Mikheyev-Girgensons-Holmberg Line:<\/p>\n
One of the biggest storylines from last season\u2019s 106-point campaign was the Lightning\u2019s matchup line of Yanni Gourde, Zemgus Girgensons, and Pontus Holmberg. Jon Cooper often used that unit against the opposition\u2019s best forward line. Unfortunately, Holmberg\u2019s injury late in the regular season kept him out of the Lightning\u2019s first-round series against Montreal.<\/p>\n
This year, the Lightning announced on the first day of camp that Gourde would be out until December as he recovered from offseason surgery. What would this mean for Girgensons and Holmberg? Would the Lightning be able to find a third player so that they could use the line in a similar fashion?<\/p>\n
The answer, at least through the first five games, has been yes. Since the second game, Ilya Mikheyev has joined that line. Mikheyev has played left wing, with Girgensons moving to center (where Gourde played last year, although center is Girgensons\u2019 natural position), and Holmberg at right wing. As Cooper did throughout last season, he\u2019s matched that line against the opponent\u2019s best offensive players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The three players have met the challenge. Not only have they finished plus or even in all four games, but they\u2019ve often dictated play and forced the other team to play without the puck in the defensive zone. This was a hallmark of last year\u2019s unit with Gourde. Against Philadelphia, the three players accounted for two goals and five points. But even when they haven\u2019t scored, they\u2019ve helped the Lightning drive play and neutralize the opposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Playoff Pace Metric:<\/p>\n
Every year in this column, I mention (usually several times) the 12-points-in-10-games metric that has been a reliable indicator of playoff qualification. Generating 12 points in every 10-game segment gets a team to 96 points after 80 games, and then there were two extra games to add to the total.<\/p>\n
Only four times (under the current playoff format system that\u2019s been in place since the 2013-14 season) did a team reach 96 points and fail to qualify, and no team exceeding 96 ever missed the playoffs. In most years, the final wildcard qualifier in both conferences finished below 96.<\/p>\n
Beginning in 2026-27, the NHL lengthened the schedule to 84 games, adding two more contests. This may affect the final point totals of the qualifying teams\u2014maybe teams need to exceed 98 instead of 96?\u2014but it wouldn\u2019t seem to change the playoff pace formula.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Time will tell. What\u2019s clear is that the Lightning have gotten off to a good start, not just in terms of their standings position but also regarding playoff pace. They\u2019ve picked up eight points through five games.<\/p>\n
Even in the strongest of divisions, a club that takes care of its own business will set itself up for qualification, no matter what else is happening with its rivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikheyev-Girgensons-Holmberg Line: One of the biggest storylines from last season\u2019s 106-point campaign was the Lightning\u2019s matchup line of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-425139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425139","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=425139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}