"You fall asleep for a second, and they're past you," new Lightning assistant coach Rob Zettler, charged with handling the defensemen, said of his group. "And that's what we're encouraging our D to do. We're lucky to have the talent of Heddy and of Mac, Sergy. Those three guys (are active) all the time, obviously, but we're asking all seven or eight guys to do it. It just becomes dangerous. It's hard to handle when it's just constant five guys on the attack and it's not just on the rush, it's in the zone as well."
On goal number two, which came at 4-on-4 play, Luke Schenn took the puck away from a falling Larkin at his own goal line and immediately started up the ice for a 3-on-2 rush the other way. Schenn dished to Killorn to bring the puck into the zone. Killorn passed to his right for Anthony Cirelli, who saw Victor Hedman joining the play as a trailer and fed him the puck. Hedman got the puck down low on the edge of the net to Schenn, who never stopped charging forward once he passed to Killorn, the 31-year-old blueliner skating full tilt from one goal line to the opposite one. Schenn's shot from in tight bounced off Greiss but into the right circle for a wide-open Cirelli to shoot into the open net.
"For us, it's all about making those reads. If we have an opportunity to join the rush, we have the green light to do that," Hedman said. "…Luke is up in the play and I see that, so I kind of take a little more cautious route, kind of like a second wave. Tony made a good play to me, and I found Luke down low. He put it to net, and we got the rebound. Good things happen when you get everyone involved offensively, and if everyone is just thinking of defense first and forwards covering for us, we're in good shape."
Tampa Bay's third goal also started from its own end, off a Detroit turnover at the end of a Red Wings power play that was converted rapidly into a scoring chance. Ryan McDonagh dumped the puck to the center line for Blake Coleman, who had the attention of three different Detroit skaters as he chased it down. McDonagh, meanwhile, skated undetected down the center of the ice, again, continuing his run to goal without breaking stride despite no longer possessing the puck.
Coleman fought hard to gain control and, upon doing so, swung the puck over for McDonagh all alone in the right circle. McDonagh loaded up, shot and beat Greiss at the far post, signaling the end of the goalie's night after allowing three goals on six shots.
In reality, it was the end of Detroit's night as well.
The Red Wings would never recover from the early-game onslaught.
"As a D-man you've just got to make those reads," Hedman said. "Are you go to follow up and crash the net? Or are you going to take a more casual route and kind of be more like a second wave and attack that way? We're an aggressive team up ice and we like to get everyone involved. It creates some confusion on the other end, that's for sure. That's what we want, and that's what you don't want against you."