5 reasons why the Tampa Bay Lightning can win the Stanley Cup
By Simon Vacca
4. The special teams units
Having ushered forth the most productive power play of the 2018-19 campaign, the Lightning shall look to use its man advantage to a high degree of success over the course of the postseason.
The Bolts’ man advantage has found the back of the net approximately 28.5% of the time during which it has been employed. This is largely due to the club’s ability to set an effective 1-3-1 formation into motion — the first (and most productive) unit of which is championed by the likes of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, J.T. Miller and Victor Hedman, with the second piloted by Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Mathieu Joseph, Tyler Johnson and Mikhail Sergachev. All of these players have put up more than 25 points this season, with the aforementioned Kucherov, Stamkos and Point amassing 121, 93 and 90 points, respectively.
Yet what truly allows the Bolts to overwhelm other franchises is its capacity to play a steady 200-foot game. Often under-discussed — and equally underrated — is the team’s mastery of the art of penalty killing. Behind only the Arizona Coyotes, the Lightning have the second-best power play kill percentage in the league at 85.3%.
Indeed, Tampa’s special teams units are the epitome of the sport’s finest. What, then, does this reveal about the quality of the players at hand?