Tampa Bay Lightning: Lightning will not strike 3 times
Over the past few seasons, The Tampa Bay Lightning showed their dominance over the NHL, winning 2 Stanley Cup Championships. However, this year will be different as the defending champions will not repeat, and here’s why.
No Nikita Kucherov for the rest of the season. This has happened before and the Lightning did very well because he has been a factor when he has played, which won’t be until the playoffs this year and the team may be out of a playoff spot.
No depth due to the major changes the team has faced during the past year. Barclay Goodrow, Yani Gourde, Blake Coleman, Luke Schenn, David Savard, and Mitchell Stephens are all gone from last year’s championship squad. In the playoffs, those players were difference makers because they played playoff hockey.
The scoring is left up to Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Alex Killorn with Kucherov out, and the depth scoring is gone. If the opposition can take away 2/3 of those players the chance of winning increases dramatically.
The defense got hit hard during the past year as well with Schenn, Savard gone, and Andrej Sustr sent to the minors. The defense has a big hole to fill with only Viktor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev the only remaining steady defensemen from last year.
The goaltending was not affected but could be if Andrei Vasilevsky goes down with an injury. Brian Elliot is the backup and, although experienced, is not battle-tested enough to take over a team and lead them to the Stanely Cup playoffs, as he currently has a GAA of over 3.00 and a save % under .900.
The Tampa Bay Lightning is in a stacked division to where the likes of the Detroit Red Wings are looking for a playoff spot as well. The Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins are primed for the playoff push and prove they also belong.
Let us not forget about the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs are a great regular-season team that could very well expose the weaknesses of the Tampa Bay Lightning just enough to eliminate them from playoff contention.
Special teams are also taking a hit this season, as they are only at 16.2 % on the power play. Team GAA is also higher than usual, currently at an even 3.00.
Finally, the goal differential, as of today, is even. Teams cannot get into a game of exchanging goals and expect to win every game.
The Lightning has something to prove this season and that something to prove comes well before playoffs. They have faced adversity before but nothing like this.