Lightning Strike or Strikeout?
After falling flat on their faces in a year where many had them as Stanley Cup contenders, Quentin Young gives his take on whether the Tampa Bay Lightning can bounce back into prominence.
Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman continues to make waves in the hockey world. He traded star player Jonathan Drouin, signed four-time Cup winner Chris Kunitz, and improved the defence. The biggest concern is in net, with former starter Ben Bishop having been traded to the LA Kings at the deadline, and then signed by the Dallas Stars. Andrei Vasilevskiy has 102 games of NHL experience (12 postseason games included) and a remarkably pedestrian .915 regular season career save percentage despite talk of high potential. He did have a .925 save percentage this postseason however, and along with teammate Kucherov took gold in the World Hockey Championships for Russia in May. He still has to earn his stripes as an NHL starter, though. If he can’t, GM Steve Yzerman will be hoping that Peter Budaj (34) can turn back the clock again after a solid season in Los Angeles.
Superstar right winger Nikita Kucherov had 85 points in 74 games, with 32 of those coming on the power play. Centring him is franchise cornerstone Steven Stamkos, who began the 2016–17 season with 9 goals and 20 points in only 17 games before succumbing to a lacerated meniscus in his knee, ending his season. The Lightning captain has 582 points in 586 career games, with a further 35 points in 49 playoff games.
In a late bid for breakout player of the year, Lightning centre Brayden Point laughed in the face of adversity as teammates Tyler Johnson, Cedric Paquette, and Vladislav Namestnikov all went down with injury in a game against the Minnesota Wild on March 9th, 2017. Point assumed first line duties and finished the season on a personal high with 18 goals and 40 points in 68 games, five power-play goals and 122 shots on goal. Not bad for the guy they were rolling out as their 4th line centre.
The addition of left wing Chris Kunitz brings a wealth of experience, even though he only contributed 29 points in 71 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins last season (A career low for points per game.) Kunitz turned it on in the playoffs, scoring 11 points in 20 games to help capture the Stanley Cup. In total, he has won three Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh including the recent consecutive wins as well as one cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2006–07. The undrafted winger has contributed 580 points in 884 regular season games, including 250 goals (77 of which came on the power play) and 688 penalty minutes.
At the same position, Alex Killorn is hoping to rebound next season in the locker room. He was pinpointed as one of the players Nikita Kucherov was talking about in an interview with Sovetsky Sport, a Russian daily sports news source. Translated by the Tampa Bay Times, Kucherov stated that “Some guys overstayed in team, they’ve got their money and stopped working. They knew there’s no competition for their positions and the organization is not going to take someone else.” It is possible that the interview Kucherov gave, which went on to say that he had trouble finding chemistry last year and the coaches created too much mayhem with the line-juggling during an injury-riddled season, is one of the reasons that Chris Kunitz is even on this team. Both left wingers, both two years out from 40-point seasons, but one of whom has the pedigree of four Stanley Cups under his belt and the will to bid adieu to a fantastic career in a blaze of glory. That’s motivation that Killorn simply doesn’t seem to have right now. Though Kunitz is 10 years his senior, he’s going to apply pressure for minutes and premier line-mates. Will that pressure break Killorn this season, or we will see the best version of him since he was drafted in 2007.
The Lightning seem to have all the tools they need. A dominant top nine (Namestnikov-Stamkos-Kucherov, Palat-Johnson-Point, Killorn-Paquette-Callahan), a Norris trophy finalist in defensive stud Victor Hedman, a savvy general manager, and a former Jack Adams finalist (2014) in head coach Jon Cooper, who was named the AHL’s most outstanding coach, has won championships at each level of coaching, and was the 5th fastest coach to reach 100 wins since 2000.
If this team can stay healthy, they’ve got a good chance to make a bid for the Eastern Conference’s berth in the Finals. One thing is for sure though. Tampa might be overdue for a few pucks to “strike” opposing twine, but they’re headed in the right direction.
Quentin Young is a hockey writer for theocho.ca. Follow Quentin on Twitter at @young_quentin or find him on LinkedIn or Facebook.
