Lightning Trapping Themselves

It is no secret the trap has always been a thorn in the Pittsburgh Penguins' side. Pens fans witnessed the New Jersey Devils suffocate a high octane Pittsburgh offense in the 2000-2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs after five games. Last year, the Penguins were outscored 22-5 in six regular season games against the Devils who played a trap style as well. The Minnesota Wild shutout the Penguins 4-0 in arguably the worst game this season for Pittsburgh. Even the offensive-minded Capitals shutout the Penguins using the trap in back to back 3-0 defeats. Those teams all contained three components that are key to the trap:



1) Puck moving defensemen



2) Solid goaltending

Victor Hedman: Good player. Really slow.


3) Quickness on the defensive side of the puck



With those three components outlined, it begs the question: Why are the Tampa Bay Lightning trapping? Granted they have used this style of play for most of the season which landed them a fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. However, the Lightning are missing two of the three aforementioned attributes needed for an effective trap. Victor Hedman is a promising young player who takes away a lot of space with his size at 6-6 220 lbs but he is a below average skater. Pavel Kubina is the Lightning's best offensive-defensemen, but he is way past his prime becoming 34 years old by the time Game 2 starts. In Game 1 we saw the weakness of the Tampa Bay defense when they turned the puck over countless times which eventually led to the first Penguin goal.



A Pavel Kubina turnover led to the first goal for Pittsburgh
Dwayne Roloson is the only player who fits in the trap system. He carried an 8th seeded Oilers team to a Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes. Although he is 41 years old, his age has not shown this year, including Game 1 on Wednesday. Everyone looks at Penguins goaltender Marc Andre Fleury as the goalie to carry his team past the first round and although Fleury stole the show in Game 1, Roloson was no slouch, stopping 37 of 39 shots.

The Lightning's strength is predicated on their high-powered offense with Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Steven Stamkos, Ryan Malone and Simon Gagne. With the skill of Stamkos and St. Louis, the speed of Dominic Moore and grit of Steve Downie and Simon Gagne, this team is built for an up-tempo offense with an aggressive forecheck. By playing the trap, you could argue they are slowing themselves down. A counter-punch team is usually reserved for a team that thinks defense first (see New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens). If the Lightning want to move deep into the playoffs, they need to feed their strengths with an appropriate system.



Remember when the Penguins used the trap in the 2008- 2009 season with Michel Therrien? After the Penguins lost to Toronto 5-2, dropping them into 13th place in the conference, Therrien was fired for Dan Bylsma. Disco Dan's system preached an aggressive forecheck to create turnovers in the offensive zone. After a few weeks, the Penguins perfected his system and the rest, as they say, is history. The reason for this change was from Bylsma's recognition of his team's strengths. His team did have a good goalie and average defense, but Bylsma knew the Penguins' strength was in their talented offensive players.



Unfortunately, it is too late in the season to implement a new system for Tampa Bay. This is not to say the Lightning will definitely lose this series or that they cannot be successful in the playoffs. But they are skating uphill by slowing themselves down. In Game 1, the Penguins chipped the puck off the boards and out skated the slow moving Tampa Bay defensemen to keep the puck deep in the zone. The Penguins will continue to wear down the Tampa Bay defense by using their speed and physicality to hit the Lightning blue liners over the course of the series. As this series wears on, the defense will get tired and the turnovers will become more frequent, playing into Bylsma's hands.

written by Jon Pennline