Tampa Bay Lightning’s Low-Risk Style Leading To A ‘Zillion’ Chances

Brandon Hagel went 109 regular games without scoring a power play goal before connecting against visiting Dallas on Thursday evening, his first goal with the man advantage since March 2024. So what if it went off the stick of Stars defender Miro Heiskanen, barley crossed the goal line and went to video review? He will take it, especially given the Lightning were in a 3-for-33 funk on the power play.

“Kuch has 1,000 points and I was on the unit 90 percent of the time last year and couldn’t find one,” he joked about not connecting on the power play in 2024-25, though he had 11 assists with the man advantage and set an NHL record with most goals in a season (35) without one on the PP.

Kucherov’s 1000^th point? It was a career feat that was celebrated prior to the game against the Stars. In fact, the Lightning enjoyed a week of milestones. Kucherov, Victor Hedman (800) and Hagel (300) all reached point plateaus in an October 25 home-ice win against Anaheim. Anthony Cirelli recorded his 300th point Tuesday at Nashville. What made the milestones more meaningful, or more enjoyable, is that they have come in the midst of a four-game win streak.

Tampa Bay’s streak has been underscored by a rapid pace that has been executed without sacrificing the need to be responsible to each other. It has led to a noticeable difference in shot attempts and scoring chances. That was not the case, and often far from it, in the season’s first five or six games. Coach Jon Cooper, who is approaching 1,000 games behind the Bolts’ bench, likened the start to an unwanted extension to the preseason schedule.

“The beginning of the year sucked and we put ourselves in a hole that we are not out of yet,” he said, following the 2-1 win over Dallas that Cirelli decided in overtime to lift the Lightning to 5-4-2.

What changed?

“We have taken so much risk out of our game,” said Cooper, noting how such a level of responsibility has trickled down through the roster. “There was too much risk (earlier) and we were feeding other teams’ rushes, feeding them chances. We changed the way we played. We changed the mentality, and the losses turned into wins.”

Moving up the ice

The Lightning have tilted the ice for stretches of time. Consider a 2-1 overtime victory at home against Vegas on October 26 when they had a 64-41 advantage for the game while limiting the Golden Knights to eight shots on goal through two periods, the fewest through the first 40 minutes of a match in the eight-plus season existence of the VGK. Against Dallas, the tally on shot attempts was 69-45, including 50-25 at one point. Then there was an assault in the Chicago zone (73-48) for much of the evening on October 23, the club’s most recent loss.

“It is a shame we came out of that game without any points,” said Cooper.

Hagel attributes lengthy stretches of dominating play to quickly moving the puck out of the defensive zone. That’s where it all begins.

“The ‘D’ is doing an incredible job of getting the puck up the ice and letting the forwards (maintain) their speed,” said the 27-year-old, who had a game-high 11 shot attempts versus the Stars. “Being able to get the puck out and not spending as much time in the ‘D’ zone. When you do not spend as much time in the ‘D’ zone, you have much more energy for the ‘O’ zone. We have a fast and quick team and I think our defense has been doing an incredible job moving the puck up ice. We had a zillion chances again (Thursday) night.”

A three-game trip that begins in Salt Lake City against the Mammoth on Sunday afternoon and continues in Colorado (Tuesday) and Vegas (Thursday) will continue a stretch of eight straight matches against the Western Conference. Certainly, the three road dates will serve as a challenge when it comes to maintaining the current level of play.

“We have a lot of belief in this room that we will continue to do this,” said Hagel. “It will be a really big test on the road.”

Of course, sustaining excellence is much easier said than done over the longer haul.

“It is a crazy game,” said Cirelli. “You can’t get too high and you can’t get too low. We have to keep getting better in practice, watching video and taking it one day at a time.”

That is the only way to go about their business. At least for now, the Lightning are in a good spot.

“I am proud of the guys,” said Cooper. “They have dug in. We’re a different team right now. There is synergy and there is chemistry on the lines and everyone is picking each other up.”