E'ks note: John Gove is a published hockey blogger who has written for various outlets such as The Hockey Writers and the FanSided Network. He has spent time covering a wide variety of NHL teams including the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Nashville Predators. We are very pleased to have John covering the Tampa Bay Lightning for Hockey Buzz.
It appears as if the sky is falling in Tampa Bay.
32 games into the 2016-17 NHL regular season, the Lightning, a preseason favorite to win the Stanley Cup, find themselves flirting between the line of mediocrity and just plain bad. Tampa Bay has only managed two wins in the past 11 games and five points over the last 25 days. Instead of contending for first place in the Atlantic Division with the Montreal Canadiens, the Lightning currently find themselves outside the playoff picture.
Is this where we pictured this team to be at this point in the season? The answer is simple, no. Is it time for the Lightning and its fan base to go into full-blown panic mode? The answer is a little more complicated but still is a no.
Everyone connected to these Tampa Bay Lightning in some way can have their figurative finger hovering the that panic button. However, they should not push it just yet.
The fact of the matter is that Tampa has been underperforming up to this point in the season. Injuries to key players such as Steven Stamkos have indeed played a role in this debacle. Though the captain will still be out for quite some time, the Lightning should expect valuable assets like Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, and Ryan Callahan to return to the ice soon.
This team proved that it can do some damage without Stamkos last year as they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. The same group of players are still present and can very well right this sinking ship before it smashes into the ground.
In addition, Tampa Bay’s goaltending duo of Andrei Vasilevskiy and Ben Bishop is just too good to continue playing this poorly. One has to imagine that either one or both of these netminders will return to form soon.
Yes, it seems as if the wheels have fallen completely off for this Lightning team. However, the fact still remains that there is just too much talent on this roster for Tampa Bay not to turn things around and push them back into the playoff picture.
Speaking of the playoff picture, the Lightning actually are not that far out of it. As of right now, Tampa is two points behind the third place Bruins and another two points behind the second place Senators. All the team really needs to do is get on a little bit of a winning streak and they are right back in the postseason discussion.
A successful stint of performances this week would go a long way in brightening the outlook towards Tampa’s future. The Lightning play three games over a span of five days against the Red Wings, Blues, and Capitals. They will take on both Detroit and St. Louis at home before taking to the road to face Washington.
None of these matchups will be easy. Realistically, no matchup for the Lightning could be viewed as easy for quite some time. However, getting a string of victories against talented opponents this week would go a long way in transforming the morale in Tampa Bay’s locker room to one of positivity and hope.
It is definitely accurate to claim that the Lightning’s 2016-17 season has been filled with nothing but disappointment to this point. Still, it would be premature to panic and call this season a lost cause. The Tampa Bay Lightning have both the time and talent to turn this season around.