Tampa Bay Lightning: Top 4 areas they need to improve in

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Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images /

In an earlier piece, we touched on what’s wrong with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Some readers pointed out some things that I did not include, so we’re going to address them.

As many writers do, I went on several social media platforms to promote my work. Most recently, I wrote a piece on what I believed to be four major problems that the Tampa Bay Lightning had, based on fairly thorough research and a lot of math.

As expected, comments were made by several readers, who wanted to voice their opinions. For once, it was all mostly positive comments with some other issues that people felt the Lightning had.

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So, I felt it would be appropriate to tackle some of my readers’ observations.

"From Erik Bocca: “1. You could’ve mentioned the insane amount of road games to start the season. 2. High-grade quality chances that [Andrei] Vasilevskiy stopped last year are starting to go in – in bunches lol. But the point of high dangerous scoring chances remains the same. 3. Loss of veteran leadership, specifically on the PK [Penalty kill] – [Anton] Stralman, [Dan] Girardi, [Ryan] Callahan. 4. Still taking too many penalties…”"

Well, Erik, I appreciate your support, and I will gladly look into these points you made. Let’s start with the first one: the number of away games.

Keep in mind, all these stats were gathered prior to the December 12th matchup against the Boston Bruins.

The Lightning have played 14 home and away games this season, though 1 “home” game was played in Sweden against the Sabres. It’s important to note that, at the moment, the Lightning are tied for the fewest amount of games played in the league.

It’s not about the travelling that could have an impact, however. I’m more focused on how the away games have come in bunches, which is something you also probably noticed, Erik. In their first 15 games, the Lightning had a stretch of 6 straight and 4 straight home games, while they had 5 home games split into a 1 game and 3 game stretch, with one of the 3 home games being played in Sweden.

But that’s not something that I would consider a major issue that the Lightning have dealt with. Sure, it’s a tough schedule, but every single NHL team has a tough stretch of games at one point every year. It’s tough, but it’s not something NHL teams and players can’t deal with.

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