It lacks creativity and needs players to move themselves, puck around.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published December 23, 2003
BOSTON - It is a hockey player's worst nightmare, and Dave Andreychuk said it gripped him after Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Stars.
Losing is bad enough, the Lightning captain said. It is disturbing, though, when you believe you have not done everything possible to win.
"It is the worst feeling you can have," Andreychuk said Monday. "A lot of us felt we could have done something different."
Such as score on the power play.
The Lightning was 0-for-7 against Dallas. Worse, it wasted 2 minutes, 50 seconds during two power plays in which it played five-on-three. The entire 1:03 of the second five-on-three was played without a shot on goal.
A perfect example of a power play that has lost its way.
Tampa Bay has converted just 10 of 106 opportunities in its past 23 games (9.4 percent), and it is 2-for-27 in its past five (7.4 percent).
Compare that to its first seven games in which it scored 10 power-play goals in 41 chances (24.4 percent).
Tampa Bay was 6-0-1 with the power play firing, 8-11-3-1 since it began to struggle.
"We have a lot of skill players out there," defenseman Dan Boyle said. "It's just a matter of finding a way to get it done."
What the Lightning needs is someone other than Andreychuk willing to stand in front of the net. It needs to find a way to get shots to the net from the point or the side walls. And it needs to create shooting lanes by puck movement and movement by players without the puck.
Martin St. Louis took some heat for turning the puck over while playing point against the Stars. But had his teammates moved more within the offensive zone, shooting or passing lanes could have developed.
"Really, on both of them we were like robots," coach John Tortorella said of the five-on-threes. "We were almost frozen. Your best players are on the ice and they have to have some creativity too. We're just not getting that."
Difficult to say why the Lightning has gotten so discombobulated.
Maybe the 9-0 rout of the Penguins was too easy. Maybe the fast start created a false sense of security that began chipping away at the team's edge.
There is pressure to get that edge back. When it goes, confidence can go with it.
And there is this:
"I think you have confidence on one side and you have giving in to it on the other side," Tortorella said. "I think with a number of our guys, it has nothing to do with confidence right now. I think it's on the other side."
But does the Lightning, which faces the Bruins tonight at the FleetCenter, need creativity or to get back to the basics?
Creating traffic in front of the net is as much willingness as planning. And getting shots through to the net is as much a result of puck and player movement as winding up and firing.
"I think it goes hand in hand," left wing Cory Stillman said. "The shots have to get through. But if you get a guy in front of the net and a guy on him, now you're playing four-on-three and there should be some more room. You've got to battle in front of the net and score some rebound goals."
"The way we're struggling, our first thought should be to throw pucks on the net whatever way you can," Andreychuk said. "It doesn't have to be a one-timer trying to score. You can have somebody in front of the net and if you don't get the shots, it's kind of useless. Our mind-set should be we're going to get shots."
"Even if you don't score," Boyle said, "you can turn the momentum of the game."
Sounds easy. And Andreychuk said it looks easy when the team watches videotape. Difficult was the realization of opportunities wasted against the Stars.
"It was like giving away two points," Andreychuk said.
