The Lightning have spent much of the season trying to solve a quiet problem that kept showing up in plain sight: faceoffs. It’s the kind of detail that can slip past casual viewers, but not the coaches, and not a team that was regularly losing more than half its draws and still trying to build cleaner shifts.
That work has started to show up in the results. Over their last three games entering Saturday’s matchup at Utah, the Lightning posted three of their best faceoff performances of the year: 62% against Vancouver last Saturday, 57% Tuesday at Vegas and 59% Friday at Colorado. Those numbers helped lift Tampa Bay to 20th in the NHL in faceoff win percentage.
The turnaround didn’t happen by accident. During last week’s homestand, the Lightning brought in Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, the organization’s recently hired player development specialist, to work with players on faceoffs after practices and morning skates. Bellemare logged nearly 6,700 faceoffs in his NHL career and won 51.5% of them, including 51% in his two seasons with Tampa Bay as a fourth-line center and penalty-killing forward.
“Having ‘Belly’ out there on the ice sheet helps a ton,” assistant coach Dan Hinote said. “Faceoffs can be a lot, and ‘Belly’’s taken it by the horns.
That was what he did. That’s what he’s passionate about.
So it’s easy for him to, you know, give these guys a good education on it.”
The early-season numbers were rough. In their first seven games, the Lightning topped the 50% mark only once, when they won 63% of their draws in the home opener against the Capitals on Oct.
- Through that stretch, they were sitting near the bottom of the league at 45.3%.
Individual improvement has helped drive the rise. Zemgus Girgensons, who moved to center this season because of Yanni Gourde’s hip injury, has become Tampa Bay’s most reliable faceoff option.
He opened the year at 45.3% and entered Saturday winning 56.5% of his draws. Over the previous three games, he was even better at 31 for 52, or 59.6%.
Anthony Cirelli has also turned things around. He started at 47.3% and was 33 for 52, a 63.5% clip, over the previous three games. That matters because Girgensons and Cirelli are handling plenty of defensive-zone draws and penalty-kill work, and Cirelli has also been used more on offensive-zone faceoffs with the first power-play unit.
Brayden Point has joined the uptick, too. He was at 43.3% through the first seven games, then won 64% of his draws over the previous three, going 16 for 25. That’s especially important for Tampa Bay because Point is the team’s only right-handed center.
Still, faceoffs are only part of the equation. The Lightning’s lack of righties means Cirelli and Girgensons are often taking draws on their weak sides after icing calls and on the power play, which puts more pressure on the wingers and defensemen to clean up the puck battles that follow. Hinote said that’s been a major focus.
“That’s been a big factor for us,” Hinote said. “We count it as a battle stat.
So when those dirty pucks are laying there, you have to have the pride. ... And that changes your whole shift.“
“If you’re out there for 45 seconds, you lose that draw, 15 of it at least is probably going to be played under duress. You win that draw, and you could spend the 45 with the puck. So it’s that just impressing upon the wingers and the D how important it is to win that position battle and how it can change your shift.”
Away from the ice, there’s also been chatter around Dylan Larkin. With the Jets having traded goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to New Jersey, the question now is whether Larkin, his Team USA teammate, might soon get his wish out of Detroit. The Lightning are reportedly one of 10 teams Larkin is willing to join in order to waive his no-move clause.
Tampa Bay’s history with Detroit and former Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman would normally make for an easy connection, but Yzerman is no longer there. And it feels like it would take a lot for the Red Wings to help a division rival land Larkin, especially with Florida also on his list.
His cap hit is $8.7 million for this season and the next four, and that’s a tough fit for the Lightning right now. They have $3.1 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia, so any deal would likely require salary retention unless Tampa Bay moves out a significant contract. Julien BriseBois, though, appears more inclined to wait, let the cap space grow, get a clearer picture of the team’s biggest need and then look for help at the trade deadline.
The Jets’ return in the Hellebuyck deal offers one possible template. They brought in three NHL players, one unsigned draft pick and two future picks, and they didn’t surrender a future first-round pick.
They also received Alexander Command, New Jersey’s first-round pick last season who remains unsigned, giving them some upside. The NHL pieces - Dawson Mercer, Nick Bjugstad and Nico Daws - are not exactly marquee names, which suggests a Larkin deal might not require top prospects or a future first-rounder.
One prospect is clearly off limits, though. “I emphasize Sam O’Reilly is going nowhere.” Along with Dominic James, Conor Geekie and Benjamin Rautiainen, he remains part of the next wave the Lightning are counting on to keep this group in contention.
In Other News...
Lightning Get A Harsh Reminder Against The NHLs Best
The Lightning ran into the kind of night that can remind a team just how sharp the NHLs best can be. Colorado beat Tampa Bay 6-3 in Denver, with the Avalanche getting goals from Martin Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews, Nazem Kadri and Fedor Svechkov while Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 31 shots behind them.
Jake Guentzel gave Tampa Bay a pair of goals, but the Lightning could not keep pace once Colorado settled in and started tilting the game. Nathan MacKinnon was right at the center of it throughout, setting the tone for the Avalanche offense and leaving Tampa Bay with another look at the margin for error it faces against an elite opponent. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Affiliate Showed Serious Fight But One Problem Still Lingers
The Syracuse Crunch showed plenty of push in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Rochester Americans at Upstate Medical University Arena, rallying late in the third period just to keep the night alive. Brendan Furry and Ethan Gauthier handled the scoring, while Lucas Mercuri and Dylan Duke each set up two goals as Syracuse found a way to make a tight game out of it.
Still, the lingering issue was the same one that has a way of deciding these margin-of-error nights, because Rochester needed only a brief opening in extra time to end it. Syracuse got the point and the comeback effort it wanted, but the Crunch will have to live with a game that was there for the taking before the overtime finish tipped it the other way. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Exposed A Bigger Problem In This Loss To Colorado
The Lightnings 6-3 loss to Colorado was more than just another blemish on the schedule. Tampa Bay gave up an early goal and spent most of the night chasing the game, even as Jake Guentzel provided a spark with two goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots, but the Avalanche kept finding ways through, with Nathan MacKinnon driving the pace and forcing the Lightning into a reactive game for much of the night.
What made the defeat sting was how little margin Tampa Bay had once Colorado settled in. The Avalanches top line dictated the flow, and the Lightning never really solved it, leaving the larger issue front and center as the game wore on. For a club that expects more from its defensive structure, the concern is not just the result itself but how quickly the cracks showed once Colorado turned up the pressure. [Read more 🡒]