By the way, I'm a total amateur who happened to play a decent amount of rec hockey and lots of soccer. This is no way the "truth" about how to play hockey, but merely to be entertaining, particularly to those hockey fans that enjoy the sport and are interested in learning how to view the game more from a strategic standpoint.
One last thing, this is heavily influenced (ie, ripped off) by some writings of Justin Bourne (his blog) whom I believe to be the best writing on the subject of hockey i've come across (and I tweeted him my thoughts about his writing too).
With the introduction out of the way, let's get down to bussiness.
Here's the first goal against coming a whole 3 and a half minutes into the game.
Now let's break it down.....
The play starts with the Sharks throwing the puck behind the net, the Lightning, employing a pretty aggressive defensive zone system, send both D men to pursue, the battle is lost (small mistake 1). To make matters worse, Hedman and Brewer kind of collide and its the beginning of messy D positioning at this point. Now in the frame above, Hedman moves back to cover the post. Unfortunately, it's the side that Brewer is already covering (meaning, in order for the puck to get to where Hedman is standing, the puck has to go through Brewer). Ideally Hedman is where that big red X is. Downie has the guy in the slot as should be the case. Moore is floating a bit to cover a pass back up to the point.
This is where things start to go awry. The puck was brought out and Brewer pursues. The puck gets cycled back down to Thornton behind the net. If Hedman was where the big X was in the first picture, he's already all over Thornton. Instead he's at the post and he can either stay there, or let Joe set up camp behind the net. he decides to pursue Thornton (not sure why). Brewer's read is much tougher here. He's caught right now. He should be at the post Hedman was at to stop Thornton from some wrap around attempt, but if he does that he leaves the eventual goal scorer open. Downie who had the guy in the slot in the first frame is now covering no one and looking at the puck. Though in his defense, he's at least in good position to intercept a pass to the slot. Moore who was floating to cover the points now has left Dan Boyle wide open. In actuality, this is a horrible picture. Joe has the puck behind the net, there are 3 Sharks in pretty good shooting areas, and all 4 Lightning players in the picture are looking at the puck behind the net.
And here's where you have to give some credit to the opposition. Brewer decides to take the post and leave the man. So whereas the eventual goal scorer is open, Thornton is forced to make a sick back hand pass from behind the net. But it's Joe Thornton, so he makes a sick back hand pass from behind the net. The only thing that might have helped (though it probably wouldn't have) is if Hedman stayed in front of the net and he could have possibly got a stick on this shot (since he's like 8 ft tall) but for some inexplicable reason he chases Big Joe behind the net (presumably to not give him time to set up there). Best case scenario is that Hedman is where the red x is in the first picture. That way when the Brewer pursues the puck carrier and the puck is cycled back behind the net, Hedman is already there to give Thornton no time at all.
The second goal against comes while the Lightning are on the PK. Take a look.
Now lets look at it slowly.
There's a shot that goes around the boards. Adam Hall pursues the puck. Pyatt for some reason over plays this even though he should let Hall take the puck on his own (remember, the Bolts are a man down?). In fact, if you watch the clip again, you see Pyatt race towards the puck, realizes that Hall is there and that he's out of position and does a hard stop to try to get back where he's supposed to be. Ideally Pyatt is way more center than he is on the near boards (red x marks the spot). That allows him to cover the guy on the point in the frame and also the guy on the far point (eventual goal scorer). It's a difference of maybe half a second and 5 ft of ice. But that minuscule difference separates a pass to a wide open shooter and a pass to a well covered shooter.
The puck is where Hall is but will eventually drop down to Super Joe at the half boards. When it gets there, Brewer inexplicably over plays to engage Thornton (shown with blue arror) perhaps the game plan was to take away his space? not sure, but it's not working. Ideally Brewer realizes that Joe having the puck there isn't the end of the world (it's where he can dish it that will kill you) and Brewer stays about where he's at.
Above is where things are already lost. Thornton makes a sick pass to the guy at the far point. Remember that X i said Pyatt should be at? Well, now it really hurts that he isn't there because he struggles to get to the shooter. Hedman has the option of stepping up to the shooter if he feels like Pyatt is completely burned, or, you know, being a defenseman and covering the front of the net, especially important since we saw Brewer take himself out of the play already. Circled in red is the eventual goal scorer whom no defender is even bothering to look at since everyone is so concerned about the shooter. Hedman decides to step up and attempts to block the shot (which would have been great...except the shot goes through). Brewer is doing his best to get back into play, but it's too late.
The shot goes through and the rebound sits nicely for Pavelski to finish it off. It was probably best for the Hedman to try to block the shot while not moving so far out because then perhaps he's in a better position to get a stick on this rebound (since he's 8 ft tall). As you can see in this frame, he realizes he's not quite where he's supposed to be.
Third goal is one Garron would like to have back. Plain and simple.
Fourth goal, Stamkos gets smoked in the back check by Couture. Doesn't help that the other 2 guys are taking their sweet little time back checking.
5th goal (last one i'm going to go over because, i'm learning this is actually a lot of work). Also while on the PK.
Over aggressive PK kills us again.
Moore loses the race at the point and the puck gets chipped to Couture. Hedman unfortunately misses a few poke checks and follows Couture aggressively. No problem except Hedman must prevent the pass, which he unfortunately doesn't. I say unfortunately because sometimes, there's just nothing you can do. Couture makes a great pass back to the far boards and leaves the defense in the following little predicament.
Hedman is now in no man's land and Brewer has the tough job and playing the shot *and* the man in front of the net. He actually does it kind of admirably.
Just a few frames later it looks like this.
If Hedman and Brewer were smooth they could pull off a nice switch here where Hedman drifts towards the guy in front of the net and that allows Brewer to step out towards the puck carrier. Unfortunately Hedman is...umm....not sure what Hedman is doing. Tyrell is currently looking behind him because he knows his job is to cover Couture who is hovering around in the slot.
Unfortunately, the shot goes through. Brewer is trying to play both the shooter and man in front of net since Hedman was doing neither. Hedman, since he's 8 ft tall, is in ok position to take the guy in front of the net, Tyrell, whereas before was keeping tabs on Couture has now left him open to try to clear the rebound away from the net. Rebound goes straight to an open Couture and this was around the time I decided I was going to get some sleep instead of staying up for this late west coast game.
So, while, in general, yes...the Lightning played poorly to open the game. It really comes down to making small defensive mistakes. Add in the combo of some great plays by Couture and Thornton. That's why i get so distraught over small things that happen that don't really effect the game. Because, you do that enough times and it will cost you.
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