Lessons The Ottawa Senators Can Learn From the Tampa Bay Lightning
The NHL is and always has been a copycat league.
Typically when one style of play or roster-building method leads to Stanley Cup championships for certain franchises, most teams feel the need try and replicate their path to success.
The Ottawa Senators are no outsider to this trend. When the team announced its intention to rebuild in early 2018, management put a particular emphasis on speed and competitive nature, two standout traits of the then reigning champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Obviously, Ottawa is still short on Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin-type pieces, but the way their roster is developing is similar in style to what Pittsburgh was playing under Mike Sullivan when they won two straight Stanley Cups.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were crowned Stanley Cup Champions for the second consecutive year earlier this week, signaling the official beginning of the NHL off-season. There’s no doubt that most management teams in the NHL are sitting down and asking themselves how they too can reach the heights that the Lightning has in recent years.
While Tampa Bay is obviously blessed with some of the best high-end talent in the NHL, there are other elements to the way their roster was built that the Senators would be wise to take note of and consider when making moves this off-season.
Depth is Key
The Lightning have certainly not had an easy path to both of their Stanley Cup championship wins. What has put them above other teams though, is their contributions from every player on the roster.
Again, the team is fortunate to have the likes of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Victor Hedman to carry the bulk of their matchups. However, the contributions of their bottom-six forwards and depth defencemen can not be understated.
In particular, the media has focused a lot on the forward line of Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, and Barclay Goodrow. This trio was essential in shutting down top opponents at even strength, as well as being integral pieces to Tampa Bay’s special teams. Even those who didn’t get much media attention like Patrick Maroon, Ross Colton, or Mathieu Joseph were very effective when slotted into the lineup, and provided really solid depth scoring, particularly in the final.
Even on defence, the Lightning have players like David Savard and Eric Cernak playing on their second and third pairings, when the argument could be made they’d be bona fide top pairing players on the Senators right now. Obviously being millions of dollars over the cap helps in this situation, but it’s simply smart loophole management.
While many Ottawa fans are pleased with the development of some of the team’s young stars, it’s obvious that they don’t yet have anything close to the kind of depth that the Lightning have. The Senators’ defence may actually be closer to this, as most prospect gurus will agree that they are relatively loaded on prospects at the back. Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson, and Erik Brannstrom will be the backbone of Ottawa’s defence in any future playoff run.
Getting closer to that forward group would obviously be aided by the drafting or acquisition of an elite scorer to compliment Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk at the top of the lineup, thus pushing players like Drake Batherson, Connor Brown, and Nick Paul into more natural roles. Pierre Dorion has already tried to address this in some way with the acquisition of Evgenii Dadonov last year, but the Senators depth is still far off from what it needs to be, and bolstering it should be a key objective this off-season. The Senators have the money and roster space, but whether or not Eugene Melnyk approves that kind of necessary spending is a different story.
If they want to go full copycat, Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow are both unrestricted free agents this summer.
Versatility
Something truly special about this Tampa Bay Lightning team was their ability to adapt to every opponent they played and beat them in any style. Whether it was the high-scoring Florida Panthers, well-rounded Boston Bruins, defensively sound New York Islanders, or the gritty Montreal Canadiens, the Lightning were able to win in every way possible.
This goes hand-in-hand with the team’s depth. They can outscore any opponent, grind them down physically, or play tight-checking and defensive hockey. It also helps to have a Conn Smythe winning goaltender in net to steal a couple of games when everyone is off the pace.
Luckily for Senators fans, it looks like this is already something Pierre Dorion might be trying to build. Those who regularly watch the Senators are well aware of their physical presence every night, and the team is beginning to shape up better defensively as top prospects grow on the backend, and some of their young forwards learn to play a two-way game.
The only two areas the Senators may still be lacking is in their ability to score at an elite level or have a goalie who can steal them games. As mentioned, the team still looks like it’s lacking another significant scorer up front. With the flat cap causing many big names to become available this summer, it may be a good time for Pierre Dorion to dip into the team’s wealth of prospects and picks to make them more formidable up front.
The emergence of both Filip Gustavsson and Joey Daccord is easing minds in the goaltending department, but it’s relatively impossible to speculate on what this part of the team is going to look like until after the expansion draft. Perhaps a resurgent Matt Murray could recapture his cup-winning form down the line and guide the Senators to some extra wins along the way, Given his play during his debut Senators season, nobody is holding their breath.
Ottawa may have the chance to address either of these needs with the 10th overall pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft, with rumoured interest in forwards Chaz Lucius and Cole Sillinger, or through top eligible goaltender Jesper Wallstedt.
However the Senators choose to go about improving the versatility of their team, it’s visibly apparent that they do so. One dimensional teams like the Montreal Canadiens make for nice runs and good stories, but if the Senators goal is to be consistently good for many years like the Tampa Bay Lightning, they’ll need to be able to win in a variety of ways,
Best Players Earning Their Money
When Ottawa once again reaches the post, fans will be able to see what exactly their core is made of. It can go one of two ways:
- The Tampa Bay route: Their young stars can embrace the post-season, and flourish under the pressure of being a play-off team, leading to success every spring.
- The Toronto route: Their young stars can fail to seize the moment(s) when it comes, leading to a consistent cycle of disappointment.
Senators fans that enjoy spending their free time dunking on their provincial rivals in Toronto will be hoping the likes of Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, and Tim Stützle among others, take the first route and allow fans to taste the success that they have so long craved from this team. If they don’t, then Ottawa too will be subject to ridicule from all over.
This in many ways is a cop-out of a lesson, but one that does still need to be emphasized. While Tampa Bay have won two championships on the back of their depth and versatility, they wouldn’t be anywhere without their stars producing when it counts. Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman and the rest of the core have all been stars in both playoff runs, and none of them have folded under the pressure.
This is by far the least controllable or predictable of the lessons that the Senators can learn from the Lightning. It is worth saying that the compete level and desire from players, coaches, and management in Ottawa has been evident in everything they’ve spoken about since the rebuild began. Whether or not they can truly back up this talk remains to be seen, but establishing a winning mindset in the early parts of this transition can go a long way.