Lightning hitting their stride early in the season
The season is still early. We are nine games in, but I absolutely love what I am seeing from the Tampa Bay Lightning. After the loss in Sunrise the second game of the season where the Lightning were outshot 48-30, the Lightning held a players only meeting and and that meeting has set the course for the 6-0-1 streak that the Lightning are currently riding.
The Lightning have came out of the dressing room ready to play from the opening whistle. They have put pressure on the opposing team immediately and have had a defensive mind-set from the opening face-off.
The Lightning have tied the 2003-04 team for the best start in franchise history going 7-1-1. All that team did was go on to win the Stanley Cup.
The Lightning have not been beating up on the bottom teams of the league either. The Lightning have beaten St Louis, Pittsburg twice, Washington and Columbus. All playoff teams from last year.
Rick Bowness said that the sting of missing the playoffs last year is still fresh in the players minds and needs to stay there all season. Points are too hard to come by in the NHL, and you can’t take a game off. Every game, every shift is important.
The top line of Stamkos, Kucherov, and Namenstikov has been the best in the NHL this season. This line has combined for 16 goals and 34 assists in nine games. Stamkos currently leads the NHL is scoring with 18 points and Kucherov is tied for the lead in goals with ten and is second in scoring. With 16 points.
In the past the Lightning would look to Stamkos for scoring, but now that there is a lot of firepower on this team, the role of Stamkos is changoing to more of a playmaker and has he ever delivered 3g and 15a to start the season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy has gotten stronger as the season has gone on. Vasilevskiy is 5th in the league in save percentageat .933 and also 5th in GAA at 2.38.
The young Lightning players are contributing and playing key minutes so far this season. Brayden Point in his second season is 4th in scoring on the team with 4g and 6a. The young defensemen Mikhail Sergachev scored his first two NHL goals in a 2-0 win against Columbus last week and added a power play goal against Pittsburgh on Saturday Giving him three goals on the season. The Lightning will need to make a decsion on the status of Sergachev in the next 24 hours. The Lightning have a game in Carolina Tomorrow night and if Sergachev plays in that game he will have to be here for the whole season as he cannot go back to the Juniors and is too young to play in the AHL.
I think Sergachev will stay with the Lightning as he has become a key component for the team on The PP and PK.
Finally, the defense is much improved over last season. The Lightning are playing much more aggressively and the forecheck is much better than it was last year. With the improved defense, that has created more fast breaks as the forecheck has created more turnovers leading to odd man rushes. The Lightning has always had good team speed but that element seemed to be missing a good portion of last season.
The Lightning will have cool off at some point this season. It‘s bound to happen over 82 games. But this team is playing inspired hockey right now and as a result have the best record in the NHL.
