Tampa Bay Lightning: Early season woes need to end
The Tampa Bay Lightning had a historical regular season, notching 62 wins last season, to tie an all-time record for wins in a season, previously set by the Detroit Red Wings. This season, despite seemingly getting better this offseason, they have started off rather slow.
Through three games, the Tampa Bay Lightning are 1-1-1. They started the year off with a bang, winning 5-2 over the Florida Panthers at home in Amalie Arena. Then, two days later, the Lightning faced the Panthers on the road and lost 4-3 in overtime. They traveled to take on the Carolina Hurricanes the very next night, just to lose 4-3 in regulation after opening up with a 3-1 lead.
Young defenseman Mikhail Sergachev leads the team in points with four assists, while Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov need to combine their point totals to hit four points (both have two). When your best players aren’t playing like your best players, it makes winning that much more difficult.
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New acquisition Kevin Shattenkirk has three points thus far, looking like a good signing for the Lightning, at a cheap cost. But if you look deeper, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. He has a 48.8% Corsi For percentage, which is not only poor by his standards, but even worse knowing that the Lightning are such a dominant possession team. Shattenkirk is struggling to possess the puck.
Yes, he has thrown 11 shots on goal, which leads the team, but he has not looked good in his own end thus far. Plus, Shattenkirk’s averaging over 22 minutes a game as Victor Hedman’s partner, which is a pair that really hasn’t worked thus far.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy needs to be better as well. He has had a fairly disappointing start to the year, with 2 starts, a 1-1-0 record, .908 save percentage and a 3.06 Goals Against Average. For the defending Vezina Trophy winner, “Big Cat” Andrei Vasilevskiy needs to play better, especially now, as the Lightning d-core works out the kinks and garners more chemistry with each other.
What Needs To Change?
Outside of overall improvement from everyone, as well as more chemistry over time, there are some more specific things that the Lightning need to figure out.
First off, Shattenkirk, though he has done well offensively thus far, should not be playing with Hedman on the first pair. Sergachev worked his butt off in the off-season, and overall is a better defenseman than Shattenkirk. Why Sergachev hasn’t been given much of a shot with Hedman on the first pair is beyond me, but it needs to happen. Quite simply, he is undeserving of “sheltered” minutes with Braydon Coburn. Give him a chance!
Second, Brayden Point is injured and recovering from hip surgery, but he adds so much to the team. The Lightning need him back sooner rather than later. Kucherov and Point share such incredible chemistry. When Point returns, Kucherov can return to what he has become known to be; the franchise winger who should be a career point-per-game player. He and Stamkos can’t figure it out together, and Point gives them the option to split the two of them up.
Finally, the Lightning’s early-season woes feel eerily similar to a moment in which all Lightning fans want to forget – the first round versus the Blue Jackets. The Lightning look empty, showing little to no effort for the full 60-minute game. This kind of performance was the exact reason for them getting swept in the playoffs.
It all starts and ends with one man – Jon Cooper. Cooper either doesn’t make adjustments in-game, feeling as though his star-studded roster can figure it out themselves, or he is just blatantly stubborn, not wanting to change what he felt would initially work. Plus, his lineup is questionable. Again, I point my finger toward that first pair, and why Shattenkirk is averaging the second-highest time on ice per game among skaters, while Sergachev sits at 11th. That should not happen.
Plus, the forward lines are a bit funky too. Patrick Maroon is not a fourth-liner. Believe it or not, he can actually score, he isn’t just a big body that can throw heavy hits. Why is he getting less ice time than Alex Killorn and Ondrej Palat by over 5 and 7 minutes, respectively? He is better than Killorn and Palat. He should be averaging about the same amount of time, if not more, than both of them.
Then you have guys that got sent down to the Syracuse Crunch who are arguably better than the likes of Luke Witkowski and Gemel Smith. Guys like Alex Barre-Boulet and Alexander Volkov absolutely deserve a spot over both Witkowski and Smith. Yes, I understand that the Lightning were bullied for their lack of size, and that’s why they added Witkowski, Maroon, and Smith.
But when your team is struggling to get shots on net, and the physical aspects of the game are not much of a factor, you need more skill and less grit. Witkowski or Smith can be sent down while the other remains a healthy scratch, giving them the option to get a rotation going. That way they still have that physicality present when needed.
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It’s beyond me why Cooper has put this roster together the way he has. He was already on thin ice following the sweep in round one. Now? The ice is starting to crack around him. He either has to do something quickly, or he is going to fall through the ice.