Tampa Bay Lightning needs to step it up before Home Opener
The Tampa Bay Lightning need to work on their team chemistry and puck aggressiveness before the Home Opener on October 6.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s 25th Anniversary Season is about to kick into high gear. After missing the postseason last year, Lightning fans have high expectations for their team in the coming season. This means there is a lot of work to do in between now and then.
At this point in the game, we are just nine days away from the official start of the 2017-18 season. On October 6, the Amalie Arena will swing open its doors once again as Lightning fans fill the stands to cheer on their team as they take on their in-state rivals, the Florida Panthers.
Aside from the joy of the impending start of the season, there is some doom and gloom creeping its way into the Bolts Nation. If the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to kick off this season on the right skate and stay ahead of the pack, they have a lot of work to do in the two remaining preseason games.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Now, before anyone starts in on the “it’s only preseason” route, allow us to put things into perspective. As we mentioned previously, the Tampa Bay Lightning only have two games remaining before the start of the season. Granted, some of the players currently taking the ice will not be in the opening day lineup, but this doesn’t mean the team needs to begin building their chemistry any less.
The Lightning had a promising start to the preseason with victories over the Carolina Hurricanes and the Nashville Predators, but as soon as the Bolts came face to face with the Florida Panthers things started to take a less than optimal turn.
On Tuesday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning took on the Panthers in what turned out to be a frustrating three periods of hockey. There real action in the first period of play, with the exception of a handful of penalties, but the second period of play was definitely all about the Panthers.
The Lightning defense and special teams essentially allowed Panthers winger Jonathan Huberdeau to run the ice. Just 42 seconds into the second period, Huberdeau would beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and strike first blood for the Panthers.
It was just over five minutes later before Huberdeau would strike again, this time giving the Kitty Cats a 2-0 lead over the Bolts. This is not a situation a team wants to find themselves in early on in the game. While chasing and leading have the same goal in mind, chasing involves much more work and intensity.
The Lightning would strike back in the third period with goals from forwards Ryan Callahan and Nikita Kucherov (respectively), but with another two goals from the Panthers, the Lightning would find themselves on the business end of a 4-2 defeat at the hands of their in-state rivals.
Even Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was not pleased with the Lightning’s effort in the first two periods of play. On the bright side, he does give a lot of credit to Andrei Vasilevskiy for bailing out the team on multiple occasions.
We have seen this situation play out before. There were plenty of times over the last couple of seasons where former Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop would have to come up big and make some spectacular saves just to keep the Lightning above water. While Vasilevskiy is more than capable of holding it down between the pipes, this is not the kind of situation you want to place a young goaltender in during their first full season as the guy.
One thing working in the favor of the Lightning is many of the players who were relegated to the sidelines last season are now healthy and back in the lineup. This includes players like Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan; both of whom have a huge on-ice presence in multiple facets of the game.
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Also, the recently injured Anton Stralman has made his way back into the lineup as well. Given the struggles the Lightning have endured offensively over the course of the last few seasons, the Bolts definitely want to start the new season with all cylinders firing. This means keeping their defensive core intact.
The Tampa Bay Lightning is a team with some of the best talents in the league at their disposal; however, if the team wants to maximize said talent and take things to a whole new level, like a nice, shiny Stanley Cup Championship, they are going to have to find their chemistry with one another and really make a strong statement in the first couple games of the regular season.
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As we said before, there are just six periods of hockey left between now and the official start of the 2017-18 season. There is a lot of work to be done in that 120 minutes of hockey, but the Tampa Bay Lightning was forged by the flames of adversity and if there is any team in the league who can get the job done, it’s the Bolts.