Five Things The Tampa Bay Lightning Need To Do To Get Back On Track

Nov 1, 2015; Raleigh, NC, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) is congratulated by his teammates after the game against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

Take a look at the five things we believe the Tampa Bay Lightning need to do in order to get back on track and prepare for a successful season.

The Tampa Bay Lightning started off their season with a bang, winning not only their home opener, but the two games that followed as well. This included a win over the big, bad Boston Bruins in a place the Tampa Bay Lightning are notorious for coming up empty in, the TD Garden in Boston. Unfortunately, after the win in Boston, things seemed to take a turn for the worse for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Slowly, but surely, some of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s key players would be bitten (hard) by the injury bug. Over the course of the remainder of the month the Tampa Bay Lightning would lose players like centers Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson, Brian Boyle, and Cedric Paquette. This is in addition to Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy who was sidelined before the start of the season with a blood clot.

No matter how hard they tried, the Tampa Bay Lightning simply could not get the offensive pressure going, the defensive perimeter set up, or a fully healthy goaltender between the pipes. As you can imagine, this caused quite the struggle for Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper, who had to think on the fly and find a way to shake up the Lightning lineup to set them on the right path for a repeat visit to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Over the course of the next few pages, we are going to take a closer look at the five things we believe the Tampa Bay Lightning will need to accomplish if they are going to get back on track and set themselves up for a successful season and a deep run in the 2015-16 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Do you agree with our points? Is there something you feel we may have overlooked? After you’ve had a chance to take a look at our solutions, take a minute and leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.

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