How much pressure are the Lightning under?
The Tampa Bay Lightning are off to a rough start in 2026-27, after falling 5-1 to the New York Rangers to open their season on Thursday night.
While the team still has lofty resumes, the average age is creeping higher as management looks to stretch the team’s contention window as long as possible. Yet, head coach Jon Cooper’s magic touch may be wearing out.
Although it may be just one loss, the potential for panic to grow is there. Next up, it’s a battle with the Washington Capitals on Saturday, and the Bolts desperately need to turn things around to shut down the noise of a downfall.
On a recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton dove into where things stand for the organization.
Carter Hutton: This is a team that got a little bit of a pass from us about pressure and about where they’re at? There’s been so much talk about the Edmonton Oilers and different teams that are like in this pressure cooker.
But looking at Tampa Bay now, we’re going on four straight first-round exits. They have an aging core. There are so many things. Does this start to get ugly quick? I know it’s just one game, and I don’t want to rush it because they have a lot of veterans. But this is a situation where, if things start to spiral out of their control, I think everyone will be looking over here.
Think about how many picks they’ve given up over the last five to 10 years to keep this core. If it goes south, this might be a lot of pressure on Jon Cooper, on management, and on this aging core.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, Andrei Vasilevskiy has got two years left on his contract, and he’s 32 years old. As you look at that blue line, John Carlson, who they signed, is 36; Victor Hedman is 35. They got J.J. Moser and Erik Cernak under 30, but then there’s Ryan McDonagh, 37.
And then obviously the looming story in the forward group is the fact that Nikita Kucherov is a pending free agent, and this is a front office that, you know. If I had told you at the beginning of Steven Stamkos’ last season in Tampa Bay that it was going to be Steven Stamkos’ last season in Tampa Bay, you would have called me absolutely insane. But Brayden Point is 30 years old now, and Jake Guentzel is 31. Like, this is not a team that’s on the up. This team is coming off four straight first-round losses, with largely the same core year after year. Again, I don’t want to be Mr. Early Season Overreaction, but I’m looking at everything we saw last year.
Remember, Hedman was kind of mysteriously gone for a while, and then we learned it was the mental health stuff, and he was away from the team, which you have sympathy for. But that’s another storyline that plays into this. There just seems to be a lot of things pointing in a bad direction in Tampa Bay, and you know what? The noise won’t get quieter if their first 10 games don’t go well, especially if Cooper’s already reacting like this.
You can catch the rest of the recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE and the full Lightning discussion right here…