Putting the recent defeat to the New York Islanders aside, there is no team that had a better first quarter of the 2017-18 NHL regular season than the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bolts are on top of the league standings with a 15-3-2 record (32 points) which is one point greater than the second place St. Louis Blues. They are playing just as good on the road (7-1-1) as they are at AMALIE Arena (8-2-1) and were on a five-game winning streak before they hit a wall on Saturday night.
The Atlantic Division is arguably the worst division in the National Hockey League, but the Lightning are obviously on top of it nonetheless. They are four points ahead of the second place Toronto Maple Leafs and nine in front of the third place Detroit Red Wings. At this point, it's hard to picture any team other than Tampa Bay winning the Atlantic Division. However, both Toronto and the Ottawa Senators should not be taken lightly.
There is no team scoring more goals than the Bolts so far this season. Tampa Bay has racked up 79 goals in 20 games and is averaging 3.95 goals per contest. They also have the league's best powerplay, capitalizing on 28% of their opportunities.
On the flipside, the Lightning are not the best defensive team but find themselves in the top-five when you look at the numbers. Of course, this can be attributed to stellar play at the goaltending position. The Bolts have allowed 51 goals to the opposition, averaging 2.55 goals against. The penalty kill has also been decent, stopping 83.8 of the other team's powerplay opportunities.
When it comes to individual performances it is hard to start anywhere else but Steven Stamkos. Although he has always had the elite talent, Stamkos takes the cake for the biggest surprise on the Bolts this season, considering his situation last year. He has been absolutely dominant on the top line with Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov and leads the league in both points (35) and assists (25). In addition to feeding his current linemates with great passes, Stamkos is also scoring goals of his own and has ten of them on the year. In addition, he has been lights out on the powerplay, recording 15 points with a least a one-man advantage, seven of those points being goals.
If Stamkos is 1A on the list of best Tampa Bay players this season, Kucherov has to be 1B. I give Stamkos a slight edge simply because I did not expect this level of play out of him right out of the gate. Kucherov leads the league in goals with 17 and is only two points behind his captain (33). Similar to Stamkos, he has also been great on special teams, racking up 13 powerplay points. The emergence of Kucherov as an elite NHL player has made the top line of the Bolts nearly unstoppable.
The third member of that Lightning top line, Namestnikov, is off to a great season as well. Some of that success can, of course, be attributed to playing with Stamkos and Kucherov, but his nine goals and 11 assists cannot be ignored. Namestnikov is currently tied for third in points with Brayden Point with 20.
Speaking of Point, he has picked up right where he left off last season, proving that his success in 2016-17 was not a fluke. Through 20 games, he has eight goals and 12 assists.
Another pleasant surprise for the Lightning this season has to be Mikhail Sergachev, who was acquired from Montreal in exchange for Jonathan Drouin. Once an uncertainty to make the Lightning roster, Sergachev is really making a name for himself in Tampa with five goals and nine assists.
I mentioned briefly about stellar goaltending earlier, but I must take a second to recognize how important Andrei Vasilevskiy has been for this Lightning team through the first twenty games of the season. He leads all goalies with 14 victories and has played in all but three contests. Vasilevskiy is allowing only 2.34 goals per game and currently has a save percentage of .928. My only concern with Vasilevskit at this point has to do with maintaining this level of play as the workhorse between the pipes. The Lightning have demanded a lot out of him so far and it would be a shame to see him be completely worn out come playoff time.
Sustainability happens to be the only concern I have for the Lightning as a whole. Being able to maintain the level of success they have experienced thus far will not be an easy task. If Tampa Bay can keep this up for the season's entirety, they will be the NHL's Presidents' Trophy winners for sure. Unfortunately, winning that trophy does not always translate into winning the Stanley Cup. In fact, no Presidents' Trophy winner has won the Stanley Cup since the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13.
All-in-all, it has been a wonderful start to the season for the Tampa Bay Lightning. There is so much to feel optimistic about at this point and fans can't help but be hopeful about this team's Stanley Cup aspirations. Whether this team is destined to bring home Lord Stanley's Cup can only be determined when everything comes to an end, but it should be a fun ride either way.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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