Tampa Bay Lighting next season. (NHL)?

Question

Just wondering what everyone things about how the lightning will do next season since they got Malone, Stamkos, Kolzig, and some other good players, and new coaches. I think they might be as good as the Wings were this season :P

Answer 1

Yeah Tampa Bay is gonna own next season they have so many good players

Answer 2

no defense. They need to get another defenseman who can score. Schneider from the ducks would work well. They also have to have a good shutdown line. ALSO: kolzig isn't the starter. Smith is. Offense wins games, defense wins championships

Answer 3

I think so too. To say again what JR said. Our defense is YOUNG. It is growing just like the team is. The guys that were added will bring maturity. Ollie is not our starter and Smith wasn't given the opportunity to do his job. He hasn't been with us that long. He will prove himself. We are still trying to fix what Jay Feaster did to our team. Only time will tell though. No one can judge just because they won the Stanley Cup though. After our win we basically started all over with a brand new team. Once you do that then don't talk about other teams. You have no clue what it is like to start with an almost all new team.

Answer 4

You cant score when you dont receive outlet passes because your defensemen are getting fisted in the ***, or because Ollie the Goalie cant cover the puck or control a rebound, or because Barry Melrose cant coach.  You cant even come close to what the Red Wings were last year, let alone this year.  You guys really just look at names dont you?  Do you even look at your depth around the rink?  Olaf Kolzig sucked d*ck when he was in his prime.  Barry Melrose...sucked d*ck when he was in his prime while playing and while behind the bench.  Name one notable defenseman you guys have signed or have coming back next year, because I can't think of one.

Answer 5

uhhhhh... no.

They have.   overloaded on that secondary scoring they needed but just because the lightning score 4 goals a game doesnt mean that they will win.  Nad their defense went from bad to worse as the lost 2 key defensman, and two of pretty much the only ones decent in their own end.  they still have a ways to go.  and KolZig is old, and does not have the durability they need

Answer 6

You're reaching for something that's not there.  The Lightning have no defense and, depending on which goalie they use, an aging goaltender or an inexperienced goaltender.  You can't go far without defense.  They will improve though.

Added: Thumb me down all you want.  I'm right.

Answer 7

TBL will be the winners of the worst to first contest like Philly was this year.  It's not like the southeast division is that difficult.  They are definitely playoff bound.

The defense doesn't suck, nor have they ever...they are young, there is a HUGE difference.  Last year, almost half the D was down at some time with injuries as well.  There is more potential at D on the Lightning blue-line right now than any other team with 3 big draft picks with Picard, Smaby, and Wishart.  Then you take the pickup of Carle which will leave him and Kuba as the leaders to pair with Ranger, O'Brien, and Lundin - all 3 are up and coming.  Not to mention with 16 signed forwards, we will have more than enough players to shop around come the trade deadline.

To the idiot redwing fan....Ollie is not the starter.  Ollie has only been with the Caps his whole career, that is a whole lot of sucking until recently.  The Caps with the exception of last year have consistently scored less....FAR LESS...than TBL.  Now he is in a backup/mentor role and will have the offense to support him...he will be very useful coming in to support Smith.  And Smith is one of the top up and coming tenders that will benefit from Ollie's tutoring, not to mention the 21 year old Ramo who will be money in the future.

The offense, obviously speaks for itself.  I find that people enjoy hating TBL since they won in 04 because now there is no excuse to move them from FL.  The funny thing is last year it was "your offense is not deep enough", the year before that it was "your goalie sucks", and this year it is "your D sucks".  Well now we have 2 up and coming goalies and the offense is definitely deep.  With the main scoring power of St. Louis-Lecavalier-Prospal line, now we can mess around with a Malone-Stamkos-Roberts line, a Recchi-Halpern-Vrbata line, etc.

As for Melrose's record...he coached 3 years, and ESPN's money stopped him from picking up another job.  Flash his record all you want, but give him 3 years and that losing record will turn around.  It's laughable that anyone is going to attempt to judge another coach based on 3 years.

Once the young D steps up and Smith benefits from Ollie...what will the excuses be next?  It's absolutely hilarious how s****. large market teams can be against the small market ones.  But hey like most haters said in 04, "TBL won't win the cup" LOL.  Just wait.