30 in 30: Tampa Bay Lightning

Of all the teams in the Atlantic Division Tampa Bay are the most difficult to decipher.

Not only have they given Valtteri Filppula the money he was demanding; in itself baffling, but they also managed to be the league’s third leading scorers last term whilst somehow only bettering Florida’s points tally by four when they finished with a staggeringly mediocre eighteen wins from their forty eight games. Their 148 goals was only bettered by their Eastern Conference rivals Pittsburgh, Montreal and Washington whom finished in that order in the final standings.

It was their defence that was the issue however. They finished with a minus two goal differential and, more pertinently, lost twenty six games in regulation time. That was the second worst record with the only team inferior to them being Florida, naturally.

In: Valtteri Filppula, Jonathan Drouin

Out: Vincent Lecavalier, J.T. Wyman, Benoit Pouliot, Brendan Mikkelson, Evan Oberg 

First of all lets look at who has come in to Steve Yzerman’s team and, having shown potential with no real consistency for the last few years it is difficult to see why the Lightning have gone after Flip. Add to that the fact he has been brought in to replace Vinny Lecavalier who was bought out and has since headed up to Philadelphia and he really does need to deliver. Some other teams would see him as a necessary acquisition but a team who has Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos battling it out for the Rocket Richard Trophy could be forgiven for going after more defensive-minded options this off-season.

Jonathan Drouin has also been added to the set up. Drouin is, unfortunately, a very highly rated junior forward prospect so he’s not going to add too much to the back end of the Bolt’s system.

Two of the five notable players to exit the organisation this summer are defencemen in the form of Brendan Mikkelson & Evan Oberg but both have failed to make an impact (Mikkelson) or force their way into the set up (Oberg). The reliance on other non-established players in the Lightning system this year though is going to be a major worry for anybody concerned with the team.

So, Victor Hedman, what can you do? Hedman is really the only bluechip d-man on the Lightning blue line and as such is going to have to put in the kind of minutes we saw from Ryan Suter in Minnesota last year. He averaged roughly five minutes less than Suter in the regular season but you can be sure that will increase dramatically over the course of the upcoming campaign. Yzerman will also be hoping his points tally does too, no pressure then.

Season Targets

No doubt the organisation will be looking to improve on last year’s final standings and they may do that; but that really is reliant on how their defensive Corp step up though. Filppula is a decent two way player who will harry the puck in his own defensive end but is he a real improvement on Lecavilier in the here and now? I just don’t see it.

What they do have, as mentioned before, is goals and a netminder in Ben Bishop who was improving before the season concluded, albeit he finished with an average of .299 GAA yet it is still unconfirmed whether there is to be a return for Anders Landbeach who was the ‘trusted’ netminder in the early stages of the season of the last campaign. In their desperation to plug the holes in defence they used four men between the pipes last year so expect whomever gets the nod to get a more structured run this year with the season being less of a scramble and hopefully lessons being learned.

Simply put the goals they score will get them points but I don’t think they will be enough to make a sufficiently positive impact on the division.

Verdict: Fifth in Atlantic Division