match where Andrew Copp missed a chance to shoot to attempt the pass to Ryan Strome, unable to seize it.
The importance of wingers
Palat did not steal his winning goal, he who played a strong match. The former Drummondville Voltigeurs was one of three forwards in his camp to go over 20 minutes, and it was well deserved.
PHOTO BRAD PENNER, USA TODAY SPORTS
Ondrej Palat celebrates the winning goal of the match.
He led his team with four shots on goal, caused one of two penalties for Rangers (excluding those handed out at the very end when Steven Stamkos and Alexis Lafrenière were feuding) and deprived Kaapo Kakko of a scoring chance gold in the first half.
Palat and Nikita Kucherov are the Lightning’s two leading scorers in this Eastern Final, which serves as a good reminder of the importance of quality wingers in a team.
The same can be said for Rangers, where wingers Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider are as crucial to this team’s success as Mika Zibanejad.
It’s worth remembering that, because the quest for good center players seems to be an obsession of some in the NHL in recent years. Take the 2018 draft, where the two players perceived as the best centers (Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Barrett Hayton) were claimed – in hindsight – at somewhat premature ranks.
With very different qualities, Kucherov and Palat are among the main success factors of the Lightning in recent years. It will now be necessary to see if these successes will translate into a third straight appearance in the final. But looking at the trend of recent games, there’s reason for optimism in Tampa.