Resiliency in Recent Wins & Wake-Up Call for Defense Needed
Welcome to the THW Tampa Bay Lightning Substack newsletter, with all the latest from our team of Lightning writers.
In today’s edition, we have thoughts on the Lightning’s resiliency in recent wins, why the defense needs a wake-up call, and more.
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Lightning Stock Up, Stock Down: Tomkins, Stamkos and Overtime
November 24, 2023 by Jim Bay
At the quarter mark of the season, the Tampa Bay Lightning are 9-6-5 and are sitting in third place in the Atlantic Division. This is not totally surprising, as many pundits felt that the Lightning would finish the 2023-24 season in that position. However, getting to that position has been quite a roller coaster ride. After going through a three-game losing streak at the beginning of November, they just finished a recent three-game homestand going 2-0-1 after the Thanksgiving eve (Nov. 22) overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
The upside to this record was they were able to earn their 23 points without all-world goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who underwent back surgery to address a lumbar disc herniation in late September and was initially ruled out for the first two months of the season. However, it appears that the Lightning’s first-round pick in 2012 will be returning to the ice when they start a three-game road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday (Nov. 24).
Lightning Show Resiliency in Recent Wins
November 22, 2023 by Joel Enns
After a rough patch that saw the Tampa Bay Lightning lose three straight games, with the latter two being shutouts, they have rallied and won three straight. Perhaps what is most impressive is that the Lightning were trailing at some point in each win, and in their game against the Boston Bruins, they were even behind with less than five seconds remaining.
The last few weeks have felt like a roller coaster, and for a time, there were few positive remarks that could be made about the Lightning outside of the play of Nikita Kucherov. It feels like the tide is starting to turn, and the team is finally figuring out how to get things to click. Plenty of questions remain, but the Lightning are trending up, and it could not come at a better time.
Lightning Defense Needs A Wake-Up Call
November 17, 2023 by Joel Enns
When the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons, most of the credit went to clutch performances from Andrei Vasilevskiy and the stellar play of the forwards. There is no doubt that those aspects of the teams were crucial to crowning the Lightning as champions.
The defense was pretty great too, though. Ryan McDonagh was an absolute beast with his sound defensive play, which is something that can often be underrated by fans. Mikhail Sergachev and Victor Hedman were firing on all cylinders. Even Jan Rutta looked like a new man in Tampa. What changed? What has transpired in the short time since those Stanley Cup runs that has resulted in such infuriating defensive play?