Speculation: 2018 Off-Season: We fell short again... now what do we do?

[T REX]

According to a personal source with the Lighting org. Stamkos had a hurt knee and wasn't playing at anywhere near 100%

He is injured every freaking single year. I am so over it and him being a no show in big games. No more excuses for him. Stop babying him. Give his C to someone that cares.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Is it Connolly?

Nah, it's Stamkos and his 1 ES goal. His ES stat line is 1g 3a 4p -1. His 3 assists were all secondary too. He was a glorified PP specialist.

 

[The Macho King]

We had too many players not step up, plain and simple. Our forecheck was so weak this series - I can't explain it. We played way more passive than normal - is this Cooper defaulting into "Playoff-mode" like he's done every other postseason? Better to lose 2-1 than to win 5-4?

I don't know. I know some players needed to step up, but too much of what I saw seemed to be coaching based. Our forecheck was tenacious in the first two series - we didn't give teams clean breakouts. We saw that for all of one period this series.

 

[Todd1a]

Nah, it's Stamkos and his 1 ES goal. His ES stat line is 1g 3a 4p -1. His 3 assists were all secondary too. He was a glorified PP specialist.

Stamkos was fine this series Gourde was no where to be found and Tyler Johnson. I like callahan and kunitz but they are the new JT brown's on this teaM that cant score.

 

[Ori]

REBUILD!
JT Miller what will happen with him - he has a RFA contract end of this season can Tampa afford his new contract?

 

[Blue Liner]

I believe he has 0 points in his last 10 elimination games. He's like the Patrick Ewing of hockey, good regular season guy but the team is better off without him.

That is a pretty damning statistic. Interesting how that narrative has been pinned on Ovechkin most of his career but you rarely, if ever, hear it about Stamkos.

I get coaching frustrations but do not pine for Torts or someone like that. He isn't going to do anything for you. The grass is not always greener elsewhere. I'd be happy to send you Quenneville. If you think you're frustrated now just wait...

Aside from the silly draft, I am genuinely a Lightning fan and have been for a few years. I was really disappointed in last night's effort and result. Was really pulling for them and thought they'd make it. Still a lot of positives going forward but there certainly are things to be addressed. It was a pleasure being in here for the run and I'm willing to accept a hometown discount to stay on the board past this postseason. Thanks for the hospitality and good natured ribbing. Was a fun run but obviously not the end result we all hoped for.

 

[The Macho King]

REBUILD!
JT Miller what will happen with him - he has a RFA contract end of this season can Tampa afford his new contract?

If anything, I say take him to arbitration. Not a guy I want for six years but I'm not sure we have someone who is ready to step into his place right now.

Take the one year deal for whatever the arbitrator awards and then let him walk.

 

[Ori]

yeah, I feel bad we have a conditional pick with Tampa - I really wish Tampa won it this year.

 

[Stammertime91]

What would a better adjustment have been? Sergachev is the lone capable shooter we have that can get a puck to the net from the blue line and move with it. Other than a rookie who is not ready for 20 minutes a game, who was gonna take those shots? Asking someone like Coburn to move his feet while cycling is like asking to develop a superpower. Give me a name amongst our blue line that was going to be responsible for starting a shooting gallery like Orlov and Carlson. I promise I'm not trying to be oppositional or antagonistic. I want to see where you're going with this because I see 5 defensemen who can't get the puck on net. I'm no coach but if you saw a way that works that I didn't I'll be on the Fire Coop train by the end of your post. The way I see it, adjusting to swap a forward in the place of someone like Stralman (who handles the puck like it's a goddamn grenade) was the only solution we had left to try. You're right, our zone entries were maddening but bad news.... we can't really utilize the stretch pass for quick breakouts and we don't have enough guys with enough toughness and speed built for a Mike Sullivan dump and chase. So many times this year we've seen Cooper go with a "take your structure and stick it" game plan and it worked. The problem is you can only try it so many times in a 7 game series. You and everyone else criticizing him for not adjusting are 100% right. But I'm just under the impression that it would not have worked all the same. I watched us fail for 2 years to try to win games with defense with guys like Boyle and Filppula and dear Lord we were HORRIBLE with it. Like I said I'm not gonna get tied up in knots over it. I'm not gonna get mad that a team who sucks at dump and chase was not coached to dump and chase and crash the net was not coached to play that way when what we did got us 3 wins although they were via heart attack. I think we could have tried to adjust but I don't think it would have worked out too well.

I thought your plan was get shots from the blue line. My bad. That's the problem, we couldn't. His adjustment on a high forward was a double whammy, we get the puck up top regardless of who it is and hit the first man what seems like 9/10 times.

 

[Todd1a]

If anything, I say take him to arbitration. Not a guy I want for six years but I'm not sure we have someone who is ready to step into his place right now.

Take the one year deal for whatever the arbitrator awards and then let him walk.

take him to arbitration or give him a one year 5 million dollar deal the cap is going up to 78 to 80 million anyway just don't give him a long term deal. Or if we get a offer for a first round pick for him and a decent prospect I'd take it for JT miller. but I agree one year of miller next year would not be bad till more kids are ready

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

ES goals these playoffs

Point 6
Palat 6
Kucherov 5
Connolly 4
Johnson 3
Killorn 2
Cirelli 2
Callahan 2
Miller 1
Paquette 1
Stamkos 1
Gourde 0
Kunitz 0

One of them is not like the others.

PP goals

Stamkos 6
Killorn 3
Gourde 2
Kucherov 2
Sergachev 1
Miller 1
Point 1

 

[theghost1]

Yzerman 8 years as GM and ZERO cups time to make a change.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Yzerman 8 years as GM and ZERO cups time to make a change.

I hope this is a joke.

 

[Werewolf]

Okay... I obviously don't think we're going to fire the coach, but if you don't think we got out-coached here, I don't know what you're watching. There's a REASON those players were invisible. Because Trotz had a plan for them. The Caps didn't chase us; they waited for us. We had no response. They created a wall in front of their net, forcing us to the perimeter... so we kept playing the perimeter.

It's up to the coach to figure out a way through that. If you see players trying the same things over and over and over, and failing every time, it's on the coach to give them a new gameplan.

We had one minor adjustment in Game 2 or 3, when we started delaying in the neutral zone rather than rushing into their trap game. Aside from that, I really don't think we made a single adjustment in the entire series. We just kept banging our head against the same wall.

Last game wasn't out coached. Vasi let in a soft one ... then they played 1-1-3 trap until they got a lucky bounce to make it 2 - 0. And they continued to play trap the entire game. We had negative puck luck and several grade A chances.

We came into the series flat...our boys drink the Kool-Aid and think they can just turn it on, cause they are "that good". We gave the series away by not showing up to more than half the games.

 

[DownIsTheNewUp]

Amazing so many of you guys lay the blame on Stamkos when this team was clearly outcoached the whole series. You could have replaced Stamkos with McDavid or Crosby and the result of this series would not have been any different. Washington played a better system, no one player can overcome that.

 

[T REX]

We were up and down all year and it finally bit us in the ass. Best reg season in Bolts history and Cooper can't even get them to the SCF.

How long do we stick with this bum?

 

[Todd1a]

Yzerman 8 years as GM and ZERO cups time to make a change.

GM is fine you got to make some more player changes or make some coaching changes no matter what some things got to change if we ever want to win the stanley cup

 

[T REX]

Amazing so many of you guys lay the blame on Stamkos when this team was clearly outcoached the whole series. You could have replaced Stamkos with McDavid or Crosby and the result of this series would not have been any different. Washington played a better system, no one player can overcome that.

Cooper never gets outcoached in the con finals or SCF. He gets abused. Health and Human Services will be doing a welfare check on Cooper later today.

 

[Todd1a]

We were up and down all year and it finally bit us in the ass. Best reg season in Bolts history and Cooper can't even get them to the SCF.

How long do we stick with this bum?

When Gallant was out there last year that was the time to make the change and we did not

 

[God King Fudge]

My thoughts:

I don't know what the problem in Tampa Bay is, honestly. I do think Cooper is part of the problem, but not all of it. At the end of the day, he isn't putting on the skates. The guys need to have some kind of pride in themselves.

I think Bowness has to go. If absolutely nothing else changes, this has to. With the D we have, it should not be this scary. The PK is bad enough to warrant change on its own.

Some things I'd like to see this offseason.

Bowness shot into the sun.

Coburn moved for some kind of asset. Picks/a prospect. He had a pretty decent second half when the rest of the team declined, but he's still kind of scary out there. I'd prefer to move Girardi, but I don't see anyone taking him, TBH.

Johnson or Palat or Killorn (likely Johnson. Palat is more valuable and I don't think Killorn is valuable enough) for a young dman to replace Coburn.

Callahan bought out. I like Callahan. I think he really elevated his game in the playoffs, but we need production from our other lines. Not that anyone really produced in the ECF, but Washington had guys all over chipping in. Burakovsky, DSP, Connolly. It'd be nice to get someone who can produce a bit outside of the "intangibles"

I'm split on Miller. If he's willing to take a $3M deal or so, keep him around. He did play well with Stamkos and Kuch. I wouldn't give him anything more.

Out: Kunitz (UFA), Callahan (BO), Johnson (Trade), Coburn (Trade), Miller? (RFA), Sustr (UFA)

Miller-Stamkos-Kucherov
Palat-Point-***
Killorn-Cirelli-Gourde
***-Paquette-***

Hedman-Stralman
McDonagh-Girardi
Sergachev-***

Vasy
***

Not a ton of movement, but I think it's movement that helps the team overall. The BO on Callahan will save the team $3M over the next 2 seasons and cost them $1.5M over the 2 after that. A pretty fair trade considering the next two years are likely the best opportunity for a Cup.

Guys I wouldn't mind taking a look at as UFA: Patrick Maroon, Derek Ryan and Riley Nash up front, Tomas Hickey, Calvin De Haan and Ian Cole on the back.

Guys I think could jump to the NHL to fill a spot over signing a guy: Joseph, Volkov, Peca, Stephens up front, Masin or Cernak on the back.

I think think the Lightning need to explore getting EK. I think he comes here next offseason anyway, but if he can be had reasonably at the deadline or at the draft, you do it. Perhaps something around Johnson and EK.

Being able to think of a future lineup is fun sometimes, but Jesus this sucks man.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

Shot generation, including high danger shots, throughout the playoffs. Point was a total stud as we knew.

 

[The Macho King]

Last game wasn't out coached. Vasi let in a soft one ... then they played 1-1-3 trap until they got a lucky bounce to make it 2 - 0. And they continued to play trap the entire game. We had negative puck luck and several grade A chances.

We came into the series flat...our boys drink the Kool-Aid and think they can just turn it on, cause they are "that good". We gave the series away by not showing up to more than half the games.

I agree with your assessment of the last game (although Stralman has to close the gap there and not let him get that shot off). When you go down 1 a minute into the game against a team that likes to trap and refs that are actively trying not to call penalties, it's going to be tough. You need to fight through and crash the net - and we didn't really do that.

 

[Stammertime91]

So pitiful looking at Stamkos 5v5 numbers. It's as if a bird shit in my mouth when looking up at the sky. Just feels so wrong. The whole team should feel bad today.


Come on Steve, give Bowness the boot. Today.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

Gee, look what two Bolts defensemen had the best overall exit with possession and entry defense stats among the Conference finalists. Surprise, surprise.

Sergachev was really good in his limited exposure to his first ECF. Coburn might not be able to exit the zone well, but he was excellent at defending against entry into our zone. McDonagh was a disappointment.

 

[Fabiobest]

According to a personal source with the Lighting org. Stamkos had a hurt knee and wasn't playing at anywhere near 100%

What?
So both Stammer and Kuch were injured in this post season?
For real?