If you missed it, we ran a series of posts this week previewing the Tampa Bay Lightning season that starts...tonight, actually. Hey, imagine that. Previews...season starting...that's just all kinds of craziness right there.

In order to look ahead, we need to know where we're coming from. This is the case for teams as well as for people. You can't fix what's broken if you don't look back and evaluate to see what's broke.

So, to quote that zany and immortal writer Douglas Adams:

"To summarize the summary of the summary...."

Season Preview Part 1: "All In" - 2010-11 season recap

Season Preview Part 2: Whose line is it anyway? - Who's in, who's out

Season Preview Part 3: The good and the bad - Three strengths, three weaknesses

Season Preview Part 4: Projected line combos and depth

Season Preview Part 5: 2011-12 season predictions

Season Preview Part 6: What other people are saying

Sometimes, to better understand your team, you need to take a step back and listen to what others have to say about the club. When you aren't a fan of the team, sometimes you can be more objective with your assessment. Lucky for us, at this time of year, everyone is doing a preview of the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Southeast Division.

So here is a collection of some of the previews that have been cropping across the interwebs about the Lightning. Some of them are spot on, and some of them, not so much. You be the judge.

• Puck Daddy's season preview
• ESPN's 10 things you need to know
• TSN's season preview
• The Globe and Mail's season preview
• SBN Tampa Bay: Blue Thunder

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Over the course of the past week, we've looked back and we've looked forward. Now it's time to take that all into account and come right out and answer the big question: How are the Lightning going to do in 2011-12?

But before we get to that (this is what's called a "tease"), when this topic came up a few weeks ago in a Question of the Week posed by Tina Robinson, I said something about preseason predictions being a somewhat ridiculous notion because of the fact that an actual analytical prediction of what will happen during an upcoming season is going to be based on information that is going to be altered by infinitely unforseeable factors that occur over the course of that season. Injuries, over- and/or under-achievement of individual players, trades.

These and other things can and will happen, to every team in the league, each of which will have some sort of impact, directly or indirectly, on every other team in the league. Yet, this doesn't stop people from flocking to self-proclaimed "experts", the best of whom are simply very good at making educated guesses and/or lucky, to see if their guesses come close to what actually happens, even though the route to the end result is never what was predicted.

But hey, who cares? Making predictions is fun.

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With the roster settled, at least temporarily, it's much easier to project just who will play where for the Tampa Bay Lightning on a nightly basis.

But that remains subjective, as line combinations are mixed and changed from situation to situation, and then there are the special team line-combinations that throw all normalcy out the window for the sake of offense, or defense.

And then there's the other rub about playing under Head Coach Guy Boucher in the "Tampa t" 1-3-1 system: what happens when a 7^th defenseman is part of the lineup?

It's all subjective to change for situations, but here's the roster breakdown. Note: This is a 24 player roster... We've not certain just who the Bolts will ultimately cut from the roster once Mattias Ohlund returns from injured reserve. The path of least-resistence is to send Brett Connolly back to the Prince George Cougars of the WHL, but Connolly could very well earn more than a nine-game stint on the roster.

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(Editor's Note: over the course of the next week, we'll be previewing the 2011-12 Tampa Bay Lightning season with a series of articles exploring the team)

The Tampa Bay Lightning finished up their 2010-11 campaign a lot farther down the road towards the Stanley Cup than most expected.  Not so much in the standings, since many hockey pundits had them finishing in sixth or seventh in the Eastern Conference, when they actually finished fifth. No, the surprise came in the post-season when they finished one win away from the Stanley Cup Final.

The question that remains is, can they do it again?

Every team has its good points and its bad points, and the Lightning are no exception. There are many things that the team did right to get into playoffs and stay there for so long. Then again, there were a few things that they didn't do right that prevented them from going all the way.

Ability, discipline, character, conditioning, health, chemistry, coaching, management/ownership, and luck are the nine ingredients that go into making a Stanley Cup winner. Of these factors during the playoffs, the Lightning probably lacked discipline and luck the most. And, as we all know, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good - though, it's best to be both, if you can swing it.

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(Editor's Note: over the course of the next week, we'll be previewing the 2011-12 Tampa Bay Lightning season with a series of articles exploring the team)

The 2010-2011 Season featured a dominate performance by GM Steve Yzerman.  Every transaction pulled off by the rookie GM worked to an absolute tee.  As a result, the team blew past expectations and came within an armpit's stink of playing for the Stanley Cup.  

The one aspect, though, of how Steve Yzerman operates - trying to avoid as many long-term contracts as possible and signing most players to one and two-year deals - brings with it lots of decisions every offseason.  This past offseason nailed that point home, as there were several players up for new contracts, both UFA and RFA.  As a result, of course, we have a core that is exactly the same as last year, and the role players, the peripherals if you will, are much different.  We'll start with who has left the team after the fold.

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(Editor's Note: over the course of the next week, we'll be previewing the 2011-12 Tampa Bay Lightning season with a series of articles exploring the team)

To recap the 2010-11 Tampa Bay Lightning season, you have to start in March 2010 when owner Jeffrey Vinik assumed control of the franchise. In an unexplained, hasty move, the Bolts dropped the previous season's marketing slogan of "Together We Will" and started to use "All In".

The events that transpired in the months leading up to the start of the 2010-11 campaign, in reflection, showed fans just how that phrase played out. Vinik, holding his cards close to his chest, built a brain trust to oversee the rebuilding of the Lightning franchise that piqued the interest of the hockey and pro-sports world alike.

May 2010 saw the hiring of Hockey Hall of Famer and Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman as General Manager of the club. Shortly thereafter, Yzerman hired Hamilton Bulldogs head coach Guy Boucher to oversee the Lightning roster. July saw the hiring of Vulcan Sports CEO Tod Leiweke in the same role for the Lightning. The move was a surprise coup, as Boucher had been close to a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets only days prior.

And this was just the beginning of the revitalization of the franchise. We'd learn just how true "All In", both on ice and off, the commitment was during the season that followed.

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