Maybe the Bolts are the defensive juggernaut opponents should worry about

To reach the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in franchise history and first time since 2015, the Tampa Bay Lightning have defeated some of the top defensive teams in the National Hockey League along the way.

In the First Round, the Lightning got a cathartic win moving past a Columbus team regarded as maybe the most blue collar and hard-working in the League. The Blue Jackets ranked tied for third in the 2019-20 regular season for goals against per game (2.61) and shockingly swept the Lightning from the Stanley Cup Playoffs the season prior after the Bolts tied the League record for most regular season wins (62).
Tampa Bay took out Boston in five games in the Second Round. The Bruins won the Presidents' Trophy as the team that finished with the most points during the regular season and were the best team defensively, at least statistically, in the NHL, ranking first for goals against (2.39) in the regular season.
The New York Islanders were built for defensive-minded, playoff-style hockey under shut-down tactician head coach Barry Trotz. The Islanders ranked fourth among all League teams for goals against in the playoffs (2.32) and are regarded as one of the most stubborn outfits to try to break down.

The Lightning handled the Islanders in six games, winning two of those games with scoring only two goals in each.
The path to hoisting the Stanley Cup doesn't get any easier in the last round. Tampa Bay's opponent in the Cup Final, the Dallas Stars, were the second-best team in the NHL for least goals allowed during the regular season (2.52). And the Stars have a defense corps that can hurt opponents offensively too, Miro Heiskanen leading all NHL blueliners for scoring this postseason with 22 points and teammate John Klingberg not too far behind with 16 points, tied for third most among League defensemen.
"We're playing the defensive juggernauts of this league, and so it's just going to be another challenge," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said of his team's opponent in the Stanley Cup Final. "Goals will be at a premium, and we've got to find a way to get more than them. It's going to be a challenge because from the goalie on out, they're an extremely strong defensive team."
But maybe the story for the Lightning leading into Saturday's Game 1 from Edmonton's Rogers Place isn't about how they've managed to overcome the top defensive teams in front of them each round to advance.
Maybe it's that the Lightning are the "defensive juggernaut" the rest of the NHL should be worried about.
Tampa Bay was a respectable seventh in the League for goals against in the regular season, surrendering 2.77 per game. But that takes into account the entire season, including the first two months when the Lightning were hovering around .500 and out of a playoff spot and giving up 3.24 goals a game, tied for fifth most in the League.
The Bolts didn't hit their stride defensively and, not coincidentally, as a team until late December, when they reeled off a 23-2-1 record starting December 23 and ending February 17 with the team's franchise-record 11th straight win in an overtime win at Colorado. From the beginning of the 2020 calendar year until that win in Denver, the Lightning didn't give up more than three goals in any contest and allowed only 1.77 a contest, tops in the League over that stretch.
In the playoffs, Tampa Bay has replicated that stretch with their defensive play.
The Lightning are also winning at a similar rate, emerging victorious in 14 of their 20 playoff games so far. They've allowed just 2.21 goals per game this postseason, third best in the League with only Montreal (1.90) and Vegas (2.20) better. They've limited teams to two or fewer goals - the benchmark, Cooper says, for what he expects of his team defensively - in 13 of their 20 playoff games and eight of their last nine entering the Stanley Cup Final.
"I think that we're a pretty hard team to play against defensively," Bolts blueliner Kevin Shattenkirk said. "I think the m.o. on us and on the Lightning over the last few years is that they're offensive and they're skilled and the way to beat them is to play them hard, and I think things have changed this year. The perception of our team I think will be changed after this playoffs is over. We make it a point to play defense and play structured, and we know that because we have all that skill in our lineup when our offensive chances do come, we have the ability to take advantage of it. We play defense first and get our offense off that."
Because the Lightning are playing so well defensively this postseason and because the teams they've been facing have been good defensive teams this season, the Bolts have played a lot of low scoring contests. Games 5 and 6 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Islanders featured just three goals each, the teams splitting the contests.
Fourteen of Tampa Bay's 20 playoff games have featured five combined goals or fewer. The Lightning have won 10 of those games.
That the Bolts are finding ways to win tight, low-scoring playoff games is a testament to the belief in their system that focuses on protecting their own net first and deriving offense from good defense.
"That's how it is sometimes in the playoffs. You have to be able to win those type of games, low-scoring games," said Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, who leads the 2020 Playoffs for scoring with 26 points and tied Brad Richards' franchise record from 2004 for most points in a playoff season. "You have to stay patient and stick to your system and believe what we're doing. It doesn't matter how many goals you put up, it's important just to get the win and play well defensively. You play against the best players. It's not easy to play against them. We don't expect to go out there and score five goals every night. You get two goals, protect your net and play well defensively."
The Lightning have also won the close game this postseason. In one-goal games, they're 10-2, including Thursday's clinching 2-1 overtime victory over the Islanders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final.

"You've got to be comfortable playing with a one-goal lead or if it's a tie game," Victor Hedman said. "That's what we've been preaching. We're playing to win the game. We're not afraid to lose. I think that's got to be our mindset going into games is that you play to win the game. You don't change the way you play if it's a one-goal game or if it's a tie game. We keep doing what we do to what makes us successful. It's been working out so far. It's all about being confident in those situations, and I think once again you go through the experience, that helps."
Dallas is also experienced in winning low-scoring, closely-contested games. It's one of the main reasons the Stars are in the Cup Final opposite the Lightning. The Stars have played 10 one-goal contests in best-of-seven series this postseason, including the final four games of their Western Conference Final against Vegas. Dallas went 9-1 in those contests, losing the first in Game 1 of the First Round against Calgary before reeling off nine in a row.
The Stars scored just nine goals combined in their five Conference Final games. But they limited the Golden Knights to eight total goals. And that was good enough to win four of the five games.
The Lightning will face their greatest test yet this postseason in trying to unlock the Stars enough offensively to score more goals than them.
But, in reality, it's the Stars that should be more concerned about how they're going to score goals against a Lightning team that's preventing them as well as they ever have.
"It's the nature of playoff hockey," Ryan McDonagh said. "You've got to take care of your own end and you've got to keep the puck out of your own net. If there's one thing that we've learned as a team more so this year but in years past with this group is that you can still create offense from good defense and I think that's something we've really bought into and take a lot of pride in. No different here with this group, (the Stars) are going to be all over us on the ice. Don't want to cheat or get frustrated or cheat for your offense. You have to stay patient. We had to stay really patient against the Islanders that whole series, put a lot of pucks to the net. We believe eventually we'll get the results if we're doing it the right way. It's something we'll stress and continue to do."