The Tampa Bay Lightning keep sliding, but could Andrei Vasilevskiy change that? 

With Tampa Bay Lightning franchise goalie Andrei Vasilveskiy returning to the ice recently, it gives a sign of hope for good things to come to the Bolts and their fans. Today on Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHLer Colby Cohen take a peak at the struggles the Bolts have encountered early on the season and how Vasy can change that when he returns between the pipes.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Tampa Bay Lightning continue this sort of early season stumble, the first few games of the seeps  they looked good and it had me going ‘Boy when this group gets Vasilevskiy back, look out for them to be cup contenders again.’ But now you look at their first 15 games of the year they only have six wins. They’re being propped up by a lot of overtime losses, they’ve dropped three of four. There are legitimate concerns here and I know people think ‘It’s the longest summer they’ve had in a long time and they should be rested and dangerous’ but is this a group where once we see Vasilevskiy back we will stop noticing their warts and they’ll be fine or is there legitimate concerns with this Bolts team moving ahead? 

Colby Cohen: Look I’m not ready to say there are legitimate concerns. They still have a number of the best players in the NHL on any given night on their team, whether that’s Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, or Victor Hedman. I know Mikhail Sergachev is struggling this season to find consistency as sort of being a one-A to Hedman and the first time he’s getting to live in that role after a number of departures. The Bolts still have Point and Stamkos and when you put the best goalie in the world back in the net it changes the confidence in the entire team and how they play.

Colby Cohen: Especially for the defense core, you feel more emboldened you feel more battled, it’s going to lead to more wins. The other thing is, most teams can’t turn on a switch it’s just something that every coach will tell you it’s you practice how you play and there’s no switch, well if there’s a team that knows how to turn on that switch and fire it up, it’s the Lightning and Jon Cooper, it’s this veteran group that’s been to multiple cup finals and lifted the Stanley Cup multiple times. If you ask me in six or eight weeks and Vasy is back and they’re still struggling, maybe I’ll have a change of heart but I really do believe this is a playoff team and they just need to get into the playoffs and they’ll be difficult to deal with.

You can watch the full episode here…