This week’s Tampa Bay Lightning fan poll: Managed expectations!

This season, Senior Columnist Clark Brooks will take the pulse of Raw Charge nation with a weekly poll about current or future events and non-happenings, for the sake of accomplishing not much, probably.

Back in November, we ran one of these polls and asked if the Lightning’s accomplishments to that point, a record of 10-2-2, with 22 points and in first place with a five-point lead over the Ottawa Senators, qualified as more than “a good start”. We received 300 votes and the results indicated a level of reasonable, mature and responsible optimism:

Now that we’re just over the halfway point of the season, it’s time to take your pulse once again. We want to know if the team’s performance so far, a record of 31-10-3, with 65 points and in first place with a twelve-point lead over the Boston Bruins, has met the lofty (or lowly, for those of you glass-half-emptiers) expectations you set for this team before the season began. Be honest; we’re not judging whether you’re a genius or an idiot (we’ll do a poll on that at a later date).

As always your input in the comments is welcome.

The Lightning have...

Far, FAR exceeded my expectations. Because frankly, I thought they’d stink.0
Far exceeded my expectations. Because I thought they’d be good, but not THIS good.64
Exceeded my expectations a little bit. Because this is about what I expected.21
Met my expectations. Because I’m a genius and predicted these exact results.2
Disappointed me. Because I’m a crazy person and can’t believe they’re not undefeated.2