Phil Esposito’s advice aids growth of Lightning’s third line

TAMPA — Nick Paul and Phil Esposito just happened to be having dinner at the same restaurant Sunday night in Tampa. On his first day back from the Lightning’s recent road trip, Paul was celebrating his 300th career game with his fiancee, while Esposito was having an early 81st birthday dinner with his wife.

When Paul and Esposito found themselves talking at the bar afterward, the Lightning founder and radio analyst offered some advice to the team’s third-line center.

“We’re just kind of shooting it and having a good time, and then he just says, ‘I want to tell you, you’ve got a great shot. You’ve got to shoot more,’ " Paul said, smiling. “He goes, ‘When I played, they said it’s like a funnel. You’ve got to shoot the puck, and that’s how you score goals.’ "

Esposito complimented Paul’s game, how the forward can make plays with his combination of size and skating ability. But Esposito said that Paul too often looks to pass rather than take a shot.

So, when the Lightning needed someone to take charge in the second period of a 0-0 game Tuesday against the Ducks, Paul took the puck through the neutral zone and skated toward the net. He had passing options but instead snapped a shot from above the right faceoff dot through goaltender Lukas Dostal for the first of four Tampa Bay goals in six minutes of an eventual 6-1 win.

The goal opened the floodgates for a Lightning team that had struggled to manufacture offense early and ended an 11-game goal drought for Paul, who set a career high with his 17th of the season.

It also marked another step in the evolution of the Lightning’s emerging third line, centered by Paul between Ross Colton and Pat Maroon. The trio plays a puck-possession game that can wear down other teams but also looks for offensive contributions to create scoring depth across all four lines.

“They were doing all the right things (Tuesday); they were playing hard,” coach Jon Cooper said. “Even on some of the chances that they didn’t score on, they were just big bodies that were checking and skating. When they’re doing that, that kind of opens up some space for them because they’re all big guys, and they got rewarded.”

Both aspects are important for the Lightning as they head into the stretch run and toward the postseason, when games become more low scoring and tightly contested as offense gives way to defense and physicality.

“I think that’s why this team has had success along the road, because of each line and what they bring, and each player knows kind of their role,” Maroon said. “I think our line, too, I think Ross and ‘Pauly,’ they are obviously guys who have a knack around the net with really good skill.

“They want to put the puck in the net, but I think at the end of the day, if we’re not getting scored on and we’re creating offense and we’re getting some zone time and we’re leaning on them and setting the next line up, if we don’t score and you still feel confident that you had a great game, I think we’re good with that.”

Each member of the line was plus-2 Tuesday, helping to bring the Lightning out of a first-period slog. The outmatched Ducks wanted to play an up-and-down game and rely on their offense and speed, but the Paul line interrupted that by establishing zone time and wearing down Anaheim in its defensive zone while creating scoring chances.

In addition to Paul’s game-opening goal, the line’s relentless puck pursuit gave defenseman Zach Bogosian a look from up top that resulted in the Lightning’s fourth goal and essentially put the game away. Despite allowing eight shot attempts, the line did not allow a goal.

“I think one of their self-criticism of their game was not enough of that, like a lot of one-and-dones in the offensive zone and not enough zone time where you have three big guys who can lean on teams and wear teams down,” said assistant coach Jeff Halpern.

“But once you get there, it’s having a plan for how to come out of that and how to create offensively and sustain all that. For them, it’s finding a consistent offense for that group.”

With the Paul line on the ice, the Lightning had 16 total shot attempts, most of any line, in 8:11 of ice time as a unit, a sign that it was sustaining zone time and getting second and third opportunities. Each member of the line had at least four shot attempts.

“For us, I think it’s just moving our feet and playing simple,” Paul said. “We’re not trying to make crazy plays. We’re just trying to get behind their (defense), wear them down, get that puck, roll it up the wall, put it towards the net or put it to the (defense) three high, get pucks on net and then repeat.

“I feel like when we’re doing that and we’re really hounding them down, it tires them out. We can get a change, other people come on, or we can just take it to them and just keep building that chemistry, and I think (Tuesday) we had a couple of those shifts where we were wearing them down and taking pucks to the net.”

Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.

Giveaway

Fans attending the March 9 game against the Golden Knights will receive a retro ViewMaster. In keeping with their season-long 30th-anniversary celebration, the ViewMaster will feature seven images from the top moments in franchise history.

Pro women’s hockey event

The Lightning are partnering with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA) to host four games and two clinics as part of the Dream Gap Tour Friday-Sunday at AdventHealth Center Ice in Wesley Chapel. The series features some of the world’s top female players, including Kendall Coyne Schofield, Megan Keller, Amanda Kessel, Hilary Knight, Maddie Rooney, Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin.

Clinics

Friday: Girls ages 7-11, 6-7 p.m.; girls ages 12-16, 7:15-8:15; $65 cost includes a ticket to PWHPA game of your choice. Saturday: Try Hockey for Free, girls ages 5-10, 10-11 a.m.

Game schedule

Friday: Team Scotiabank-Team Harvey’s, noon; Team Sonnet-Team Adidas, 3. Saturday: Team Adidas-Team Scotiabank, 1; Team Sonnet-Team Harvey’s, 4. Sunday: Team Harvey’s-Team Scotiabank, 11 a.m.; Team Adidas-Team Sonnet, 2 p.m.

Practices: March 1-2, 9:30 a.m., TGH IcePlex, Brandon

Information: tinyurl.com/pwhpaevent

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