Early Season Look In: Will The Tampa Bay Lightning Complete A Three-Peat?
The Tampa Bay Lightning season has been far from a perfect start. They hold a 2-2-0 record heading into Tuesday night’s games and suffered a disheartening 6-2 loss to open the season against Pittsburgh.
They narrowly beat the Detroit Red Wings, 7-6, in OT on the Oct. 14, before another OT win two nights later against Washington. On Tuesday of this week, they got beat by their division rival Florida Panthers 4-1.
While a rocky start isn’t always cause for concern, a lower-body injury has taken star forward Nikita Kucherov out of the lineup for an indeterminable amount of time.
While they’ve scored the eighth-most goals in the league so far, they’ve also given up the second most — a statistic far from the norm for this Lightning team. Over the last two years, the Lightning have been in the top-10 at defending against goals. Small sample size notwithstanding, there has to be some concern over the amount of goals allowed in such a small period in time.
What to expect in 2021-22…
The sky truly is the limit for this Lightning club as they embark on the hunt for the first Stanley Cup three-peat since the New York Islanders won four in a row from 1980-83. While the Lightning lost some of their depth in the offseason, they top-end talent remains as strong as ever.
Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy all remain in the primes of their careers.
The biggest question is: can they three-peat? That’s yet to be seen. There’s a reason it’s only happened a handful of times. Teams now are deeper, better, faster and more competitive than in the past.
Teams like the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs are all teams knocking on the door. No matter what, the Lightning are still as safe as can be for a team making a deep playoff run.
Players to watch…
Already up to seven points in four games, captain Steven Stamkos will be one of the top players to watch. Fully healthy for the first time since 2018-19, Stamkos is a player who the Lightning will be heavily relied upon to carry the offensive load, especially if Kucherov’s injury keeps him out for an extended time.
Mikhail Sergachev has already got a goal and two assists in four games this season while averaging 22:47 a night — the most of his career. He’s getting some powerplay time, but is also spending more time killing penalties than he ever has before. He’s a player who could make a big impact.
The last player to keep an eye on is goaltender Brian Elliott. Now 36, he’s being looked to provide good value in net on Vasilevskiy’s off nights. We know those don’t come often, but last year Curtis McElhinney struggled in the 12 games he played posting a 4-6-2 record, a .875 save percentage and -9.7 goals saved above average.
What did they do in the off-season?
Notable Additions: Andrej Sustr, Zach Bogosian, Brian Elliot, Corey Perry, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
Notable Subtractions: Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow
The Lightning lost a few key depth players. Yanni Gourde landed with the expansion Seattle Kraken, while Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow each got big, long-term deals the Lightning couldn’t afford.
They’re not relying on promotions within their organization, as well as a number of other veteran NHL’ers to fill the void.
Next offseason, they’ll have a few key players to get under contract all the while being pressed up to the cap. Palat, Pat Maroon, and Mathieu Joseph will all need new contracts.
One bold prediction…
As much as the world would love to see it, the Lightning isn’t able to complete the three-peat and even fall short of reaching the Eastern Conference finals.
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