Lightning must reduce defensive lapses in series against Bruins

TAMPA -- Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand went to the front of the net and stopped. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Tyler Johnson was directly to the left of him. He did nothing.

Marchand, with all the space he needed in the slot, got his stick down and deflected defenseman Charlie McAvoy's shot into the net to give the Bruins a two-goal lead 3:32 into the third period Saturday. Johnson looked up and skated to the bench in disgust.
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Too easy.
"That one was mine," Johnson said after the Bruins defeated the Lightning 6-2 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Amalie Arena. "I messed up on that. I should have been on him. I didn't. That's on me."
Good on Johnson for taking ownership, but that was an example of the lapses in defensive zone coverage the Lightning knew they couldn't have against the Bruins' top line of Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak before the series began.
It was one of too many examples of lapses in coverage the Lightning had in Game 1.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper used his best shutdown line -- Johnson, center Brayden Point and left wing Ondrej Palat -- and at least one of his three best defensemen, Anton Stralman, Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman, against Boston's top line all game. It backfired.
Point, Palat, Johnson, Stralman, McDonagh and Hedman were a combined minus-20, with Point minus-5 and Stralman and Palat each minus-4. Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak combined for 11 points, including three goals.
That the Lightning outshot the Bruins 36-24 and were plus-41 in total shot attempts (78-37) was irrelevant because when Boston got in the zone and generated a scoring chance, the puck ended up in the back of the net, typically after Tampa Bay blew a coverage.

"They scored on pretty much every [chance] they had, that's it," Cooper said. "And you can't pin it on the goaltender."
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed five goals on 23 shots, but two were on a deflection, two were on an uncontested one-timer from Bergeron in the slot after a breakdown, and one was on a long shot from Rick Nash after the Lightning backed off too far and gave up too much room.
Jake DeBrusk also scored an empty-net goal.
"We have to raise the battle level in the defensive zone," Cooper said. "For all the battle level we had in the offensive zone, if we turn that into the defensive zone for some of those plays, maybe they don't go in. I think that was frustrating for the guys, spending the amount of time they did in the offensive zone, not being rewarded, and the Bruins were rewarded for just coming down and making a play. But that's what that line does, they make plays. Right when you think you might have them, they can burn you. That's what they did to us."
Point, Palat, Johnson, Stralman, McDonagh and Hedman should have the chance to go against Bergeron's line again in Game 2 at Amalie Arena on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS).
Cooper didn't sound like he was interested in going away from his preferred matchup on that line because the numbers tell him it's not worth it.
"I don't even know if they had 10 scoring chances in the game," Cooper said. "If you were going to tell me that we were going to hold Boston to [almost] as many shot attempts as we had shots on goal, I would have taken our chances.
"Everybody breaks down at some point in some situation. Sometimes it may hit a post. Somebody might miss the net. Somebody might get a huge shot block. Somebody might get a huge save. At those times we broke down, none of those things happened for us. It's the game."

McDonagh called it something else.
"Wakeup call," he said.
He specifically meant against Bergeron's line.
"It's hockey 101," McDonagh said. "At the end of the day, it's competing and being hard to play against. We need everybody, whoever is out there against them, to be harder to play against."