Speculation: Official bad Lightning team is bad thread
- Thread starter These Are The Days
- Start date
CarpeNoctem
Chilling w The Chief
Pack it in, boys. This team is going nowhere in the playoffs, if they even make it. It's a total joke.
FinnLightning26
Death and no taxes
They almost deserve to not make it in. They already think they're in judging by their play and Stamkos' comments about them knowing the game will be different in the playoffs.
AlphaCatalyst
Elite Fan
PaulGG
Registered User
- May 15, 2011
- 1,873
- 313
This is a good example of how competitive the NHL is. Many teams are better than they were last year. We sort of went with status qou and were besieged with injuries which in this league means you may be watching playoffs on cable TV. Seriously we did nothing to move forward as a team this year. As I have been hearing all year there is time to turn things around, well can't say that now.
Todd1a
Kucherov or prospect
Yep we did nothing all offseason and nothing at the trade deadline. You get better stay the same or get worse in this league.
Todd1a
Kucherov or prospect
Lord Stan 2020
Elite fan
the halleJOKEL
strong as brickwall
Coopers Gum
Extend Andrej Sustr
I think we are seeing a lack of depth at the forward position this year. In year's past remember we'd be able to bring up Namestnikov & Kucherov. Last year we had Drouin on the 4th line providing secondary scoring. Now we are bringing up guys like Blunden, McGinn, and Vermin to fill in for injuries and its not the same. Our forward core was depleted and Yzerman doubled down on defenseman at the wrong time...we have them coming out our ears and not enough depth at the forward group. Whoever is responsible for the Brian Hart 2nd Rd 53rd overall draft pick should be provided with prescription glasses and binoculars. We are 5 deep on both RHD and LHD in Syracuse ... and our best skilled available forward is a 2011 7th Rd Forward rookie Pro named Matt Peca.
We have 1 skilled PF in the pipeline - ONE as a rookie Pro. It is not a surprise that when we are healthy we rattle off huge winning streaks...and as soon as a player gets injured we are a .500 club. We have better depth than most teams but not enough to sustain top 9 injuries to skilled players and keep winning like year's past. We don't have a Vladdy, Kuch, Paquette to fill in anymore...they have taken the regular spots. However, we don't have enough in the pipeline to continue the winning carousel.
My take is depth is lacking. .500 team when injuries hit...and contenders when healthy screams depth issue to me.
We have 1 skilled PF in the pipeline - ONE as a rookie Pro. It is not a surprise that when we are healthy we rattle off huge winning streaks...and as soon as a player gets injured we are a .500 club. We have better depth than most teams but not enough to sustain top 9 injuries to skilled players and keep winning like year's past. We don't have a Vladdy, Kuch, Paquette to fill in anymore...they have taken the regular spots. However, we don't have enough in the pipeline to continue the winning carousel.
My take is depth is lacking. .500 team when injuries hit...and contenders when healthy screams depth issue to me.
Todd1a
Kucherov or prospect
Ya I agree we are not as deep at forward as in the past! We just don't have the right forwards to call up right now that can produce offense. Which after we lose Stamkos who steps up to take his role in the top six ?
These Are The Days
Oh no! We suck again!!
I don't think it's necessarily a depth issue as much as it is a consistency issue through the whole top 9. We have too many guys who go through long scoring droughts and others who are completely useless unless they're scoring.
To put it on a list
The streaky ones
Namestnikov- streaky and starts floating around doing little to nothing for weeks at a time. Useless on a slump
Killorn- streaky and floats around occasionally making physical ruckus for weeks at a time. Useless in a slump unless on a PK
Filppula- streaky and starts over passing in his slumps for weeks to months at a time. Useless on a slump except for faceoffs and PK
Callahan- streaky and when he slumps he does NOTHING that is conducive to scoring. He just hits everything in sight, takes bad shots and gets easily frustrated for weeks to months at a time. Damn near useless in a slump because we already have high energy players who bust their ass.
Stamkos- streaky and when he slumps he starts over passing like Filppula for weeks at a time and to his credit, pulls out of his funks faster than his cohorts. Useless in a slump
The more consistent ones
Kucherov- floats around doing little to nothing during slumps. Useless in a slump
Palat- Plays like Palat when not scoring. However in my opinion is more useful than Callahan (sorry D2B) still useful in a slump
Johnson- floats around doing nothing and does the Callahan treatment... bad shots, turnovers and visible frustration. To say the kid is useless is an understatement. I wanted Johnson outright benched with Filppula back in October. Blame it on his injury but oh my God I've never seen a forward struggle like he did. I'd like to say this year is an anomaly for him. Useless in a slump
PS- Not even sure I can count JAM since he gets scratched so often
The Callahan, Filppula, Stamkos and Killorn combination plays together in some variation in pretty much every game. Once one of them goes cold they ALL go cold together. I said it a billion times before the trade deadline but Yzerman needs to shake this team up. We have a GREAT team but there is such little natural chemistry with the most important scorers outside of the TKO members that we go through these long scoring funks waiting 3 to 7 games for anyone to start playing worth a care.
I'm holding hope that Drouin comes back and jump starts the team.
The Gongshow
Fire JBB
These Are The Days
Oh no! We suck again!!
Naw let him sit for about 3 to 5 more games. I just think as we move forward (Cup or not) we need to look at the big picture of our roster. It's possibly the deepest Lightning roster ever put together but it lacks any flexibility.
Look at the 2004 team. It's about as flexible of a top 6 as you could possibly ask for
Stillman-Lecavalier-Fedotenko
Modin-Richards-St. Louis
The rest of the forwards were rather unremarkable. Andreychuk was about the rest of the "scoring depth". You had minor players like Taylor who could contribute the surprise goals. But it's noteworthy that if you wanted to, you could stick Stillman with Taylor and Andy. We all know how great St. Louis and Lecavalier could play together. Richards could play with just about anyone if you gave him enough time. If I'm not mistaken (this was before my times) but I'm positive that Modin had playing time with Lecavalier when they first broke in together pre-Tortorella and did well together. We had pretty much "just a top 6" but for the most part they were consistent, interchangeable and above all... played well together most of the time. Granted, I may be inaccurate about some of this since this is where my Lightning history as a fan starts but I do not remember ANY scoring issues in 2005 with the same players minus Stillman, plus Prospal.
To ask an important question: How many times in the playoffs did our offense suddenly "drop dead" like it does now? Torts' biggest question of the night was how to shut down guys like Iginla and Gagne, not where his offense would come from. I am VERY concerned with where we are going to get our goals from. I'm not convinced the TKO line is gonna find its magic this year.
2016 Lightning top scoring options
Filppula plays consistently well only with J.T Brown and Callahan and takes weeks to adjust to new linemates before consistently scoring.
Callahan plays consistently well with only Filppula and Palat and takes weeks to adjust to new linemates before consistently scoring.
Killorn plays well consistently with Filppula and Callahan but takes weeks to adjust to new linemates before consistently scoring. He is BRUTALLY hot and cold with Stamkos.
Palat is chained at the ankle with Johnson and can play well with almost anyone
Johnson is chained at the ankle with Palat and has yet to prove he can play well outside of the TKO line
Stamkos doesn't play well with anyone else but Kucherov and goes through hot and cold streaks with Palat. Results vary on him going from line to line and his history with Alex Killorn. Keep him the hell away from Filppula! Keep him the hell away from Callahan unless it's on the power play.
Kucherov is the ONLY player other than Palat who plays well with everyone and can be switched on the fly for immediate results.
Namestnikov is too inconsistent to say he plays well with anyone. The best results came with Palat and Stamkos.
As a coach you don't have many options on this team. As individuals our players shine but they function poorly as a unit. I don't give Cooper a ton of grief because I watch his player struggle from week to week to even figure out what they are doing. Coop's gotta figure our what the hell to do with Carle and Sustr and still win the game. He has A LOT to learn but he gets the job done and his players have not qut on him. For that I won't call for his head.
Just before the playoffs roll around (assuming we don't choke) and Drouin comes back I want to see
Drouin-Stamkos-Kucherov
Palat-Johnson-Callahan
Killorn-Filppula-Brown
Make them inseparable and keep Stamkos as far away as possible from his old KFC linemates.
Last edited:
CarpeNoctem
Chilling w The Chief
AlwaysSunny hit the nail on the head. And besides the streakiness of just about the entire top 9 and the complete lack of chemistry most of those guys have with anyone but their one particular "ice buddy", I also think we have a severe lack of real shooters on this team. I'm talking about guys with a nasty shot and the willingness to use it. Who on the team truly has the attitude of an aggressive goal scorer?
- Kucherov obviously has no problem letting it fly
- Stamkos, on those infrequent occasions when he's playing like he should
- Johnson (he's had a bad year but at least he tries to score and has shown in the past that he's capable of it)
- JAM (for all his deficiencies and lack of top end talent the guy's at least not afraid to shoot)
- Palat (not primarily a goal scorer but when the opportunity is there he doesn't hold back)
And that's about it. Namestnikov showed a lot of promise early in the year and does have a very nice shot, but he needs to use it more often to qualify for the above list. Killorn has his moments, particularly in clutch situations, but I wouldn't say he lives up to his nickname in terms of his attitude towards scoring. And everybody else is either a pass-first player and secondary scorer at best, or is simply incapable of scoring in the first place except on rare occasions.
So when you look at the guys who consistently look to put the puck in the net, you've got one guy who is horrifically streaky, another guy with questionable durability, one with defensive deficiencies that keep him from seeing serious ice time, one who's generally more of a setup guy but can finish when the opportunity is there, and Kucherov. It's no wonder our scoring is inconsistent: we only have a handful of guys who would rather send the puck to the net than pass it around endlessly, and only two of them are truly reliable (and one of those is more of a setup guy anyway.)
- Kucherov obviously has no problem letting it fly
- Stamkos, on those infrequent occasions when he's playing like he should
- Johnson (he's had a bad year but at least he tries to score and has shown in the past that he's capable of it)
- JAM (for all his deficiencies and lack of top end talent the guy's at least not afraid to shoot)
- Palat (not primarily a goal scorer but when the opportunity is there he doesn't hold back)
And that's about it. Namestnikov showed a lot of promise early in the year and does have a very nice shot, but he needs to use it more often to qualify for the above list. Killorn has his moments, particularly in clutch situations, but I wouldn't say he lives up to his nickname in terms of his attitude towards scoring. And everybody else is either a pass-first player and secondary scorer at best, or is simply incapable of scoring in the first place except on rare occasions.
So when you look at the guys who consistently look to put the puck in the net, you've got one guy who is horrifically streaky, another guy with questionable durability, one with defensive deficiencies that keep him from seeing serious ice time, one who's generally more of a setup guy but can finish when the opportunity is there, and Kucherov. It's no wonder our scoring is inconsistent: we only have a handful of guys who would rather send the puck to the net than pass it around endlessly, and only two of them are truly reliable (and one of those is more of a setup guy anyway.)
Lord Stan 2020
Elite fan
OurlordAndSaviorKuch
Number one Bull$hit
Team is so pathetically inconsistent..... Where in the hell did our team from last season go to?
These Are The Days
Oh no! We suck again!!
Really wanna know the truth? This WAS our team last season. We just had Palat, Johnson and Kucherov scoring 2 and 3 times a game to cover up the radical inconsistencies of the rest of our offense. Remember, the three of them accounted for half of our total offense as a team and they did it for a whole season. When you shut the TKO line down we had nothing to fall back on. The ECF was the only time we rolled more than one capable scoring line for the entire playoffs. By the time we faced Chicago, there was no more KFC + Stamkos magic left.
I'm not dissing Cooper when I say this but if he doesn't accidentally assemble the TKO line in Winnipeg, I guarantee you the year would have gone much differently.
CarpeNoctem
Chilling w The Chief
Agreed 100%. We snuck up on people late in games last year, but they've been prepared this time around. I blame the puck possession system Coop seems to love simply because it doesn't match our personnel. He's fired after we lose in the first round, book it.
LightningStrikes
Champa Bay Lightning
- Nov 24, 2009
- 26,238
- 10,092
The Gongshow
Fire JBB
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