Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
Like your Halloween candy, the month of October was a mixed bag for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The year began with back-to-back-to-back king rized Reese’s cups. But the trek ended with a neighborhood of Skor bars (seriously, what the hell are those things?) with three consecutive losses, including an ugly 6-1 beatdown at the hands of the New York Rangers on Sunday night. Nine games in, the Lightning sit in fourth in the Atlantic Division, with 10 points by way of a 5-4-0 record.
Here are five rapid fire thoughts from the month of October ahead of the Lightning’s head-to-head with the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
5. Kucherov misses a game, but doesn’t miss a beat
I’m not going to lie, I thought we would for sure see a significant drop from Kucherov out of the gate. The holdout, the World Cup of Hockey, the late arrival to camp. It all spelled out two options for me: Injury or a month-long nightmare as he struggled to regain his footing with the Bolts. I was wrong on both fronts (though Kucherov did have a scare with an injury in Montreal and missed one game), as Kucherov has been the Lightning’s second-most impactful forward through the first month of play.
Yeah, four of Kucherov’s eight points did come in one game, but overall, he’s been the same fit he’s been on the Tampa Bay top six for the last few years, and remains the club’s go-to winger.
The one thing you’d like to see more of from Kuch? Goals. He has just one on 17 shots this season.
4. Callahan looks like Callahan in return from hip surgery
October ended with a bang, three bangs in fact, as physical Lightning winger Ryan Callahan returned to the lineup in Sunday’s defeat at the hands of the Rangers with three hits and one shot on goal in 13:09 of time on ice for the Bolts.
The game was much of a feeling out process for the veteran Callahan, but overall, you have to like how Callahan provides the Lightning with another versatile winger option, especially for a Tampa Bay group that’s struggled to get meaningful contributions from energy guys like J.T. Brown. Overpaid, yes, but Callahan does come to the ice with a potential game-changing presence in so many different ways for the Bolts, and it really only helps their depth.
3. Defensive question marks exist
A three-game winning streak allowed the Lightning to assign Slater Koekkoek to the American Hockey League. After all, Koekkoek needs to play. Koekkoek did for the AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch, too, and tallied two assists in five games played. But the three-game losing streak, a run in which the Lightning have allowed 12 goals against, has summoned Koekkoek back to the Lightning. Good.
I really felt that Koekkoek emerged as a viable option for the Lighting blue line during last year’s playoffs, especially with the way coach Jon Cooper likes to play with strong breakouts and the defensemen joining the rush in the attacking zone. That’s something that favors Koekkoek over guys like Braydon Coburn, Jason Garrison, and Nikita Nesterov. And now it’s on Koekkoek to come through and try to silence some of the concerns with Tampa Bay’s ability to defend in a run-and-gun East.
2. Vasilevskiy has outplayed competition in battle for Tampa Bay crease
This one’s obvious: In six games played, Bishop has three wins and an .880 save percentage. In three games played, Vasilevskiy has two wins and a .929 save percentage.
The only Bishop has beat Vasilevskiy in thus far in the teeth lost department.
OK, but really, there’s no reason for the Lightning to trade Bishop.
As it stands right now, the Lightning have perhaps the best chance to emerge out of the Eastern Conference and play for the Stanley Cup. The Pittsburgh Penguins are still the Pens, of course, but we know how defending champions tend to fare in their bids to repeat. The Canadiens have Carey Price, yes, but at a certain point, especially with the World Cup of Hockey last September, you can expect Price, Shea Weber, and Andrei Markov to begin to run out of gas. The Capitals are going to Capital. This does feel like the Bolts’ conference to lose, and it could happen if Bishop is moved for the mere sake of moving him.
Bishop will walk as a free agent this summer. Everybody knows it. But why not give it one last go with either Bishop, one of the league’s top postseason goaltenders, in net or on the bench waiting to step into the mix, instead of simply relying on one goaltender and hoping nothing bad happens.
You’ve come this far with a win now mindset, so why try anything different now?
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010 and has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013. Ty is also the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com and can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.