Solidifying Defense Carrying Tampa Bay Lightning Far in NHL Playoffs

They entered Joe Louis Arena earlier this week the hockey equivalent of dead men walking.

The Tampa Bay Lightning came into Detroit for Game 6 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series as the afterthought in the Tampa sports hierarchy. The Buccaneers would be drafting first on Thursday, so the above-the-fold focus of the Tampa papers was whether the franchise would use its first overall pick on Jameis Winston or not.

The Lightning? They blew it in Game 5 at home, so how much hope was there from that point?

There was enough, it turned out.

Before the Buccaneers took Winston, the Lightning took Games 6 and 7 against the Red Wings. Friday night at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the Lightning extended its playoff win streak to three with a 2-1 double-overtime victory in Game 1 of its Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Canadiens.

Including the regular season, Tampa Bay is now 6-0 against Les Habitants. Tampa Bay continues to win without anything under the "G" portion of the scoring sheet from Steven Stamkos, who is now goalless after eight playoff games.

Francois Lacasse/Getty Images

Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop out-dueled Montreal's Carey Price in Game 1. He made 44 saves, while Price made 35. Nikita Kucherov won it 2:06 into the second OT.

Here are a few $64,000 questions (or about $53,000 under the latest U.S.-Canadian dollar exchange rate): How can the Lightning keep winning games with nothing from Stamkos? On the other hand, these are the Canadiens, who have now scored five goals in the last five postseason games. Can Bishop keep winning games like this? We know Price can, but at what point will he wilt without support from the attack? 

Canadiens coach Michel Therrien better figure out something fast, because his team is rapidly looking like one that, unless Price paints a shutout or a one-hitter, can't win it all.

Therrien spent part of his postgame address to the media complaining about a non-call on an alleged offside prior to Kucherov's goal, per ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun:

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Habs head coach Michel Therrien says he's frustrated that the OT goal was off-side on the zone entry. Says he's really frustrated.

— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) May 2, 2015"

“It’s frustrating," Therrien said, according to Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette. “It’s one thing when you lose on a judgement call but an offside is black and white and to me it was clearly offside.”

OK, so Valtteri Filppula really was offside on the play. But instead of blaming the refs, Therrien should spend more time trying to teach his team how to score goals. Among the eight Eastern Conference playoff teams, Montreal's 221 goals were tied with Pittsburgh for fewest scored. His team went 0-of-3 on the power play in this one, now 1-of-23 in the playoffs.

But on the offside call, even Lightning beat writer Erik Erlendsson of The Tampa Bay Tribune saw things the same way Therrien did:

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Looks like #tblightning got away with a missed off side call on the game winning goal, Therrien not pleased

— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) May 2, 2015"

So the Bolts got away with one there. Anyone from Montreal want to start bemoaning the fates on single calls from referees? Oh really? OK, play the video of Carey Price's bobbled non-save that only a premature whistle saved from being counted as a goal in Ottawa the other day. Right.

For the Lightning, they also haven't produced much offense lately. But the Bolts have started to get great goaltending from Bishop when they've really needed it.

Tampa Bay is winning because of defense, not offense. While the latter's struggles are alarming, the former is perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the team's playoff run to this point. Defenseman Victor Hedman has been just tremendous as the top guy on the Lightning blue line. Honestly, he would get a vote from me as a Conn Smythe candidate if the playoffs ended today.

Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

And what else can be said about Tyler Johnson? The Lightning center scored the only goal of regulation for his team. He is actually the guy who would win the Conn Smythe if the voting were held Friday night. 

Both teams need more scoring to get where they want in the end. Montreal can't expect Price to do all the work every night. Tampa Bay needs its superstar scorer, Stamkos, to help make things easier on Bishop and the defense.

Both teams are trying to do it the hard way right now. Tampa Bay has found a way to succeed that way, but just barely. That's why they are still walking, and others are being frozen out in their wake.