Tampa Bay Lightning Mailbag: What Is The Tampa Bay Lightning's Identity?

Welcome to this week’s Bolts By The Bay Mailbag, the place where we take any questions you may have about the Tampa Bay Lightning and give you answers.

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David asks: What is the Tampa Bay Lightning’s identity? You always here about teams having a certain style or way they are seen, but what is it for the Bolts?

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a young team that generates its offense using its speed and skill to get around defenders and put the puck in the back of the net. There are not many teams that can keep up with the Lightning when it comes to overall team speed, so that is something the team has taken advantage of over the past few seasons in Head Coach Jon Cooper’s system.

What is the formula to win games if you are a Tampa Bay Lightning player? Well, you are not the Boston Bruins or Philadelphia Flyers when it comes to being physical and becoming a team that will leave you with bumps and bruises. They are also not a team will win a ton of close contests even though Ben Bishop is a top goaltender in the league. We can be honest in saying that this team is built to win high scoring contests more than low scoring nail biters.

As we have seen in the past, this team can score with the best of them. We expect them to once again be at the top of the league in scoring as well as win the Atlantic Division. The way this team is going to do that is by scoring goals. There are some good offensive teams in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference that will score their share of goals. The team has a better chance of winning a 5-4 contest than a 1-0 or 2-1 contest.

When you have players like Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, and Alex Killorn, you should not have a problem scoring goals. When teams game plan against the Lightning, their goal is to take away their speed and keep a body on them at all times. That is exactly what the Detroit Red Wings did during their Stanley Cup Playoff series this past year. That is the reason why Steven Stamkos was moved to wing because the middle of the ice was clogged up so much he did not have any room to roam with the puck.

The Tampa Bay Lightning must not change who they are, even though they want to be a better defensive team. In their case, the best defense is a good offense. Ben Bishop will keep the team in the game and the Lightning defense is healthy and will only get better. Just keep using your speed to create havoc in the offense zone, control the puck, and do not take dumb penalties and you’ll be fine.

The 2015-16 regular season is 17 days away with the first preseason game starting Tuesday night. The Lightning are once again entering the season as one of the top teams in the NHL and they got this far by using their run and gun style to outscore opponents on a nightly basis. That is their style. Their forwards are pretty sound in the defensive zone and the defense can be solid at times, but you cannot depend on the defense and goaltender to win games for you with the offensive firepower this team has.

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