Video sessions, meetings to replace practices as Lightning enter busy stretch

TAMPA — It’s not unusual during a game to find Lightning forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point with a tablet in their hands while resting on the bench.

Along with Ondrej Palat, the members of Tampa Bay’s top line analyze every shift, pinpointing things that worked well or they could have done better. It’s a never-ending study of the game they know so well.

“Guys want instant feedback,” assistant coach Derek Lalonde said. “And we have the resources to provide it for them.”

The Lightning need to rely on those resources a lot more over the next two months. Tuesday’s 5-2 win over Ottawa was the first of 31 games in 60 days to close out the regular season.

With so many games in such a short span, the Lightning will have little time for practice. Players need to be on the ice to maintain a feel for the puck and each other, but they hope to retain at least some of that in other ways.

Plus, this late in the season, it’s important to balance on-ice work with recovery to be rested and ready for the playoffs.

Reviewing video to take a deeper look at players’ performances is one way to keep the group together and work on its game.

Game-day skates will become more important, too. What usually is a light morning warmup with limited attendance will serve as practice in certain instances.

This isn’t the first time the Lightning have had to rely so heavily on such tactics.

With limited ice time two seasons ago in the postseason in the Canadian bubbles, the Lightning used video sessions during their run to the first of their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins to reinforce philosophies and pinpoint areas of improvement. They returned to the strategy for last season’s 56-game regular season.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever see a season like (last year’s) ever again with the back-to-backs (games) and how many (three games in four days) we had,” Lalonde said. “So at least these guys are used to it, but it’s a reality, and we talk about it a lot.”

When it comes to work habits, Lalonde said Kucherov is instinctual and processes the game “on a different level.” Captain Steven Stamkos is a “savant,” Lalonde said, with an “uncanny ability” to pick apart a play from two weeks ago like it happened moments earlier. Forwards Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn are “cerebral” and analytical, Lalonde said, and like to look back at plays to find ways to improve their game.

“I like watching video whenever I can,” Cirelli said, “from a couple of games and shifts, seeing what we can do better, what we can do in different situations.”

Coaches often prefer to keep lines or defense pairings together when reviewing video. In other instances, they will gather position groups.

Defenseman Ryan McDonagh said such sessions help each unit “keep the chemistry.”

“(It helps) continue to instill (skills) in our game,” McDonagh said. “This isn’t the first time in a season we’ve had a long stretch of a lot of games and not a lot of practice time, so we’ll just approach it one day at a time and one game at a time and go from there.”

In past seasons, the third line of Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow spent a lot of time reviewing video together. It helped them determine their line’s identity, and they became major contributors to both Stanley Cup teams.

Now, Lalonde sees the “School Bus Line” of Pat Maroon, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Corey Perry doing the same.

In those meetings, the line talks about wanting to play predictably, staying on top of the puck, maintaining structure on the forecheck, paying attention to details in the defensive zone, and strategizing for its breakouts.

It’s also a fun time for three players with a combined 36 seasons and more than 2,320 games in the NHL to talk shop.

“It’s really exciting when a line wants an identity and they start to establish an identity and they want to play to that identity,” Lalonde said. “It’s really neat to be in a meeting and bring up (something) and literally walk through some shifts and then have those guys take over a little bit and talk with each other.”

While video feedback can be helpful, there’s a delicate balance with it. Sometimes, Lalonde said, the coaching staff believes players rely on it too much.

There have been times Lalonde has snagged a tablet from a player. Other times, he has reached for a tablet after a player requested it, only to find the screen pinned under coach Jon Cooper’s foot.

“Sometimes you have to leave a shift alone or leave a mistake alone or literally watch what’s going on out on the ice, too,” Lalonde said. “It’s a constant battle. I know sometimes it frustrates some of us coaches. … There’s a feel for it.”

After Friday’s home game against the Red Wings, the Lightning is on the road for six games in the next 11 days, starting tonight at the Blackhawks. They return home to play the Rangers on March 19 before going back on the road for another four games.

In addition to games essentially every other day over the next two months, the Lightning have six sets of back-to-back games before their regular-season finale April 29 against the Islanders in New York, and that’s the second game of a back-to-back set.

“It’s a reality of today’s NHL,” Lalonde said. “We don’t have the practice time … and it has to be learning through video.”

Contact Mari Faiello at mfaiello@tampabay.com. Follow @faiello_mari.

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