{"id":29249,"date":"2025-11-01T13:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/29249\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T13:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:05:13","slug":"tampa-bay-lightnings-low-risk-style-leading-to-a-zillion-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/29249\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning\u2019s Low-Risk Style Leading To A \u2018Zillion\u2019 Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stars<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel (38) breaks away from Dallas Stars left wing Adam Erne (73) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O’Meara)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cKuch has 1,000 points and I was on the unit 90 percent of the time last year and couldn\u2019t find one,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

Kucherov\u2019s 1000th point<\/a>? 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. <\/p>\n

Tampa Bay\u2019s 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\u2019s first five or six games. Coach Jon Cooper, who is approaching 1,000 games<\/a> behind the Bolts\u2019 bench, likened the start to an unwanted extension to the preseason schedule. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe beginning of the year sucked and we put ourselves in a hole that we are not out of yet,\u201d he said, following the 2-1 win over Dallas that Cirelli decided in overtime to lift the Lightning to 5-4-2. <\/p>\n

What changed? <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken so much risk out of our game,\u201d said Cooper, noting how such a level of responsibility has trickled down through the roster. \u201cThere was too much risk (earlier) and we were feeding other teams\u2019 rushes, feeding them chances. We changed the way we played. We changed the mentality, and the losses turned into wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving up the ice<\/p>\n

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 in shot attempts 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\u2019s most recent loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame we came out of that game without any points,\u201d said Cooper.<\/p>\n

Hagel attributes lengthy stretches of dominating play to quickly moving the puck out of the defensive zone. That\u2019s where it all begins. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018D\u2019 is doing an incredible job of getting the puck up the ice and letting the forwards (maintain) their speed,\u201d said the 27-year-old, who had a game-high 11 shot attempts versus the Stars. \u201cBeing able to get the puck out and not spending as much time in the \u2018D\u2019 zone. When you do not spend as much time in the \u2018D\u2019 zone, you have much more energy for the \u2018O\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of belief in this room that we will continue to do this,\u201d said Hagel. \u201cIt will be a really big test on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, sustaining excellence is much easier said than done over the longer haul.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a crazy game,\u201d said Cirelli. \u201cYou can\u2019t get too high and you can\u2019t get too low. We have to keep getting better in practice, watching video and taking it one day at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the only way to go about their business. At least for now, the Lightning are in a good spot. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of the guys,\u201d said Cooper. \u201cThey have dug in. We\u2019re a different team right now. There is synergy and chemistry on the lines and everyone is picking each other up.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel (38) breaks away from Dallas Stars left wing Adam Erne (73)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16551,16557,21514,5691,16976,135,862,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-29249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-anthony-cirelli","9":"tag-brandon-hagel","10":"tag-jon-cooper","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nikita-kucherov","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}