Lightning using transition game to swarm Capitals

The Coaches Room is a weekly column by one of four former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.
In this 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs edition, Jim Corsi, former goalie coach of the Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues, analyzes the play of the Tampa Bay Lightning and how they have taken a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference Final with their performance in Game 5 on Saturday.

If it was pouring meteorologically in Tampa Bay on Saturday, it was a Lightning storm in the first period at Amalie Arena in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had an attack-by-committee plan to open the game and they were all over the Washington Capitals, leading to a 2-0 lead before 10 minutes expired en route to a 3-2 win to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series.
RELATED: [Complete Lightning vs. Capitals series coverage]
Game 6 is at Capital One Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN1, TVAS), but before I get there and analyze what the Capitals have to do to force a Game 7, let's go over what went so right for the Lightning in Game 5.
The most important thing I've seen from the Lightning is that they spend very little time in their defensive zone because of how fast they play. This is what the Pittsburgh Penguins also did so well to win the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017.
It's two passes and they're out. The Lightning have support everywhere and they're always on the move. They're standing still for the support in a scrum, in a swarm corner defense. There's a great picture of Steven Stamkos standing right at the face-off dot, his head is spinning back and forth it looks like a scene out of "The Exorcist," but he gets it and it's moved.
It's transition everywhere. Everything is moved out. It's all with speed. It goes back to Scotty Bowman when he used to say, "When we dump it in, it's not to dump it in and turn it over, it's to dump it in and get the puck back." That's the philosophy they've got going and they have the players willing to do it.
With their speed and support, they're going to get it. They're defending. You see their players inside the pocket of the Capitals as opposed to peeling back and respecting their speed.
Just look at that first goal. A lot of stick play. Everybody pokes, pokes, pokes, and the next thing you know they're alone in front of the net and it's a goal for Cedric Paquette 19 seconds into the game.

But after that, it was 13-4 in shots on goal, 29-8 in total shot attempts, including 25-8 at 5-on-5 in the first period. By my count, it was 12 scoring chances for the Lightning to one for the Capitals, and that one was on an Alex Ovechkin rush where he dished off and the guy shot it from the edge of the shot chance area, a stoppable chance.
Another thing that was noticeable is it wasn't until halfway through the third period when Ovechkin got his first scoring chance. It's now 3-1 Lightning, and then he gets another chance with five minutes to go, hits the crossbar.
But here's the thing on that: Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was in the spot. He's a big man (6-foot-3, 207 pounds). He butterflies. It goes over his shoulder. But he has his glove up so it's more difficult for the shooter because he's not giving up much of the net. Vasilevskiy makes a lot of saves without making the save.

Guys are shooting high from in tight, but his elbow is down and his glove hand high, so now his shoulder width is increased by the width of the glove. Think of it this way: Vasilevskiy might be a 44 long in jacket size, but it's now a 52. That's what I'm noticing.
In the second period, the Capitals had some zone time but I had them with six scoring chances and the one goal is a long shot with a deflection by Evgeny Kuznetsov.
The Capitals pushed back and Ovechkin made it interesting with his goal at 18:24 of the third period, but then the Lightning did what they always do in the defensive zone, they made a commitment to blocking shots. They blocked three in the final 1:36 and Vasilevskiy made three saves.
The Lightning's commitment to blocking shots is impressive and it's another reason why I think the Capitals haven't been able to generate many quality chances in front of the net. The Lightning are clogging up the middle, waiting for those shots from the outside. There are number of occasions where the Capitals do have guys in the front of the net, but nothing is happening.

How many second-chance opportunities did the Capitals have in Game 5? Not many.
The other thing is the rush chances Tampa Bay was allowing Washington to have earlier in the series have dried up because of how much crisper, cleaner and faster the Lightning are playing through their 'D' zone and the neutral zone.
So to even the series, I'll look for the Capitals to have better puck support in their zone so they can come at the Lightning with speed, push them back. It's more quick playing, quick support. The Lightning have it. The Capitals have to match it.
The other thing the Capitals have to do is create chaos in front of the net or shoot on the slants, using backdoor plays, because anything that comes at Vasilevskiy straight on he is stopping.
The Capitals need shots to go through and puck hunters to find the loose change. Without it, it'll continue to be a struggle to score, and with the way the Lightning are playing, that will make it a struggle to win.