Mark Lazerus wrote in his game story for the Chicago Sun Times that, “The Blackhawks smelled blood against a clearly hobbled goaltender, but couldn’t complete the kill.” Chicago peppered Ben Bishop with shots from all angles – luckily for Bishop most of those shooting angles were coming from low-danger areas that did little to trouble the goalie.

If TB is counting on "saves" to soothe them on Bishop, they should be lucky his shots haven't involved movement. pic.twitter.com/qjGZj2gZq4 — A.C. Thomas (@acthomasca) June 9, 2015

As A.C. Thomas of War on Ice pointed out -yes, Chicago was forcing Bishop to make saves, 36 in total, the majority weren’t coming from dangerous areas. At even strength, 18 of the 29 (62%) shots that Bishop faced came from low danger areas.

For a comparison point, only 37% of the saves Corey Crawford was forced to make came from low-danger areas at even strength. Tampa Bay’s shots were coming from areas that forced Crawford to make much more challenging saves – with 17 of the 27 shots coming from medium-to-high danger areas. (stats courtesy of War on Ice)

How is Tampa doing this? Even as Chicago dominated possession?

Jen LC broke down Tampa Bay’s defensive system prior to the Stanley Cup Final on her blog: JenLC13: Hockey Systems, Analytics & Statistics:

Tampa Bay frequently commits both defensemen to the board battles low in the zone. This leaves F3 as the sole guardian of the net front. Tampa Bay sticks with this formation even when only two offensive players are involved in the board battle with a third supporting. Obviously, F3’s job is crucial to the success of this formation. He is essentially responsible for everything on the ice outside of the board battle in the corner. This formation is effective when done properly because there is simply nowhere for the puck to go with four defensive players surrounding and squeezing the offense. If the puck is able to be moved out by the offense, then the mad dash to get in position begins.

It appeared as if Chicago was able to overcome the Lightning’s neutral zone coverage in Game Three- now we’ll see how Joel Quenneville develops a plan to not only get traffic in front of Ben Bishop but to also penetrate Tampa Bay’s defensive system in order to generate higher quality shot attempts – if not tons of credit should be given to the rookie coach on the other bench.