Tampa Bay’s Lightning Fast Start to 2017

It’s one thing when the Tampa Bay Lightning sit atop either conference in the NHL, with their league-leading 32 points in the standings. But the team’s current standing is only amplified by the fact that the top of virtually every one of the NHL’s individual stat leaders reads like a different part of the Lightning’s nightly lineup.

Let’s start with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, who represent two-thirds of the most dominant line in the entire league. Through Tuesday, December 21st, Stamkos and Kucherov are #1 and #2 in total point scored (35 and 33). Kucherov has 17 goals in 20 games, which is four more than scoring-savant (and fellow Russian) Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Veteran defenseman Anton Stralman is tied for the league in overall plus/minus, with young superstar-in-the-making Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs; Stralman, Stamkos, and Kucherov, and right wing Yanni Gourde make the Lightning the only team in the Eastern Conference with four players in the top 15 of plus/minus rating. And thanks to the brilliant start to the season by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (who had a 10–1 record through the month of October), the Lightning have allowed the second-fewest goals in the NHL; Vasilevskiy has an NHL-high 14 wins this year, and his .928 save percentage is ranked among the top five in the league.

Most people knew that the Lightning’s best players were to be reckoned with, though. But what makes this Tampa Bay team so intriguing is that they’re unleashing their firepower — evidenced by the fact that they’ve scored the most goals this season to date, and have the best Power Play in the NHL — from multiple lines.

Centers Brayden Point and Vladislav Namestnikov both already have 20 points in 20 games. Two different defensemen — Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev — have at least 14 points this year; Hedman has a point in eight of the Lightning’s last 12 games, while Sergachev had a run of nine points in 13 days, during the second half of October.

So what are we supposed to make of this young Tampa team’s hot start, considering they were just on the outside looking in at this past postseason?

Let’s not forget that, right around this time last year, the Lightning had 10-to-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup, only behind the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins. They took the eventual Stanley Cup champions — the Penguins — to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals (in which, at one point, they had a 3–2 lead over Pittsburgh).

Perhaps fans are getting something of a mulligan for the team’s underperformance last year, amidst all those expectations. Maybe this is the year that they fulfill the promise that so many league observers see in them.

The Lightning clearly missed Stamkos, who himself missed 65 games last year after enduring a season-ending knee injury last November. Their young core of players, all of whom are under 27 years old, are one year older, and many of them have gained extensive postseason experience. And most importantly, Stamkos is back with a vengeance, looking like the guy that the Lightning remember as the franchise’s cornerstone player.

There is plenty of hockey left to be played, and we should be careful before jumping to conclusions less than eight weeks into this season.

But at least so far, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about this Tampa Bay Lightning team.

Originally written as a freelance opportunity for FloridaSportsChatter.com.