Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
Last June, the Tampa Bay Lightning finished just two wins shy of their second Stanley Cup. But one offseason later, the Triplets are older, their defensive unit remained intact, Ben Bishop is healthy, former third-overall pick Jonathan Drouin appears to have earned a spot in head coach Jon Cooper’s top six, and Steven Stamkos is still Steven Stamkos. In essence, it’s Cup or bust for the Bolts in 2016.
Perhaps those expectations are steep, but for Tampa Bay, it shouldn’t be all that difficult if things continue to go their way. Their division is still average at best -- Detroit and Montreal made some worthwhile additions, it appears, but as a whole Tampa Bay remains the projected powerhouse -- and literally everybody from the core general manager Steve Yzerman has developed is still there. For now.
The curious case of Steven Stamkos will loom over the Lightning all season long, but perhaps that’s all the more reason to believe that Yzerman and the Bolts will go all out to bring the Cup back to the Bay for the first time since Dave Andreychuk and company accomplished the feat in 2004.
And it begins tonight, with the Lightning hosting the Philadelphia Flyers at Amalie Arena.
Squared off with a Philadelphia squad they’ve beat in nine of the last 11 meetings, and with Philly’s last win in Tampa Bay coming all the way back in 2011, this would seem like the perfect matchup for the Bolts, to pick up from where they left off last spring by way of their 50-win, 108-point campaign.
“Claude Giroux, to me, is a top five player in the League. He's just a threat all over the ice,… Cooper said of Giroux and the rest of the Flyers following the club’s morning skate. “They've got grit. Wayne Simmonds is a tough player to play against. Their power play is dazzling. We can't put them on the power play. So if we want to give ourselves a chance to win we have to limit the penalties.…
Under the guidance of a new, energetic head coach in former North Dakota (NCAA) head coach Dave Hakstol, you can expect an extra jump in the Flyers’ stride tonight, even though most of this roster, with the exception of defenseman Evgeny Medvedev suited up for the Black and Orange a year ago.
The Flyers will give the Opening Night nod to Steve Mason.
In spite of a tame 18-18-11 mark last season, Mason comes into the year riding a career-high .928 save percentage in 2014-15, and had a .940 save percentage at even-strength last year, second to Carey Price’s league-leading .942 at evens. That said, Mason will need to improve upon his career figures against the Bolts if the Flyers are to leave with two points, as the Oakville, Ont. native enters this one with one win and an ugly .863 save percentage in five career contests against the Lightning.
Tampa Bay counters with Ben Bishop.
Following a career-best 40-win season in Tampa last year, Bishop is 100% healed from the groin injury that certainly appeared to limit him in the fourth-round finale with the Chicago Blackhawks last June, and looks to once again take charge in the Lightning crease. Working in Bishop’s favor tonight, of course, is a 2014-15 home record featuring 27 wins and a .925 save percentage in 34 games played.
Stats of Note
- Tampa captain Steven Stamkos has scored 18 goals in 23 career games against the Flyers.
- Defender Victor Hedman had seven goals and 27 points in 32 home games last season.
- Nikita Kucherov has zero goals and one assist in six games against Philadelphia.
- Philadelphia finished last year with the fourth-best power-play in the NHL, at 23.4%.
- Jakub Voracek has four goals and 12 points in 16 career games against the Bolts.
Other news and notes
Defenseman Nikita Nesterov will serve as the healthy scratch for Tampa Bay, while Cedric Paquette (leg) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (blood clot) remain out of action for Cooper’s group.
There’s a lot of money in the Philadelphia press box, as Vincent Lecavalier, Sam Gagner, and Radko Gudas will sit as the healthy scratches for the Flyers. All three of these players were at one point or another members of the Lightning organization. Lecavalier was a Bolt the longest, of course, while Gagner was with the Bolts for about three minutes last summer.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com