Hiding Jonathan Drouin on the Bench a Big Risk for the Tampa Bay Lightning

NEW YORK — Jon Cooper is caught between a rock and a hard place with Jonathan Drouin.

The Tampa Bay Lightning need to create more offense if they are to defeat the New York Rangers in four of the next six games in the Eastern Conference Final. One goal—a power-play goal—on 24 shots in Game 1 didn’t cut it and won’t be sufficient moving forward.

The Lightning haven’t cracked 30 shots in their past six games. They haven’t scored more than two even-strength goals in a game that didn’t involve an empty-netter since Game 6 of the first round against the Detroit Red Wings. They have 10 five-on-five goals over their past seven games.

Scott Audette/Getty Images

"If we want to advance," Cooper said, "we're going to need more than the Triplets to score."

The Triplets—Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat—were responsible for the Tampa's only goal in Game 1 and have 18 goals in the playoffs. Steven Stamkos has three goals and 10 points in 14 games.

Beyond that, there's not much happening for the Lightning.

Drouin, the third overall pick in the 2013 draft, is a gifted, creative player, capable of bringing much-needed offense when in a top-six role. He is also an undersized rookie capable of backbreaking mistakes, the type of errors born out of inexperience. That's Cooper's dilemma.

So what does he do? Continue to roll the dice and hope the deciding goal bounces off his player’s shin pads, and not Dominic Moore’s, and into the net? Or insert Drouin in the hopes he will spark a few extra scoring chances for his team, rendering the Lightning less susceptible to the lucky bounce?

Left wing	Center	Right wing
Alex Killorn	Valtteri Filppula	Steven Stamkos
Ondrej Palat	Tyler Johnson	Nikita Kucherov
Jonathan Marchessault	Cedric Paquette	Ryan Callahan
Brenden Morrow	Vlad Namestnikov	J.T. Brown

“As a coaching staff, ultimately, it's my decision who goes in the lineup, and that's it,” Cooper said Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. “It's talked about and then finally the decision is made. ‘Who are the 20 guys that we think are going to help us win tonight?’ Sometimes he's in that 20. Sometimes he's not.

“Offensive skills, there is no question he's fun to watch. But, again, it's where a guy is going to fit. What situations are they going to play in? What roles are they going to play in? There is more than one net in a rink. There's two. So you have to be able to play in front of both of them."

Drouin has appeared in three games this postseason. He has zero points and a Corsi percentage in the high-30s. It’s not as though the 20-year-old has made the most of his opportunities, although he has played fewer than 10 minutes in two of three games in a bottom-six role.

At full strength, the Lightning may not have any room for Drouin, whether the team is scoring four a game or two per game. But they had an opening for Drouin before Game 6 against the Canadiens, when Ryan Callahan needed an emergency appendectomy, and again before Game 1 against the Rangers, when Brian Boyle was unavailable with an undisclosed injury.

Cooper turned to Jonathan Marchessault, an undrafted 24-year-old who was fourth in scoring in the AHL this season with 67 points in 68 games. Marchessault has played four career NHL games, two of which have come in this postseason on the Lightning’s third line.

Is Marchessault a better player than Drouin? No, but he’s a better player right now in the role Cooper has him, a role Cooper trusts more to the undrafted guy than the third pick in the 2013 draft.

Nothing is for sure in hockey, a sport in which luck should win the Hart Trophy and Conn Smythe every season. But the writing has been on the wall for the Lightning since the second round—they are getting dominated at five-on-five and not scoring enough goals. If Boyle can’t play in Game 2 or this series, icing the same lineup they had in Game 1 is tantamount to waving a white flag.

The Lightning have to try something different.

"You look across the hall, and they haven't scored a ton of goals in the playoffs, but they're getting a balanced attack from a lot of guys," Cooper said of the Rangers. "It's not the Rick Nashes that have scored every single night. They've had other guys chip in. And they're advancing, and that's how we're going to have to do it is we need more guys to chip in."

If Drouin isn’t capable of being effective in a third- or fourth-line role, hide him in plain sight on the top line, which is sort of what Alain Vigneault is doing with Martin St. Louis. Move Stamkos, as secretly injured as he may be, back to center, put Drouin on his wing and let Valtteri Filppula create matchup problems on the third line.

Stamkos’ line was dominated in Game 1; how could it be any worse with Drouin there for Game 2?

“Everybody makes mistakes at one end or the other,” Cooper said. “But you just can't sit there and concentrate and say 'this guy's really good at this.' Maybe he goes in. You've got to look at the big picture.”

The big picture is the league's highest-scoring team in the regular season is not scoring enough in the postseason. Drouin may not be the answer, but he should at the very least be part of the answer.

All statistics via NHL.com and war-on-ice.com unless otherwise noted.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.