The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, their record in their last ten games is 4-6-0, and they are losing some tough games against the best of the best. Frustation seems to be reaching a boiling point in south Florida.
The Tampa Bay Lightning went out and added Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul. They had a relatively strong trade deadline and are once against centered to be one of the top teams in the entire league with some of the best chances at winning a Stanley Cup.
The Lightning are the champions, until some team finds a way to beat them which hasn’t happened since 2019 when the Columbus Blue Jackets swept them. The Lightning are still one of the top teams, but as of late they haven’t been playing their best hockey.
On Tuesday they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, and the frustration from some of their top stars like Nikita Kucherov could be seen on TV when Kucherov goes after Sebastian Aho and the benches ended up clearing out.
Check out the entire video here:
Nikita Kucherov went after Sebastian Aho and the benches cleared as the @Canes - @TBLightning game ended. pic.twitter.com/JLeQFs9tKn
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 23, 2022
The Lightning have lost six of their last eight games, with losses to the Hurricanes, Rangers, Oilers, Flames and Jets. Their are a lot of top teams in that conversation, teams that the Lightning very well could meet in the postseason. Losing to them, and only beating teams on the outside of the postseason definitely have hurt in the last ten games.
Tampa Bay has won four of their last ten with wins against the Canucks, Kraken, Blackhawks and Red Wings. Those four teams have one thing in common, they are all drastically worse than the Lightning on the ice and are experiencing rebuilds.
The Lightning are going to need to get things in check fast. Now is the time to experience a little bit of a slump ahead of the postseason because there is still some 20 games to get things in check and march into the playoffs with a championship in mind.
The Lightning have been experiencing some adversity, and it definitely seems like it has been getting to them.