The Lightning Finding Answers

By Mark Pukalo

Instead of fading without two of their best five players, the Tampa Bay Lightning used their dilemma to fuel them in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

No Steven Stamkos. No Anton Stralman. No surrender.

The one simple phrase you can use to describe the Lightning the last two seasons is, “they have learned how to win,” and most nights it doesn’t matter who is in the lineup. Whenever they’ve needed a big effort, a big goal, a strong goaltending performance, they have found a way to get it. The only time they came up short was in Games 5 and 6 against Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals last June and that could have gone either way.

There’s no doubt you start with Ben Bishop, Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov when picking heroes from the first two rounds, but as made-for-postseason forward Alex Killorn said -- it was going to have to be about a “collective effort” and it truly turned out that way.

Without Stralman, defensemen Braydon Coburn and Jason Garrison had to come up big and each had strong moments throughout the first 10 games. Andrej Sustr avoided critical mistakes for the most part and Matt Carle contributed on the back end as well, although he struggled in a few games. It took way too long, but Slater Koekkoek has finally moved ahead of Nikita Nesterov on the depth chart.

The Lightning was able to navigate an out of synch Detroit team and a plucky, but flawed, New York Islanders squad without Stralman. They desperately need the Swede in the third round against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who run out three scoring lines that have all produced. Hedman was able to limit Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings and concentrate on Islanders captain John Tavares to keep him scoreless the final four games. Pick your poison with the Penguins. Play against Sidney Crosby’s line? Evgeni Malkin’s? The red-hot Phil Kessel-Nick Bonino-Carl Hagelin unit? Yes, Connecticut’s own Bonino.

Give Jon Cooper credit. He has pushed the right buttons in the playoffs so far. Circumstances have worked in his favor, but his tweaks in the forward lines have worked out.

The biggest question is -- where would the Lightning be without Jonathan Drouin?

Drouin’s departure and subsequent suspension may have been the best thing that has happened to the team this season. The speedy forward going home to Montreal for six weeks did two things. It lowered the quality of trade offers that Steve Yzerman received and he intelligently decided to pass. It also allowed Drouin to get his head together, figure out some things he had to do to be more successful at the NHL level and he came back with a positive attitude along with a chip on his shoulder.

You wonder if Drouin would have gotten the chance at a bigger role if Stamkos did not develop the blood clot? The kid is playing well on both ends of the ice and his full-time addition to the power play – something that has come about 1 ½ years too late in my opinion – has made a major difference for that unit. A friend in the pressbox said the other day about Drouin – “He sees everything on the ice.” It is gratifying to me that many people are eating serious crow about Drouin. Although I haven’t heard enough of them admitting they were wrong.

The Lightning can beat the Penguins if they make them work for everything they get. Bishop can do that alone, but even he can’t plug every gap if the Bolts are careless with the puck. While the Penguins defense has improved over the last two months – helping them go 22-5-0 -- I still think Tampa Bay can put up goals on them in the series. Cooper should keep the Lightning in attack mode. They can win a game here and there 1-0 or 2-0, but they are much more dangerous team when they force teams to react to them. Perhaps Cooper has finally learned that from the first two series.

In some ways, the rest is gravy for the Lightning. They are the clear underdog in this series. But grab one of the first two games and it’s anybody’s ballgame.

Tampa Bay in seven.

Bonino shows his skill

I remember talking to Avon Old Farms coach John Gardner one day and asking him if Bonino could have success at Boston University and even make it to the NHL down the road.

Gardner did not need to say anything. He made a gesture with his hands. Bonino had NHL hands in high school and as his skating improved to go along with his keen hockey sense, the sky was the limit.

Bonino led Farmington to the Division II high school title in his final year there, scoring more than 90 points in 20-something games. He was a gangly player with great skill and smarts, and no one could stop him at that level. It was between Bonino and Fairfield Prep’s Mark Arocbello, who is now with the Toronto Maple Leafs, for high school player of the year in 2004-05. I split the decision. Picked Arcobello and wrote a feature on Bonino for the cover of the All-State issue.

The next season Bonino went to Avon Old Farms prep school -- a place that also produced Brian Leetch, Chris Higgins and Jonathan Quick – and proved wrong many of the downstate Division I high school coaches who told me his numbers were just a product of his competition at Farmington. He needed to improve his skating big time and he worked at it, making a huge jump in the first few months at Avon.

After success at Boston University, including a national championship, Bonino has spent time with four different organizations. He scored 22 goals for Anaheim in 2013-14, but was traded to Vancouver the next season and one year later to Pittsburgh. Bonino notched his third career overtime goal in the playoffs Tuesday to push the Penguins on to the series against the Lightning.

Gardner had it right with Bonino. He could see him in the NHL because of his skill level at that age. His hockey sense was also vivid. Many scouts missed that before he was picked in the sixth round by San Jose. I saw it with Killorn as well when he played for Deerfield Academy (Mass.) in many of the same rinks Bonino performed. Killorn just needed to get stronger. It goes to show you – skill and hockey sense should be the first things scouts look for. Compete level and physical attributes almost always can be improved.

Boucher is Back

Guy Boucher always preferred to stand at the level of reporters in a scrum to answer questions when he was the Lightning coach.

It wasn’t possible with all the television cameras at morning skates, or when practices were well attended. One day, Boucher climbed up to the podium and smiled when a local scribe asked him, jokingly, if he felt power standing above them.

“A false sense of power,” Boucher said, followed by his patented mischievous laugh. “You guys got the pens.”

Boucher had his faults as a coach in Tampa Bay, but had way more positives than negatives while bringing the Lightning to the Eastern Conference finals in his first season. One break and maybe they would have held the Cup that year.

Whether it was that he was too much of a players-coach or too stubborn to change his defensive style and tactics, things fell apart for Boucher in Tampa. No one knows what was happening behind closed doors, but one thing that has bothered me about his final season is some of his players seemed to quit on him. If he has learned since then to adjust some of his ideas defensively, the Ottawa Senators will be a difficult out with Boucher as head coach from this day on.

Here’s what Vincent Lecavalier said about Boucher back then.

“He’s a hard-working guy and he knows what he’s talking about. He’s got an answer to any question. There’s never a pause. He knows it. For the players, that gives us confidence that he really knows what he’s talking about. Everything he does is calculated. Every drill we do is with a purpose. It’s almost like a game simulation. He’s the type of guy that if you’re in a conversation with him, you listen. You’re learning.”