I know I’m pretty late with this article, since the game was released a few days ago, but I wanted to go over something that I think is pretty important. I want to talk a little bit about the Stars’ power play and how that helped them beat the Lightning.
I’m also going to mention what was different about Dallas’ power play that night and the rest of the NHL teams. They have a unique system that they were able to use against Tampa three times.
What I saw Saturday night from the Stars was a lot of chemistry from the defense to the offense. I’ll admit, Tampa Bay probably gave them too much time with the puck. But Dallas took every chance he could and moved the puck fast enough to confuse Tampa’s defenders.
On all three power play goals, Dallas passed the puck a lot. It was usually between two players, particularly Modano and Robidas. His system was simple and foolproof, and best of all, it was almost impossible for the Lightning to defend themselves.
The Stars what they did was they gave a lot of passes very fast, they kept passing until the Lightning was out of position. When the Lightnings were out of position, they fired. Dallas was able to force the defense to make a mistake.
The first goal was scored when the Sharks defender left Neil in front of the net. The defender was forced to cover the pass in front of the net and moved away from his original position. That original position was to cover Robidas’ shot. When the defender moved Robidas had an open shooting lane, Modano could see this and made the pass.
Dallas had another chance with just over 3 minutes left in the second half. Again, Tampa Bay made the same mistake of being forced to move to cover a pass. Robidas fired, but this time, Nabokov was able to save.
After the matchup, Dallas never let go of controlling the puck, they moved the puck from offense to defense and were once again able to force Tampa defenders out of position. This led to his second goal.
The third goal Dallas scored was simply poor defense by the Lightning. They can never leave two players so close to the net with only one defender in the area.
What I saw with Dallas’ power play is that he was focusing on movement. They were constantly moving the puck around and forcing the Lightning out of position. This is how a power play is supposed to be played. I went to NHL.com to see what the stars ranked this year for the power play, and they only ranked 14th.
I’m guessing, because I haven’t seen every game, that the Stars haven’t been able to do this in every game. But, his strategy in this game was quite simple. Move the puck until Tampa Bay makes a mistake. When Tampa Bay made a mistake, the Stars attacked.
