NEW YORK — Jon Cooper is caught between a rock and a hard place with Jonathan Drouin.
The Tampa Bay Lightning need to create more offense if they are to defeat the New York Rangers in four of the next six games in the Eastern Conference Final. One goal—a power-play goal—on 24 shots in Game 1 didn’t cut it and won’t be sufficient moving forward.
The Lightning haven’t cracked 30 shots in their past six games. They haven’t scored more than two even-strength goals in a game that didn’t involve an empty-netter since Game 6 of the first round against the Detroit Red Wings. They have 10 five-on-five goals over their past seven games.
"If we want to advance," Cooper said, "we're going to need more than the Triplets to score."
The Triplets—Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat—were responsible for the Tampa's only goal in Game 1 and have 18 goals in the playoffs. Steven Stamkos has three goals and 10 points in 14 games.
Beyond that, there's not much happening for the Lightning.
Drouin, the third overall pick in the ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Dave Lozo
Hiding Jonathan Drouin on the Bench a Big Risk for the Tampa Bay Lightning
May 17th, 2015 by Dave Lozo Leave a reply »
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