Do the Tampa Bay Lightning have a weakness?

[yave1964]

  Watched the Lightning the other night against the Canadiens, they essentially overwhelmed ne of the top teams in the league, This is the fourth time i have watched Tampa in a month, a quality team, fun to watch and in my opinion not a weakness on the roster anywhere.

 

 Start with the top line, which does not include Stamkos, it is Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat who since they were put together in late October now have 111 points in 36 games. Simply unstopable, and a combined plus 74 (!).

 The second line, still hard to think this way, but really Stamkos keys the second line playing with Val Filpulla and Ryan Callahan. This line has 40 goals and 97 points with Filpulla dishing on the power play and Stamkos in the running for goals scored and Callahan having his best season ever, playing solid at both ends.

 

  The third line has Killorn with 17 points and Drouin working his way in slowly but getting better and more confident every game, anand Brett Connolly has 8 goals, more than some teams  have out of a second liner. The fourth line has veterans such as Boyle and Morrow who mamay have slipped a bit but provide valuable experience come postseason.

 

 Ben Bishop stands tall, literally and figuratively in net aat 20-6-2 with a 2.35 goals against.

 

 On defense, Victor Hedman took a while to get there but he is now one of the elite blueliners in the game averaging just unnnnder a point a game. Under the radar signing Anton Stallman has been an amzing steadying influence and Jason Garrison, donated by the Canucks is perfect as the QB of the second power play. And Matt Carle finishes off the top four, plus ten and 13 points as the number 4 d-man.

 

 Depth on defense might be the only problem, Gudas is out for 4 months and was not having any kind of year so far, Sustr is okay, but they have a bit of cap room and I can easily seeing them look for a tweak in this area, but when your only weakness top to bottom is your number 6 d-man you have one hell of a team.

  Steve Yzerman deserves the executive of the year award, period, no questions asked, no debate. Just a beautifully put together team.

 

 

[briere48]

  Watched the Lightning the other night against the Canadiens, they essentially overwhelmed ne of the top teams in the league, This is the fourth time i have watched Tampa in a month, a quality team, fun to watch and in my opinion not a weakness on the roster anywhere.

 

 Start with the top line, which does not include Stamkos, it is Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat who since they were put together in late October now have 111 points in 36 games. Simply unstopable, and a combined plus 74 (!).

 The second line, still hard to think this way, but really Stamkos keys the second line playing with Val Filpulla and Ryan Callahan. This line has 40 goals and 97 points with Filpulla dishing on the power play and Stamkos in the running for goals scored and Callahan having his best season ever, playing solid at both ends.

 

  The third line has Killorn with 17 points and Drouin working his way in slowly but getting better and more confident every game, anand Brett Connolly has 8 goals, more than some teams  have out of a second liner. The fourth line has veterans such as Boyle and Morrow who mamay have slipped a bit but provide valuable experience come postseason.

 

 Ben Bishop stands tall, literally and figuratively in net aat 20-6-2 with a 2.35 goals against.

 

 On defense, Victor Hedman took a while to get there but he is now one of the elite blueliners in the game averaging just unnnnder a point a game. Under the radar signing Anton Stallman has been an amzing steadying influence and Jason Garrison, donated by the Canucks is perfect as the QB of the second power play. And Matt Carle finishes off the top four, plus ten and 13 points as the number 4 d-man.

 

 Depth on defense might be the only problem, Gudas is out for 4 months and was not having any kind of year so far, Sustr is okay, but they have a bit of cap room and I can easily seeing them look for a tweak in this area, but when your only weakness top to bottom is your number 6 d-man you have one hell of a team.

  Steve Yzerman deserves the executive of the year award, period, no questions asked, no debate. Just a beautifully put together team.

 

it's because steve y is taking redwings blueprint that made them successful, he's drafting europeans and adding them to the roster. one thing i wish the flyers would do more of.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Maybe one can point the finger at the amount of youth still on the team, but one glaring weakness is they do suffer from a touch of 'panic' when a team pressures them in their own zone.

Also, I STILL say, the Bolts have trouble handling big, grinding, checking teams.

 

It's why teams like the Bruins, to an extent, the Leafs, Jackets, and similar Western Conference teams still give them trouble.

 

High skill / pressure forward type teams like the Habs, Pens, Hawks, Leafs, and heck, even Edmonton in recent seasons cause a bit of the panic issue in the defense at times..

 

Yes, the Bolts have handled some of those teams already this season, but not easily and have still lost some key games this season to some of those teams.

Of course, the proof will REALLY be in the playoffs, where no matter who they beat during the regular season, they will need to erase that big black eye the Habs gave them in that 4 game sweep.

 

Also, as was mentioned, Ben Bishop simply MUST stay healthy. No ifs ands or buts about that.

 

I have no delusions that the Lightning will ever be dominating defensive group (they live and die by their offense, SMART defense, and goaltending), and thus they need Ben Bishop to erase the gaffes that are sure to come from the D.

Not Nabokov, not a minor league guy (although Andrej Vasilevskiy has been good when called up)....it HAS to be Bishop, at his best.

 

As long as the top two lines don't go into scoring slumps at the same time though, I know the Bolts ALWAYS have a chance to win any given game, as teams will have to decide which line they want their best D and checking lines on.

 

Throw in very good 3rd and 4th lines, and that gives the opposition some more matchup problems....but the sometimes soft and brain fart defense the team plays, the inexperience in some parts of the lineup,  and Ben Bishop's sometimes suspect overall health are weaknesses that other teams can definitely exploit.

 

Here is hoping this group can make the necessary adjustments to the league and that the vets play as such and help these young guys along...especially during playoff time!

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

I see Yzerman making a move for a shut down d-man (Andy Greene? Jeff Petry?) but frankly that is all they need. Yes, they are young and inexperienced and a bit chaotic at times with lapses late in the period much more often than you would like, that is why a hard hitting veteran shut down guy is their only real need.

[jammer2]

  When I saw the Eagles for the Hell froze over tour, I managed to secure front row seats, much to my surprise, I was seated next to Steve Yzerman. I tried to be polite, let him enjoy the concert, but he was very forthcoming, he could tell I was a huge hockey fan and he actually wanted to talk some hockey. It was awesome. Stevie was wearing that big neck contraption, from an injury the year before. Anyways, he told me during that fairly extensive conversation that he was going to be a GM some day, or at least hockey management. He told me some of this theories on team building etc.

 

  I took two things away from that night. 1)The Eagles were still a very talented band and 2)Stevie would some day block my Flyers from Lord Stanley if he landed in the East. I still believe 1 + 2 to be true.

[yave1964]

@jammer2

 

My God front row at an Eagles concert an next to Yzerman. That and Heather Locklear would more or less be how I view heaven....