Some more thoughts on…the start of the season

Well now. This isn\'t exactly what we were expecting out of the gates, now was it? The Tampa Bay Lightning are two games into the season, and for the first time under Jon Cooper\'s tenure, they are still searching for their first win. That\'s right, not since Steven Stamkos was a rookie and Barry Melrose was behind the bench have the Lightning woken up to see 0-2 next to their name in the standings. So, it\'s time to blow the whole thing up, right? Maybe not so fast.

Yes, it\'s been a rough start, and the Lightning have looked like anything but the Lightning. After a blistering start in the first period of the season opener against Ottawa, it\'s been five periods of plodding, discombobulated hockey. Over their last 100 minutes of hockey they\'ve been outscored 9-4, conceding goals in every style - regular strength, empty net, short-handed, power-play. To their credit it\'s been pretty much a team-wide struggle, with few players sparkling in the garbage.

It\'s pretty simple. They look like a team that wasn\'t ready for the start of the season. In training camp, there was the overwhelming sense that the coaching staff didn\'t want to tax the regulars too much in games that meant nothing to the standings. Andrei Vasilevskiy played in two periods. Victor Hedman played less than eight minutes. Of the starting forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand had the most ice time and that was just over 61 minutes in 4 games. [Ed. Note - the playing time numbers are from Natural Stat Trick and don\'t include the Orlando game where limited stats were available. While it deflates the numbers a bit, it doesn\'t change the overall sentiment.]

There is some logic to that train of thought, especially with a veteran team that is rolling out virtually the same line-up that they did at the end of last season. The theory being that it wouldn\'t take long for the chemistry to return, and after a couple of periods of rust, the Bolts would be back to the goal-scoring, puck-stopping team they were for most of the regular season last year. Well, that hasn\'t happened...yet.

Honestly, that\'s what is important to remember. The \"yet\" part. It\'s been two games. Yes, it\'s two games at the beginning of the season, and Coach Cooper alluded to the fact that perception alters the importance of two losses when they come out of the gate as opposed to later in the season. Had this happened in January, it would be concerning, but no one would be looking to write the season off. Heck, if it had happened two weeks into the season, the level of concern would be diminished.

How do we know that? Because it happened last season. After winning their first three games at home, the Lighting went out on the road and dropped a 5-4 contest to Ottawa and a 5-2 game to Toronto. Andrei Vasilevskiy was in the net for both losses and they looked flat and out-of-sync. The nice thing is that they rebounded, winning three of the next four on their way to a nice little regular season.

So, the worry meter is still fairly low at this point. They have Sunday off and then have a couple of back-to-backs on the road. On paper the first back-to-back, Boston and Washington, should be the harder of the two, but the next pair, Detroit and Columbus, feature a couple of plucky teams. The Red Wings beat Toronto on Saturday while Columbus dropped seven goals on a good Minnesota team. The Lightning will have to have their game together to keep from digging a big hole in the standings.

One thing to look for on Monday is the line combinations. After the train wreck first period, Coach Cooper mixed up the lines, moving Jake Guentzel off of Brayden Point\'s line, replacing him with Brandon Hagel. It was, in our opinion, a much-needed move. As lethal as Guentzel, Point, and Nikita Kucherov are together, they had been a defensive nightmare through the first four periods of the season.

According to Natural Stat Trick the trio has been together for 15:48 of 5v5 ice time this season. Yes they scored a goal, but they\'ve been on the ice for four goals against and everything else has been fairly unpleasant:

SF% - 27.78% (13-5)

SCF% - 33.33% (12-6)

HDCF% - 20% (4-1)

CF% - 24.32% (28-9)

As talented as they are, they just aren\'t sustaining any zone time. They\'ve been slashing in and getting one or two shots off before their opponents are exiting the zone and creating offense at the other end. This is not a knock against Guentzel, who is probably the most defensively responsible player on the line, but Hagel does give them a player that will help win puck battles in the corners and keep the puck in the zone a little longer.

So far, statistically, one of the best lines emerged out of the blender on Saturday as Conor Geekie, Gage Goncalves, and Oliver Bjorkstrand were on the ice for a goal (Darren Raddysh\'s) and posted a 4-0 edge in shots along with a 6-0 edge in attempts. Not bad for 3:55 of ice time.

Speaking of Raddysh, he might be the odd-skater out when J.J. Moser returns. Max Crozier (who had two assists on Saturday) has acquitted himself well enough to earn at least one more game on the ice. He hasn\'t been perfect, it was his pass out of the defensive zone that New Jersey picked off that led to the third goal), but he\'s been aggressive and effective. He\'s always paired well with Emil Lilleberg, so it wouldn\'t be a shock to see him on the ice on Monday.

How concerned are we about Andrei Vasilevskiy? Not very. Yes, the numbers haven\'t been pretty so far - 4.67 GAA, .855 SV%, -2.22 GSAx. There have also been a lot of rebounds into dangerous areas, which, when he\'s on his game, just don\'t happen. So, why such little concern? Pretty much because he looks like a goaltender that just hasn\'t seen a lot of game action. It seems like he\'s just off his mark a little bit, and he\'s been bitten by some bad luck (Artem Zub\'s goal off his back after it hit the crossbar and Nico Hischier\'s goal off of his stick blade and Crozier\'s skate come to mind off the bat).

It doesn\'t look like there is any lingering injury that\'s bother him and he\'s been moving around in the crease really well. There are definitely some goals he would like to have back (Connor Brown\'s second goal on Saturday) and his first save percentage of .889% is a bit worrisome. History tells us that number will improve, but it would be nice if it starts on Monday.

It\'s been a rough start to the season for the Lightning, but they still have enough talent on the roster to fade this play into memory. There were sparks of the team that they can be in the first period of the Ottawa game and the second period of the New Jersey game. Once they clean things up on their breakouts and forecheck, the season can turn around quickly for them. So don\'t count them out just yet.

Talking Points