Lightning’s special teams have been a cause for concern during team’s recent struggles

Coming off back-to-back losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, the Tampa Bay Lightning are 3-2-0 to start the 2024-25 regular-season campaign. Not great, but not terrible.

Nikita Kucherov looks like he hasn’t missed a beat, scoring seven goals and three assists for 10 points; new captain Victor Hedman is thriving at both ends of the rink, and free agent signing Jake Guentzel seems to fit right in on a line with Kucherov.

But the Lightning’s special teams are a cause for concern, with only a 13.6 percent success rate on the power play and a 73.7 percent penalty kill, both in the lower half of the league. Is the loss of Steven Stamkos that much of a detriment to a Tampa Bay squad that so heavily relied on special teams to produce offense? Can Guentzel find a way to replace that production this season? Who else can step up in Stamkos’ absence?

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Jonny Lazarus discuss the Lightning’s start to the season, their less than stellar special teams and if they can get the engine revving as the season continues.

Jonny Lazarus: The biggest thing for me with Tampa is their special teams. Last year, one of the best power plays in the entire NHL, and this year they’re at 13.6 percent, 27th in the league, and they’re PK is at 73.7, 24th in the league. The special teams we are used to seeing doing well is off to a slow start.

For some crazy reason, they’re still scoring goals. Tampa’s been a weird team so far, this year. The eighth-highest scoring team, but not getting much success on the power play. It’s been an odd start.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…