Next up for the Tampa Bay Lightning are the Montreal Canadiens. While watching the past month of highlights for the Canadiens, it was eerily similar to watching the Lightning. This team is very weak around their own net. They play the puck, not the man (similar to the bolts). Their D also seem to get caught at the offensive blue line quite often too. If you get this D to play along the boards and take away their time and space, they will cough off the puck.
Not much offense I've seen so far. They like to break out quickly (also like the bolts) and try to apply pressure. But like the Lightning, their forecheck is easily beaten. All of their offense or at least a good portion of it is generated on the power play or by defensive mistakes by the other team. They get a lot of chances off puck mismanagement from the opposition. Their only big offensive game was their last game against the Senators (also their first win under their new interim head coach). Poor Ottawa goaltending had something to do with it, but the Canadiens did generate a number of goals off 3 on 2 opprotunities. The Lightning are pretty good about limiting odd man rushes, so I don't foresee this to be a big problem.
The key for the Lightning will be to get pucks deep (past the opposing teams goal line) and make their D turn their backs and finish their checks. The Canadiens will cough up pucks if this is done well. To keep the Montreal offense at bay, the bolts will have to stay disciplined as the majority of goals and scoring chances for the Canadiens are coming off the power play. Other than that, just defend the neutral zone well because Montreal will look for those long stretch passes to get a break. Lastly, puck management is key. Montreal's offense is based off of mistakes made by the opposition. If the Lightning manage the puck well and keep the pressure on the Canadiens D, I don't see Montreal generating too much offense based on their performance for the past month.
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