LightningStrikes
Champa Bay Lightning
- Nov 24, 2009
- 26,234
- 10,080
No, stay!Yeah, defense has always been our bread and butter, which apparently is still the best kept secret in the league. That said, I think our Defense-or-Death strategy is a double-edged sword, and becomes riskier as we lose talent year after year.
What I mean is, in 2020 and 2021, we were the TB Lightning playing like the New York Islanders, and we bulldozed our way to two cups. In 2023, we weren't as loaded up as we were in the two years prior, but by God we still had the same mindset. We have always been very content to lay back in the defensive zone and defend HARD whenever the puck gets near the slot, but with a less talented team, we had to go SO hard that I really believe it led to a lot of the injuries we saw. I mean, we were icing a human-shaped bruise as our #3D by the time the semis came around. Cirelli with no shoulders by the finals, Hagel with a broken foot.
Whether we're scoring or not in the regular season, I don't worry about our offense much. I think we play a system that is gonna keep our scoring down to "one more than the other team and that's it" no matter who we add or whatnot. And we already have arguably the best top-3 in the league, and the one that can be trusted most in the playoffs (especially now that Stamkos has had a genuinely elite playoff run). I don't think we should be planning for safety nets on that, because that's kind of a luxury mindset, which we've had in the past when #3Cs weren't making 6.5. Our salary structure is still good, but resembles the rest of the league a lot more now, so we're not gonna get back to a time where our top-6 was the best with space between us and the next guy. I honestly feel like our two cups were about as dominant as any team wins a cup these days.
Even as I type this (...while procrastinating getting to work on real stuff...) I actually believe that TDL acquisitions are far more often a mistake than "the missing piece." I mean, there's a chance a guy will show up and be another Nick Paul, but there's a way better chance he will be Brandon Hagel, and you're not gonna really get the best out of him until he's had time to adjust. In my mind the realistic thing that we could add that would help us out the most is a defensive-minded winger. Give me a Palat who doesn't score at all and I'll be happy. And if we get really luck we can put him on a 3rd line with Cirelli and keep Matthews/Marner from eating us alive in round 1, while keeping our 1st line intact. (Last year we had to drop Point down with Cirelli to deal with MM).
Okay, off to work I go.
Reading this Riley Nash came back to my mind. Dude was solid. As advertised nothing happened when he was on the ice: Neither for us but more importantly nor for the opposing team.
