Tampa Bay Lightning - What they lack?

Question

i love the tampa bay lightning the 03-04 cup was the best time of my life. its been rough to see them go downhill since then though - i think theres several reasons though.

1. they just won the cup a few years ago, its hard to get incentive to win it again. at least they were making the playoffs up until this year. last place lol.

2. defense - terrrrrrrrible. boyle didnt even play that well this year. and i do like some of the newer guys but nothing compares to pavel kubina and darryl sydor who we had in 03-04.

4. too much relying on vinny and marty. the younger guys neeeeeeed to step up and do more.

5. brad richards EH. we should have gotten a good defenseman out of that instead of jussi and other guys.

6. GOALTENDING - terrible just terrible

at least we get stamkos this year. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE LIGHTNING, WHATS BEEN WRONG, WHAT NEEDS WORK, ETC!!!

Answer 1

DEFENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

1. I disagree. Every player, coach, and team-organization member dreams of winning the cup. When they do win, they want to win it again. You mean to tell me the Ducks or Hurricanes aren't motivated to win the Cup again in the near future?

2. Since Kubina/Sydor's departure, the Lightning has struggled big time on defense. Defense has been by far the Lightning's biggest weakness. Look for management to pursue a shut-down defenseman in the offseason.

3. (Skipped three?) Torts played the MVP line FAR too much this season. By the end of the year, Marty and Vinny were dog tired. The younger guys could, and probably would, step up more if they were given a chance to step up. No, three minutes of ice time is not a legitimate chance to "step up."

4. The Brad Richards saga, in itself, was a giant catch 22. Brad needs great line mates- he's a play maker by nature and he sets up his line mates for sucess; however, due to his large contract, Feaster could not bring in these quality line mates. When would BR improve his game? When he got better line mates. When would he get better line mates? When he improved his game.

5. Though goal tending has been nothing short of despicable in the past, Smitty and Rammer provide excellent hope for the future.

As I mentioned earlier, defense is far and away the Lightning's biggest weakness. If players such as Matt Smaby or Alexandre Picard emerge, would should be set for years to come.

Answer 3

Yes you're Goaltending is friggin awful, but with Stamkos(You know he's your first pick) scoring millions of goals, he'll replace Richards in the big three. But Mike Smith and Ramo need to develop and ya never know they could turn into the new Nabokov/Toskala tandem.

Answer 4

The two most important factors for them to improve would be...

- Goaltending

- Less focus on Lecavalier and St. Louis... Excluding them and the defensemen, well take a look on NHL.com to see the other ice times for players... most of them only saw 10-14 minutes a game, if even...

Answer 5

TBL has an absolutely correct dead on balls accurate answer.  ;)

Answer 6

Maybe the owners should sell the team and the new owners relocate to Winnipeg.

Answer 7

They lack an ownership team that cares.

Answer 8

Talent!  -jk they need a goalie and some defence

Answer 9

Some good points made before me but the biggest issue is the lack of understanding of how to manage a cap era team. They knew beforehand that the league would go to a cap and yet they inked huge deals with the core guys.

  Martin Broduer would have been terrible behind that defense so it wouldnt be fair to judge the new goaltending tandem until they correct the D. Hard to pin a lot of blame on Boyle, he has never been noted as a top defensive defenseman in the first place, his value is in his puckhandling abilities and offensive prowess. They need to improve their front 4 defensive group, Boyle would be well served with a tougher stay at home guy patrolling the blueline.

   One other issue almost nobody talks about I guees because they have a couple dynamic scorers is their blatant lack of offense. They finished 18th in goal scoring, one ahead of the offensive juggernaut in Minnesota. That wont get it done. Help is on the way with Stamkos but they need to improve their 3rd and 4th lines, the depth on this team is glaringly weak.

  Last may be a need to look at the coach....Torts is without a doubt one of the great minds in the game but he is also an abrasive person and there should be some concern whether or not he still has this team behind him. It doesnt matter how good the coaching is if the guys in the room are no longer listening to your message.

Bottom line is they need a cap guru and an influx of depth especially at the blueline, until they address those issues no amount of desire or any goaltender has a chance to turn this thing around.

Answer 10

Your # 1 reason is lame. If you think that is an excuse you are making it up yourself. I don't thnk there are more than a handful pf players in the NHL that don't have the INCENTIVE to win the Cup....Sundin MIGHT be one of them and he's with the Leafs, not the Lightning.

Speaking of the Lightning....how come in the USA "light" is spelled "lite"..but yet the "Lightning" are not spelled "Litning"??