GDT: 4/25/24 - 7:00PM EDT - #1 Florida vs #1 WC Tampa Bay [ECQF GAME 3]

[DaBolts]

Never go full Sabres

 

[DFC]

This team went from Killorn, Palat, Colton to Chaffee, Jeannot, Sheary. f***ing hell

The cap is the cap.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

The cap is the cap.

Yes, but could have kept Colton if they really wanted to. Acquiring Jeannot for that much was ridiculous the moment Friedman leaked the trade and Sheary seemed like an odd signing that day

 

[flying squirrel]

Terrible loss, left to many goals on-the-ice. Lightning had many opportunities, some earned, and some from NHL/E$PN to get series 1-2, but Lightning couldn't get it past Bob enough. Lightning got taste of their own goalie medicine tonight and whole series so far. And without Kucherov being Kuch, this Lightning team chances were slim. Believe series is over, but would love to see Lightning pull of reverse sweep. Who wouldn't though?

Lightning have major depth issues, D holes (Some younger D showed promise), and lack of bottom six scoring allows "Great teams" to make things hard for Lightning stars. Just like Lightning use to do to other teams, Lightning use to 4-line them to death!!! Plus, Lightning use to be blocking machine when they had bodies to spare. If a Lightning player had to miss a game here and there after blocking shot, we had depth to deal with it. Not the case now.

Not sure where I am, with what Lightning should do this off-season, but not chasing "Cups" might have to be considered. After few trades missteps, contracts overpays, injuries/will seeming to cause few players to lose a step, and other weaknesses. All options should be on table for Lightning.... No matter what Lightning choose to do.. Keep most of core, lose much of core, or clean house. Stamkos should retire a Lightning, he's not the weight on team others think he is. Plus, think Stamkos stays in shape and will age well to boot. Plus, he might sign friendly deal to retire Lightning, and that's a good deal for what Stamkos brings to table. Stamkos helps if team they wants to stay competitive for "Cup", or he mentors youth learning to be next Lightning legends. Who knows if GM is safe at this point. Speaking of safe & Point.......

Thanks for the reads here and still hoping Lightning can pull off crazy!!!!!

 

[Hoek]

I don't think Colton is THAT good to lament too much. But he is better than Jeannot

 

[Hockeyville USA]

I don't think Colton is THAT good to lament too much. But he is better than Jeannot

While he would go invisible for stretches, he was solid depth scoring and much better than Jeannot, Sheary, Chaffee

 

[LTIR Trickery]

I don't think Colton is THAT good to lament too much. But he is better than Jeannot

I'm not saying he'll be a 40 goal guy but he scored 20 playing a bottom six role here, thats a good hockey player

 

[flying squirrel]

You don't fix 7 gaping holes in your roster by trading Cirelli/Cernak/Serg.

You trade someone like Point or Kuch if you want to patch those sooner than later.

At that Point, who would be harder to replace? Kucherov or Point? One who feeds ya or one who eats mostly now? Dang, this part stinks with wanting Lightning to be champions, and glad I'm not GM!!!

 

[Antiramie]

The cap is the cap.

Yea, why would the cap do this to JBB!???

At that Point, who would be harder to replace? Kucherov or Point? One who feeds ya or one who eats mostly now? Dang, this part stinks with wanting Lightning to be champions, and glad I'm not GM!!!

Kuch is my 2nd to last resort after Vasy. Point is a product of Kuch. I'm easily shipping Point first.

And I think Hagel gets you the most return for his actual worth/cap going forward of all our players who don't have a NMC.

 

[DFC]

You don't fix 7 gaping holes in your roster by trading Cirelli/Cernak/Serg.

You trade someone like Point or Kuch if you want to patch those sooner than later.

You're underestimating the size of the hole that would create, and how unfixable it would be.

Dont get me wrong, trading any of those three would also create a hole, but they would each get a good return. Sergachev would get a huge return. But that would leave our weak D even weaker.

That said, I dont think its possible for him to live up to his contract while Hedman is still here. We are paying both of them PP1 money.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

You're underestimating the size of the hole that would create, and how unfixable it would be.

Dont get me wrong, trading any of those three would also create a hole, but they would each get a good return. Sergachev would get a huge return. But that would leave our weak D even weaker.

That said, I dont think its possible for him to live up to his contract while Hedman is still here. We are paying both of them PP1 money.

Should have they traded Sergachev at the 2022 Draft for a haul instead of extending him? Many were saying this at the time...

 

[Hoek]

Do we just sign Howard and hope he plugs a hole?

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Do we just sign Howard and hope he plugs a hole?

If you care about having a legitimate NHLer, you keep him at State for one more year to round out his game (hopefully dominate) and then give him the final 5-10 games to end the 2024-25 season once they're done.

 

[JTBF81]

There's no big fish on the market this year to go after though. We would be down yet another top 6 forward. At some point filling a team with bottom 6 players gives you four 3rd lines

Right, but there are plenty of dmen. They can keep Stamkos, add a lesser F instead of Duke or someone else in that range l, and spend ~5 million on a dman then, instead of ~3.

 

[Antiramie]

You're underestimating the size of the hole that would create, and how unfixable it would be.

Dont get me wrong, trading any of those three would also create a hole, but they would each get a good return. Sergachev would get a huge return. But that would leave our weak D even weaker.

That said, I dont think its possible for him to live up to his contract while Hedman is still here. We are paying both of them PP1 money.

Kuch was mostly hyperbole....unless you could get a monster return for him, in which case I'd seriously consider it. I really don't think Point is a full rebuild hole. You can find someone else to play the bumper and pick corners for way under $9.5M, which is essentially what his role has become. I appreciate all his past postseason success, but he's not single-handedly helping us in the playoffs at this point with no depth behind him (nor is Kuch for that matter).

I'd ship Cernak or Serg if I could get a great return for them, but at this point I don't think it'll happen. But if you could do it and improve our blue line, I'm all for it. But yea I'm not keen on shipping serviceable D-men when our defense is the problem.

I think you dump all the $1-3M dead weight guys (Dumba, Sheary, Duclair, Perbix, etc), one or two big names like Point, Hagel, Cirelli, and hopefully re-sign Stammer for a semi-bargain. That gives you a lot of money to play with going forward and you still have Kuch, Vasy, Stammer, Hedman, Serg, Cernak, Paul, Ace, Cirelli/Point/Hagel, Motte, Glendening, Lileberg/Crozier.

 

[T REX]

It's crazy that they just lost their sixth straight home playoff game. Certain trends continue though, losing the first game of a series and losing the first home game of a series have been a staple during Coop's tenure.

Major moves are needed, we've regressed two seasons in a row now. We can't just swap a couple of low salary guys with more low salary guys and think that's going to accomplish anything. Other than Kuch and Point (even though neither of them played well this series) I think everyone should be on table in terms of trades, even Hedman if the right deal presented itself.

there's no trades that will bring back enough to change teh direction of the team.

Let's all be honest...the window is closed. I'm not worried about eating crow because it is the absolute truth.

Cooper is done here. It's just a matter of when. How long to we draw this out? A year? Two?

I doubt we make the playoffs. We are old and slow and lack depth. No picks. Nobody in the minors.

The future is bleak. Lots of great memories. This happens to every team.

 

[Action Jackson]

well we certainly wont be seeing tampa or toronto this 2nd round

 

[Hockeyville USA]

there's no trades that will bring back enough to change teh direction of the team.

Let's all be honest...the window is closed. I'm not worried about eating crow because it is the absolute truth.

Cooper is done here. It's just a matter of when. How long to we draw this out? A year? Two?

I doubt we make the playoffs. We are old and slow and lack depth. No picks. Nobody in the minors.

The future is bleak. Lots of great memories. This happens to every team.

There are some guys in the A, but they're lower ceiling types with unknown floors. I have confidence that Goncalves, Finley, Duke can all be NHLers, while others like Groshev and Huuhtanen are still quite intriguing.

Gauthier will be an NHLer, but his ETA is likely 2026-27 unless he kills it in 2025

 

[T REX]

There are some guys in the A, but they're lower ceiling types with unknown floors. I have confidence that Goncalves, Finley, Duke can all be NHLers, while others like Groshev and Huuhtanen are still quite intriguing.

Gauthier will be an NHLer, but his ETA is likely 2026-27 unless he kills it in 2025

We need help NOW, today. We got banners. Vinik has some tough decisions to make.

We are selling out right now...so they may stretch this out to keep the building full even though we all know this gig is up.

 

[gn2007]

Also we had 86 HITS! WTF LOL FLORIDA HAD 63. Isn't that nhl record?

 

[Sky04]

I don't think Colton is THAT good to lament too much. But he is better than Jeannot

19 points in 80 games with TB. PEB was more useful.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Worst game for Perbix in the NHL. Terrible time to not give a f***

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Perbix is so contact shy I wonder if he has something upper body - didn't he take a weird hit a few games back?

 

[Bozo Nicholson]

Also we had 86 HITS! WTF LOL FLORIDA HAD 63. Isn't that nhl record?

There needs to be locker room hits.

 

[Sky04]

If we lose it's the first time they've lost in the first round consecutively since 05/06 and 06/07.

Back to the drawing board, I'd rather see a full retool then waste endless years being mediocre. Hasn't worked for any team thus far except delaying the inevitable. If our strategy is we need to be fully healthy and everyone needs to be playing at 100% of their ability to win then there's no shot.