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2011-12 NHL Season Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning

Sep 14

Posted by Chris in Season Previews | No Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Simon Gagne, Mike Smith, Sean Bergenheim

Key Offseason Additions: Mathieu Garon, Bruno Gervais, Matt Gilroy

Last Season Ranking: 5th in the East

Offense: While a few new faces will grace the roster of the Tampa Bay Lightning this season, the core of the team stays intact – a positive for a team that finished 7th in goals scored per game last season.

Martin St. Louis, Steve Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier again form the foundation of the offense. At 36, St. Louis shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Stamkos seemed to struggle with consistency in the second half last season, although 45 goals and 91 points is hardly anything to complain about. Look for these two to tear it up again this season as Stamkos looks to regain his crown as league scoring leader.

Injuries limited Lecavalier to only 65 games last season, but when he’s on the ice he is an effective player scoring 54 points. However, he really came alive in the playoffs with 19 points in 18 games. Seventy points seems like the norm for Lecavalier in a healthy season, but falling just shy of a Stanley Cup Finals berth could light the fire and push Lecavalier back to 80-90 points.

Although the team lost 17 goals and 40 points with the departure of Simon Gagne, they should be able to overcome his departure and make up that scoring elsewhere. Players such as Ryan Malone and Steve Downie will help fill the void if they stay healthy, and Teddy Purcell proved last season he is ready for more responsibilities and quality minutes. A hefty new contract doesn’t necessarily mean production, however, and Purcell will need to prove that he belongs in the top six.

Expect Tampa Bay to post lots of goals this season and be an offensive force again.

Defense: While getting sniper Steve Stamkos under contract was a priority for Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman, he failed to give his blue line a significant boost through trade or free agency. Perhaps that’s because 60 percent of the team’s blue line will be free agents of some sorts next summer.

Victor Hedman continues to grow with each season. Expect a breakout year for Hedman as he enters a contract year and needs to prove that he is a franchise blue liner. Along with Hedman, expect Eric Brewer, Mattius Ohlund and Pavel Kubina to shoulder most of the load.

Tampa Bay finished 22nd in the league in goals allowed per game while only 10 players on the roster finished positive plus/minus ratings. Even then, no player finished better than plus-8. The Lightning are a team that help overcome their defensive deficiencies with strong offense. Expect more of the same this season with no real changes made to the blue line in the offseason.

Goaltending: One problem plaguing the team is recent years has been inconsistent goaltending. That changed last season when they traded for veteran Dwayne Roloson, who made an immediate impact and helped give the team confidence in net. This season, the question is whether lightning can strike twice for the 41-year-old goaltender?

Roloson doesn’t need to be spectacular every night, but he needs to be consistent and give the team a chance to win every time he starts.

The team also let loose backup Mike Smith in favor of veteran Mathieu Garon. Smith struggled with consistency during his years in Tampa and, if nothing else, the Roloson/Garon tandem should provide a more stable net presence for the Lightning than they have had in years.

HWB Playoff Prediction: Playoff bound.

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Tampa Bay Lightning

Sep 14

Posted by Chris in Season Previews | No Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Antero Nittymaki, Alex Tanguy, Ryan Craig, Kurtis Foster

Key Offseason Additions: Dan Ellis, Simon Gagne, Dominic Moore, Pavel Kubina, Randy Jones, Brett Clark

Last Season Ranking: 12th in East

Offense:

Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis have been the foundation of this team for several years now, but last season, former number one draft pick Steve Stamkos gave Lightning fans 51 reasons to hope for a better and brighter future. In only his second year in the league, Stamkos tied Sidney Crosby for the league lead in goals with 51 and added 44 assists for 95 total points. These are the three players who will lead the charge again this season.

steven-stamkosStill, what hindered this team was their lack of depth. Newly crowned general manager Steve Yzerman quickly took care of those issues with several decisive moves. On offense, Yzerman added forward Simon Gagne through a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. Gagne will help give Tampa Bay two sturdy scoring lines and will certainly help on the power play. Although injury-prone, Gagne is capable of producing at nearly a point-per-game pace during the season.

Both Ryan Malone and Steve Downie will both be called upon to continue their physical style of play this season, but both players are capable of producing offensively as well. Malone notched 21 goals last year while Downie tallied 22 and also added 208 penalty minutes and a plus-14 as well. Both of these players not only give Tampa a physical prowess, but they help give the team that additional scoring depth that will help them win.

Dominic Moore, a free agent signing, will not only bring secondary scoring depth to the lineup but he also works hard and has a good defensive game as well – which Tampa sorely needs.

Defense:

Yzerman made some adjustments on defense as well by adding some grit with the addition of defenseman Pavel Kubina. As a former Stanley Cup winner, Kubina not only lends a veteran presence, but he plays tough and can also chip in 30-40 points per season, which will hopefully help fill the void left by the departed Kurtis Foster. The team also inked blueliners Randy Jones and Brett Clark. Both players have been in the NHL long enough to help bring some experience to the team while giving Tampa more options on the blue line.

Sophomore Victor Hedman, the second-overall draft choice during the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, should benefit from the experience of an entire NHL season under his belt. Another season under the wing of veteran defenseman Mattius Ohlund should help Hedman continue to improve rapidly.

Goaltending:

It goes without saying that goaltending has been nothing short of a mess in Tampa in recent years, which is why signing Dan Ellis was essentially the first move that Yzerman made as general manager. With the departure of Antero Nittymaki, the team needed a reliable goaltender and Ellis will hopefully fit the bill. While his stats haven’t been spectacular the past several seasons, he has been relatively consistent and should be a good addition to Tampa’s lineup. Hopefully some healthy competition stirs up between Ellis and backup Mike Smith, causing both players to work hard and play their best.

Season Outlook:

A lot of the pieces seem to be falling into place for the Tampa Bay Lightning and they very well could prove to be one of the most improved teams this season. General manager Steve Yzerman made it a point to add depth to the roster and sign a steady number one goaltender. The team’s additions may be enough to sneak them into the playoffs this season, but if nothing else, the moves made by Yzerman should give the team the foundation to build a contender in the years to come.

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Atlanta Thrashers

Sep 13

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | No Comments

Last season, Atlanta played its best hockey when it was already eliminated from playoff contention when it won 12 of its final 18 games. Atlanta hopes to use the strong finish last season to continue early this season.

This franchise has had superstars Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov, Marian Hossa, and Dany Heatley in its 10-year history and has manged to make the playoffs only once when they won the Southeast Division in 2007. The one constant throughout the Thrashers history is GM Don Waddell, and he needs to start showing improvement with this franchise before his seat will start to become hot.

Will Atlanta trade Ilya Kovalchuk to a contender at the deadline?

Will Atlanta trade Ilya Kovalchuk to a contender at the deadline?

Kovalchuk is perhaps the best player on a bad team in the NHL. Last season he finished fourth in goals with 43 and tied for sixth with 91 points. In the final year of his contract, Waddell has to give him the proper help needed to carry the team into the playoffs. He wants the same success Russian countrymen Kozlov, Sergei Federov, Evgeni Malkin, and Pavel Datsyuk have had as all three have had their names on the Stanley Cup. Kovalchuk is also in the final year of his contract. Expect him to be traded at the deadline if Atlanta isn’t in playoff contention.

Waddell has given Kovalchuk help on the first line with the addition of Nik Antropov on the right wing. Also coming from Toronto was defenseman Pavel Kubina.

Kubina’s main job is to anchor a defensive unit that was one of the worse in the league last season. They allowed 280 goals, the second-worse amount in the NHL. Defense also has to be a team effort as the forwards have to play more two-way hockey and goalie Kari Lehtonen has to be more consistent. While the team in front of him did let him out to dry several times during the season, Lehtonen has to take the defense on his back and not allow as  many soft goals as he had.

Head coach John Anderson also has the task of improving the special teams. While they were a respectable 11th on the power play, Atlanta was 29th in penalty kill at 76 percent. Atlanta also surrendered 13 shorthanded goals, which is not acceptable to any NHL team. Again, this goes back to defense.

With their future prospects, none of the top-10 prospects ranked by The Hockey News are defensemen. Having six centers, two wingers, and two goalies isn’t the outlook Thrashers fans want to see of a team that’s as deficient on defense as they have been.

Overall, don’t expect Atlanta to do much this season. They are still 1-2 solid defensemen away from being a contender, but isn’t big spenders in free agency. Lehtonen has to be more solid in goal and not become as injury prone as he has been. A team with low attendance (29th in the league averaging 14,626 per game) in a non-hockey market, expect Atlanta to finish between 13th and 15th in the Eastern Conference.

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Toronto Maple Leafs

Sep 8

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 4 Comments

Bran Burke's decisions to add grit and size may leave him all alone in thought depending on the teams success this year.

Bran Burke's decisions to add grit and size may leave him all alone in thought depending on the teams success this year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs look to be better this season as general manager Brian Burke intends on rebuilding the team similarly as he did the Anaheim Ducks; big and strong.

Offensively, the team added free agents Colton Orr from the New York Rangers in addition to acquiring Wayne Primeau in a trade with Calgary. Last season Primeau missed 56 regular season games as well as 6 playoff games with a broken foot, which will be a concern for the team as in the last two seasons he has only played a total of 67 games out of the 164 games possible. Orr will add the much needed enforcement to the Leafs as in the ’08-’09 season he had a respectable 193 minutes in 82 games played. This will allow defenseman Pavel Kubina, who led the team in penalty minutes last season with 94, a break from the box as his 40 points was best amongst defenseman and is much more needed than roughing it up.

Defensively the Leafs added free agents Francois Beauchemin from Anaheim and Mike Komisarek from Montreal. Once again similar to Primeau, Beauchemin missed 63 games last season with a torn ACL and will be a concern for the upcoming year. When healthy, expect him to be an average defenseman who hovers around zero in the +/- department, but will add 6’ 0” and 207lbs of clearing people out in front of the net. And similar to Orr, Komisarek will add even more enforcement as last season the defenseman put up 121 penalty minutes in 66 games. Komisarek, who stands 6’ 4” and weighs 243lbs, will also be able to assist in clearing people out from in front of the net.

With a 1 year contract, all eyes will be on Jonas "the monster" Gustavsson to be the goalie of the future.

With a 1 year contract, all eyes will be on Jonas "the Monster" Gustavsson to prove he is the goalie of the future.

The last spot to mention is that of goalie, as the team has signed Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson. The goaltender stands 6’ 3” and weighs 192lbs, but is as agile as any goalie within the league. With all the hype surrounding the 24 year old Swedish goaltender, if it proves to be accurate, he may be the next Martin Brodeur. Last season in the Swedish league in 82 games played, he had an astonishing 1.96 goals against average and a .932 save percentage. This is nothing compared to last year’s playoffs, where he allowed 14 goals in 13 games played. That equates to a 1.03 goals against average and a .961 save percentage. In those games, the Monster recorded 5 shutouts. He has already been quoted as wanting the starting position that currently belongs to Vesa Toskala, which is to be expected as Gustavsson only signed a 1 year contract with the team. With the addition of backup goaltender Joey Macdonald, it is not farfetched that a goalie battle is going to happen. The battle between who is the question. Both Toskala and Macdonald become unrestricted free agents as Gustavsson is a restricted free agent at the end of the season.

Burke has added size in all positions, even goaltender, however with the mentality of speed is the new way to go, it will be interesting to see how everything panes out. It did work for the Anaheim Ducks; maybe it will work for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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