For all the complaining fans and the media that the players are boring interviews, it is lost that about a dozen of the league’s coaches are absolute sound machines. This includes the two men at the helm of Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Rangers, John Cooper and Gerard Galant, respectively. After Game 4, they gave a few more Class A jokes, some of which reminded us that this coaching thing is not rocket surgery.
John Cooper for the very good power play of the Rangers:
I spoke to the captain today. Apparently, he said, “Keep them out of the game and that will probably help your game.”
Convenient man for the staff, this captain Obviously.
Galant, meanwhile, asked this question:
“Is there anything you can say to Mika (Zibanedjad) about being more effective against the Cireli line?”
To which he replied:
“I tell him to be more efficient all the time, Mika. Seriously, ask the question better than that. Don’t you think I’m talking to our players? Whatever you do, they will work hard, Sirelli will try to close them in the best way. Everyone has a control line, that’s how it goes, you have to fight things. But Mika is a professional player in the hockey league and he’s really good at it. “
I would like to emphasize that the answer was lighter than what is read in plain text, but still the idea of both is that you can do so much at this point. Do the obvious things better than your opposition. The boys know what their job is, it’s too late in the year to overhaul the systems, so once you’ve made your lineup decisions, the next big thing is to understand the implementation of these bodies in the game and then a lot of tinkering.
It’s that simple, isn’t it?
But I think Cooper likes to represent this front more than he lives it. The attitude he shows here disproves how much he really does behind the scenes to change the look of his team as the series continues. He is not afraid to make changes before they seem obligatory and obvious, while the opponent’s coaches are more inclined to enter several games in a series, to feel comfortable with what they expect from their opposition, and then continue to fight.
“Stay out of the box” aside, the Bolts penalty changed, as their D turned more to Zibanedjad, who spent the first few games of the series, hitting one-off players from the flank, as if it were Alex Ovechkin. But Cooper also decided to move Stephen Stamkos to the center, hoping to find more attacks, which is exactly what he has, and since then Stamkos’ teams have created many chances and several goals. Cooper switches between dressing 11 D and 7 forward to 12 and 6, compensating for how thin the band looked forward when someone was injured or half-lame.
The point is that Cooper is always doing something, and that was a topic that Brian Engblom – Lightning analyst for Bally Sports and two-time Cup champion – spoke on our radio show today.
To sum up, Engblom believes that Lightning (justifiably) has a reputation in the Toronto and Florida series as this great blockade of strikes and defense and started the Rangers series, trying to be the same group, after all, it works ), but this led to the fact that they are on their heels. Each series has its own different taste and the Rangers have a unique style. Cooper and Lightning realized that you couldn’t just keep saying, “Well, we just have to play our game,” and they went out of their shell to play a more offensive version of their game, which led to less time for puck for the Rangers Stars.
With Cooper and the Lightning, they seem to spend a few games waiting for a series to see what their opponent is about and how the game will work, and then make that first fix or two, usually somewhere around Game 3 or 4. They constantly found something in the middle of the series that broke the opponent’s defense, releasing Tampa’s attack, which suddenly interrupted the game widely for a clear victory in the stress of all other matches.
At this point, the opposition is left to react to any correction, to correct itself, and to begin to feel as if they are being persecuted. Maybe this counter-correction works for one game, but Cooper always dictates the next chess after banking the “easy” one. In this series, without home ice, the use of Cirelli as a pure pool in games 3 and 4 confused the Rangers’ crime. We’ll see how Tampa chooses to adapt to the road in Game 5.
If you go back through the two Bolts Cup series and their 10 post-season wins this season, this trend to find something with a change in the middle of the series is clear.
In 2019, Tampa won the Presidential Trophy with a billion points, downloaded the Blue Jackets wild card, and when things started to get worse, they didn’t do enough to adjust to understand it, instead they were confident in what they were. did all year round. They lost incredibly (and not just lost, they were swept away, which had to be humiliating). The following year, they tied Columbus again in Round 1 and make no mistake, these matches were knockdowns, drag-outs, single-goal wins that forced Lightning to play a different style than they preferred. They won with the desire to adapt to the type of series they were in and find their own way. Since then, the desire for change and adaptation has manifested itself in every series around game 3 or 4, where they tune in first and score a bunch, and win a distance match, almost always with at least three goals.
It may be a bit selective to choose Game 3 here or Game 5 there, but the question is this: for some reason, in the middle of an otherwise fiercely contested series, there always seems to be a game where things are going well. they go, with Tampa Bay outperforming their opponent by an average of 5.4 to 1.7, one of those testimonials “thank you for coming out, but we’re better.”
For the first time in this final of the Eastern Conference, you can feel this mood.
The Rangers still have a lot of work to do here. They were in the series when this game happened to them, which means it’s only level now. They have a type of goalkeeper who can steal one or two “deserved” victories, even if the Bolts find their way. They have the advantage of home ice, which should cancel Cirelli’s match if it lasts seven. It is not impossible to take this series yet.
But in Game 4, it began to feel like Lightning had found him again, as if their adjustments had made the Rangers chase a bit, and it was up to Gerard Galant and New York to counter, adjust to the adjustment, and find their own way back.
If the plan is simply to leave it to professionals like Mika Zibanedjad – because remember that it’s not as complicated as both coaches told us – without making some changes, they will have big problems. just. Cooper can cover up a lot of things in the media, and there’s often an excuse for that. But make no mistake, Lightning has changed as it has become their MO over the years and we saw these effects in Game 4.
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