DENVER – Sweeping the Edmonton Oilers to the Western Conference Finals, the Colorado Avalanche was bought nine days to study the Tampa Bay Lightning and work out a plan to bring down the champions.
Head coach Jared Bednar and his staff examined the three Tampa series on their way to the championship round, delving into the weaknesses that other Lightning opponents could have exploited.
Why couldn’t the Florida Panthers ever win a place in Round 2? What did the New York Rangers do well to win Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals? And why did the Rangers ’success dry up so significantly as that series went deep, with Lightning limiting New York to just one goal of equal strength over the last four games?
“They’re very comfortable playing in these tight control games,” Bednar says. “The more controlled and controlled game on their side favors them.
Of the last six opponents in the Lightning playoffs, no team has broken the stifling style of champions as regularly as the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto is the only club to have beaten the Lightning (24-23) during its remarkable 11-game winning streak.
So Bednar spent most of his time analyzing that seven-game first-round game.
“It simply came to our notice then. It was a dynamic series. And I see a lot of similarities in the Leafs game, the staff, with ours, “Bednar says.” Some of the things they do with the record in their offensive strategy, structure, tactics, whatever you want to call it, similarities “.
Like Toronto, the Avalanche is loaded with high-end elite talent. Both teams prioritize disk possession and use their speed for quick counterattacks.
Both are more likely to win the game 4-3 than 2-1.
Neither is as rigorous as Tampa, and the high-scoring nature of Leafs-Lightning’s tilt (47 goals in seven games, easily the most in any series during Tampa’s career) surely makes Bednar have the hope to continue with his high-pitched tone. The team thrived during Game 1.
Bednar noticed the resemblance his club play to Sheldon Keefe’s during his meetings with the Leafs this season, when the teams combined for 20 goals in just two games.
“We learned that by playing against them this year. So they’re very successful,” Bednar says. “It’s difficult to score against that goal [Andrei] Vasilevsky and Tampa, as they argue. But [the Leafs] We had a very strong push along, pushes that we looked at very closely. “