When Darren McCarty watches the Lightning’s Yanni Gourde line, it brings him back. It reminds the retired Red Wing of the “Grind Line” he played on with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, with the tenaciously tough trio becoming the unsung stars of their Stanley Cup-winning teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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McCarty sees the same type of synergy with Gourde, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman, believing they’re on the “same wavelength.” They have similar nonstop motors but are built more for the speed of the modern game as opposed to the snarl McCarty (and fourth “Grind Line” member Joey Kocur) had.
And it was all on full display on Coleman’s spectacular, diving, buzzer-beating goal in the second period of Wednesday’s Game 2 victory.
“Your third line and fourth line have to be impactful to win a Cup,” McCarty said. “And between the three of them, they can play all facets of the game. They can play against any line. It’s more of a weapon. And when your third line is a weapon, that’s the ‘Grind Line.’”
The Gourde line doesn’t have a catchy nickname yet, though coach Jon Cooper’s contention that those three “don’t give a rat’s ass who they play against” is a perfect description. Gourde, Coleman and Goodrow typically start every game, a tone-setting group that is relentless on the forecheck and boasts underrated skill.
They were put together before last year’s playoffs, with the coaching staff sparking Gourde’s game by putting him back at center and deadline additions Coleman and Goodrow finding chemistry.
“It was instant,” Gourde said.
Though Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov led the 2020 Cup champs offensively, the Gourde line provides depth and versatility for Cooper in matchups, especially important as the Stanley Cup Final moves to Montreal for Friday’s Game 3.
“They’re almost uniquely suited to this era’s version of a third line,” said retired wing Mike Johnson, an NHL Network analyst. “Not just the ‘Grind Line’ physically, but this era requires speed, tenacity, forecheck, defensive acumen, talent offensively, versatility and ability to play the puck. They can do it all.
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“They’re one of the reasons Tampa Bay has a shot at a repeat.”
The connection
McCarty said the Gourde line plays like it has “something to prove.”
And he’s right.
You have two undrafted players in Gourde and Goodrow, who both needed significant seasoning in the AHL before getting their shot. Coleman, a third-round pick by the Devils in 2011, came from an unlikely hockey hometown of Plano, Texas.
Put it this way: Gourde used to play for $450 a week for the ECHL San Francisco Bulls in a place called the Cow Palace. His wife, Ann-Marie, used to make his pregame pasta in hotel bathrooms while they made stops in Kalamazoo and Worcester and Syracuse.
It’s no wonder Gourde plays every shift like it is his last.
“If I’m being completely honest, I would not have projected him to be the player that he is today,” GM Julien BriseBois said. “Once we brought him into the organization, and I got to know the person and competitor a little bit and the professional he is, then I could see why he may end up being more because of his work ethic, his passion for the game, his drive to be the best player he can be.”
That drive has led to his being an impact player on both ends of the ice through each season of his career.
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BriseBois paid a hefty price to bring Coleman and Goodrow into the fold, giving up a couple of first-rounders and top forward prospect Nolan Foote. But it helped transform the team during the Cup run last season.
“They’re pieces of the puzzle,” Cooper said. “But they were the final piece.”
The Lightning coaches thought Gourde — who went through a rattling two-month goal drought during the regular season — could use a spark in a switch to center. They noticed his natural chemistry with Goodrow, with the two going through a lot of identity video shifts when they were first together. They spent as little time in the defensive zone as possible, managed the puck well and were a great fit on the forecheck. The staff gave Gourde, Coleman and Goodrow a look during the round-robin games in the bubble, and they never looked back.
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“Three tenacious workers,” Lightning assistant Derek Lalonde has said. “Goodrow has the hockey sense to positionally support Coleman and Gourde to get after it and puck pressure all over the ice. It makes for special chemistry. As you have seen, they have had so many shifts to change ‘field position’ and get momentum back.”
Before the Lightning beat Columbus in five overtimes in Game 1 of last year’s first round, it was the Gourde line that connected for the tying goal. The line would often start games, and periods, with it fitting that Coleman scored Tampa Bay’s final goal of the Cup run.
“I’m a big believer in skilled grinders,” said former Lightning center Dominic Moore. “If they have the speed, they can take away your time and space really effectively. But they’re not just defending, they’re putting you on your heels and attacking, and they still have the ability to finish. Julien made a lot of changes from 2019 to 2020, but when he put that line together last year, I thought that was the biggest difference-maker.”
Coleman is the definition of a skilled grinder. And he’s versatile in terms of fit; his role trended up to the top six in New Jersey, and he’s a perfect fit on the third line on a stacked Lightning team. He can chip in with scoring that’s around the rate of a middle-sixer, is willing to shoot the puck, effective with his physical play and excellent in his own zone. Coleman has become the ideal depth player, and a handful of general managers are going to line up this offseason to sign the pending unrestricted free agent.
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Goodrow doesn’t have the same offensive upside as his linemates, but he stands out for his gritty defensive efforts over the years, including on a struggling Sharks team before the trade deadline last year. He often has the task of playing challenging minutes at even strength and on the penalty kill and helped shore up the Lightning’s depth.
Like Coleman, Goodrow really hasn’t had to change his game to mesh with the Lightning. Both were clear fits when they were acquired at the last deadline, with the potential to affect two postseason runs. Being surrounded by the skill of this squad helped each elevate their game, as has the chemistry they’ve generated over time on the third line with Gourde.
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“Those guys are unbelievable,” Anthony Cirelli said. “Every time they’re going out there, they’re creating some sort of energy for us, swinging momentum our way. They’re finishing hits, showing us the way. And each line follows.”
The forecheck
This is the Gourde line’s bread and butter, its identity.
“We’re not the fanciest players,” Goodrow said.
“There’s a lot of predictability to our game,” Coleman said. “It makes it easy and fun to play with those guys. I know what I’m getting with them night in, night out.”
The three players have had more than enough time to figure out each other’s tendencies. They were a staple of last year’s playoff run, with about 290 five-on-five minutes together. This season, they were the most consistently deployed forward combination for Tampa, with a team-leading 404 minutes together. Through 15 postseason games this year, they’ve added 163 minutes of ice time.
Cooper, in describing Goodrow, summed up the whole line well:
“You can’t have all Ferraris. Sometimes you need a good old-fashioned four-wheel-drive Jeep to get you through the mud, and that’s what Barclay Goodrow can do for you.”
Goodrow is usually the first one in the zone, the F1, but the line comes in waves.
“They don’t let you breathe,” McCarty said. “One is on you, and when you think you’ve got a second, the other one is there backing them up. They don’t get caught out of position. They don’t take reckless chances. Very little do you find three guys below the goal line.
“It’s definitely a team game. And if you look at the different aspects that Tampa has on that line, there’s five tools.”
NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp, a Cup champion forward, said the Gourde line plays a “cat and mouse” game, standing teams up at the blue line and baiting them to try to make a play so they can take it the other way. It’s almost a competition of who gets to make a hit, and get the puck, first. “They create chaos,” he said.
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Coleman and Goodrow lead the trio with hits, but even Gourde, despite his size, jumps right into the physical play. And after one makes a hit, another member of that line is often scooping up the puck to drive play the other way.
They go to work every single shift they’re deployed; they put pressure on puck carriers, force their opponents to dump the puck in and battle along the boards to retrieve it.
That forecheck helps stunt opponents from generating offense against. The Lightning were solid defensively at five-on-five; their expected goal rate against was 13 percent stronger than the league average. But they were much better with their trusty third line deployed.
With Coleman-Gourde-Goodrow on the ice in the regular season, the Lightning kept their opponents to just 1.88 expected goals against per 60, which was 25 percent stronger than league average. Most of the scoring areas and the net front were clear with this trio defending.
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Those minutes most often coincided with Tampa Bay’s shutdown pair of Ryan McDonagh and Erik Cernak and came against such tough opponents as Jamie Benn, Aleksander Barkov, Jordan Staal and Roman Josi in the regular season.
The line has just continued to play at that level when the stakes are even higher in the playoffs, limiting shots and scoring chances against. And there’s a difference in the team’s zone play when those three aren’t on the ice.
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“You appreciate how they play with the physicality, how they’re so very consistent with that degree of engagement in the regular season and playoffs,” Johnson said. “They’re physically and emotionally engaged every game, every shift.”
The skill
These aren’t just blue-collar pluggers who dump and chase.
There’s plenty of skill that goes with their will. Coleman and Gourde have two 20-plus-goal seasons in the NHL.
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Coleman has been a positive influence on his team’s offensive generation over the years, having his best impact this year. He’s more of a shooter than a passer, and he generates a high number of quality chances off high-danger passes. Most of those shots come in the scoring areas, especially right in front of the blue paint. His finishing ability gives teams a better chance of scoring when he drives play, too.
Gourde also gets to that net-front area to generate offense. His offensive creation balances that shooting with his passing; he leads this line, and rates highly on the team, with primary shot assists, or passes that directly precede shots.
These two lead this line in transitional play. Coleman has a knack for getting the puck out of the defensive zone and into the offensive end at a high rate. Gourde’s exit and entry rate was slightly lower in the regular season, but he has a higher percentage of possession plays in his attempts. And he’s elevated his game even more in the playoffs, pushing play into the offensive zone more often and recovering his teammates’ chips and dump-ins into the zone.
Goodrow had back-to-back 20-goal seasons in the AHL, and even though his NHL high is eight, he’s come through in key moments. He doesn’t have the same finishing ability as his linemates, nor is he nearly as frequent of a shooter. But when he does, he gets to that home plate area to generate a scoring chance.
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The combination of their three skill sets bodes well not only for aggressive forechecking and solid defensive play but also for offensive production.
Case in point: Goodrow scored the winner in Game 1 of the Lightning’s second-round series against the Hurricanes. On the play, Gourde sent the puck up the boards in the neutral zone, with Coleman making a slick play inside the blue line to drop the puck to a streaking Goodrow, who scored on a bad angle.
The Gourde line also cashed in quickly in transition in Game 1 of this Cup Final, with a goal that epitomized an array of strengths. Goodrow forced a turnover at Tampa Bay’s blue line, then started the counterattack. An initial shot off the rush by Goodrow was blocked, but Coleman jumped on the rebound and Gourde crashed the net to secure a screen and tip it in.
This line was a source of offense throughout the regular season; the team generated shots and quality chances at a high rate with it on the ice. The line carried that high level of play into the postseason, pushing a number of those shots to the danger areas in front of the net. The heat maps below put that offensive creation on display, with red areas indicating areas of high shot volume. The left is the team’s shooting with this line deployed in the regular season. The right is the postseason.
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“You’ve got the Gourde line that’s got a little bit of everything,” Canadiens assistant coach Luke Richardson said. “They’ve got some feistiness and nastiness to their game, which is great in playoff-type hockey. And we’ve got to just counter that and match that discipline but hardness-wise. And they can score. If you make a mistake like we did in the second period, they showed they can turn that into a goal, just like the Point line.”
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Moore said the Gourde line reminded him of the dynamic Lightning third line he was on during the run to the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. Back then, Moore teamed up with Sean Bergenheim and Steve Downie to rack up 14 goals in 18 games (nine by Bergenheim). They had 36 combined points. Coleman, Gourde and Goodrow have nine goals so far.
“All of them can make plays,” Moore said. “You turn the puck over, they can capitalize. They don’t sit back. Sometimes, there’s a line that’s just defending, but that’s a losing strategy.”
Matchup equalizer
Cooper has often put the Gourde line out for the start of periods, no matter whom the opponent sends.
It was usually the Islanders’ fourth line with Matt Martin in their third-round series, for example. But there were times when Coleman, Gourde and Goodrow took on top lines like the Barkov line against Florida and the Mathew Barzal line against the Islanders.
“What they offer Jon Cooper is great flexibility,” Johnson said. “He doesn’t have to worry about who they play against, he can put them against a checking line, put them against a scoring line. That flexibility allows Cooper to do whatever he wants with (Anthony) Cirelli and Point because he knows Gourde can take on any task, and he trusts they will do the job.”
The Coleman-Gourde-Goodrow line was given a tough workload in terms of the forward competition faced in the regular season; it was often used to shut down opponents’ best lines.
Even if the Gourde line doesn’t score on its shift, the players take their toll. They’re usually in the middle of every scrum, from Gourde jawing to Goodrow dropping his gloves to Coleman racking up 11 hits in Game 1.
“It’ll not only frustrate you, whether it’s a fifth or sixth defenseman, or top centerman,” McCarty said. “(Scotty) Bowman had been famous for rolling all four lines and not caring. Whether you step up with a big hit or blocked shot, it’s all those little things that the ‘Grind Line’ represented.”
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“You know when you’re going up against them, you’re going to get hit,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be physical, and that does wear on you. You know you’re not going to get away with anything. They bring something close to their best all the time. That’s hard to do. It can be taxing. Every shift, they’re in your face, they’re in your ear, they’re in your zone. They do it in all different areas that put you under duress.”
The third line will have to keep that up as the Lightning push toward back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.
Through the playoffs, the Gourde line hasn’t always seen top competition like it did in the regular season. At times, Cooper’s approach has been power versus power, with Point’s line taking on the opponents’ best scorers. But as the series shifts back to Montreal, the expectation should be the Canadiens’ line-matching Phillip Danault’s line against the Lightning’s leading trio.
Montreal’s line of Danault, Brendan Gallagher, and Artturi Lehkonen has faced off against opponents’ top players, from Auston Matthews to Mark Stone, particularly when the Canadiens have controlled the matchups. Those players may vary stylistically, but the Danault line adjusted to contain them on their path to the Stanley Cup Final.
Coleman-Gourde-Goodrow took on the Canadiens’ leading shutdown trio to give Point’s line more time and space on home ice. But that’s expected to change in these next two games given Montreal’s tendencies at home; the Danault line will likely take on Point’s and could limit its scoring potential. That puts even more importance on depth scoring that Tampa’s third line can provide.
And with the Gourde line, Cooper is comfortable with whichever line those players end up matching up with. That they have such good possession numbers despite Gourde being 45 percent in the faceoff circle and Goodrow at 37 percent makes it more impressive.
“They don’t have to jump through hoops and worry about who Gourde is up against,” Johnson said. “The fact is they can contribute offensively, not to the degree as other guys, but they don’t have to. They have come up with big goals in the last couple years. They are guys who don’t mind physical play or an emotional game when it gets heavy. They play better when it is, that’s why they’re a very important piece.”
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The future
Lightning fans should appreciate what they’re seeing with the Gourde line, as its members are likely playing their final few games together.
Tampa Bay is in a significant cap crunch, already $5 million over for next year’s expected $81.5 million cap with just 19 players under contract. Goodrow (making $925,000) and Coleman ($1.8 million) are due for hefty raises and some deserved security on the open market.
Evolving-Hockey projects Coleman to sign a four-year contract with a $4.69 million average annual value. Goodrow, on the other hand, projects to sign a four-year, $3.15 million cap hit.
The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn puts Coleman’s market value closer to $3.2 million and Goodrow’s around $1 million, which would be more fitting for the Lightning. But given some of their standout contributions over the Lightning’s playoff runs this year and last, teams are likely going to try to add both depth scorers with prices the Lightning probably can’t compete with.
BriseBois has said he’d love to keep both Coleman and Goodrow. “They’re the type of players who help you win championships,” he said. Both players have said they love it here, would be open to staying. It doesn’t sound like there have been any in-season negotiations, which makes sense, with all the focus on the Cup run. Those will likely heat up by the end of the month as free agency nears.
It’s entirely possible Gourde could be exposed in the Seattle expansion draft July 21 — that is, if Tampa Bay goes with the eight-skater alignment to protect its top four defensemen. Playoff performance, however, certainly has to play into those decisions. And it’s hard to imagine the Lightning winning the Cup last year, or being two wins away from another one now, without this generation’s “Grind Line.”
“That line has been the difference,” said NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes. “They’ve been the best line in the Cup Final.”
Data via Evolving-Hockey, HockeyViz, NaturalStatTrick, and Corey Sznajder. This story relies on shot-based metrics; here are primers (part 1, part 2) on these numbers.
(Photo: James Guillory / USA Today)