2019-20 General Lightning Discussion

[Sky04]

Did any team official ever say why exactly Stamkos is playing on wing this season? I mean, they tried it for a short while without a lot of success. Later there were reports that Stamkos didn't like it (it was during Boucher's tenure I think, no?). Around here it was proposed several times too. He improved a lot at faceoffs and his game is a lot more complete these days and suddenly boom, winger. I find it hard to believe that, say, Johnson is better at center (after playing more than an entire season at wing) than Stamkos (who played center for most of his career minus a handful of games).

Cooper's, but that was during the lul years after his injury where he horrible all over the ice. He voiced his disagreement at the time but the purpose was to lessen his responsibilities and spark his scoring which was in a slump.

He's perfectly healthy now and a lot more capable than Johnson at center, he posted 98 points last year as a center and is even better this year early on. Not sure why we're wasting him on wing.

 

[ccman68]

Are we actually gonna keep witkowski in the lineup when Paquette comes back? Don't think many stanley cup winners have such terrible players on their rosters.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Are we actually gonna keep witkowski in the lineup when Paquette comes back? Don't think many stanley cup winners have such terrible players on their rosters.

I think they will play Witkowski to see how it goes with Ceddy and Witkowski trying to hit everything that skates with the wrong jerseys on. It will fail after a couple games and probably see Verhaeghe slot in.

 

[Master P]

Do you think Volkov would take Witkowski's spot?

 

[DFC]

Do you think Volkov would take Witkowski's spot?

Shift for shift, I feel like Witkowski's made more of an impact than Maroon.

 

[Master P]

Shift for shift, I feel like Witkowski's made more of an impact than Maroon.

I don't think we got Maroon for the regular season. I think we got him for the playoffs when things get physical.

 

[DFC]

I don't think we got Maroon for the regular season. I think we got him for the playoffs when things get physical.

He's soooo slow though. Witkowski's speed--I can't believe I'm using those two words together, but relative to Maroon--allows him to be more physical than Maroon.

 

[ccman68]

It says a lot about Cooper that he thinks moving Point off the #1 pp will get it going.

 

[Master P]

He's soooo slow though. Witkowski's speed--I can't believe I'm using those two words together, but relative to Maroon--allows him to be more physical than Maroon.

Yeah, but I think its better to have a player like him just in case. Especially since he didn't cost much.

 

[DFC]

Yeah, but I think its better to have a player like him just in case. Especially since he didn't cost much.

No argument there. I think we can afford to keep both of them, if Witkowski plays well enough to stay.

 

[bov]

Witkowski has been fine for the most part, relative to my expectations anyway. I have been more underwhelmed by Maroon and Verhaeghe, even though they aren't worse players. Maroon-Paquette-Witkowski was a thing in preseason/training camp so I expect Cooper will try that out again.

Eventually you're looking at Witkowski or Verhaeghe as an extra (both if we trade for/ recall a forward down the line), so I'm fine with them getting their ice time early in the season and seeing what they can do.

Maroon-Paquette-X isn't the end of the world, and when playoffs come around there may be another player or two in the mix anyway.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Maroon so far has been trash. I’d rather have Erne, but management would rather have Patty.

Hopefully the team starts winning and then it doesn’t really matter.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Wth is Coop doing?
Whatevers

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Those lines look awful to me, Johnson at center? AND with Stamkos? he already tried this earlier before Point got back, it lasted half a game. Johnson and Stamkos have never worked together and if one should be playing center it should be Stamkos who's better at it, Johnson should be winger full time unless we're short. Stamkos-Point-Kucherov should be split up but not all 3 on different lines, remove Stamkos from Kucherov and that solves the Kucherov problem. He has worked best with just Point on his line....does anyone remember the string of games Kucherov dominated after being split from Stamkos at ES?

Go back to what worked:

Johnson-Point-Kucherov
Palat-Stamkos-Gourde
Killorn-Cirelli-Joseph

Lines 1 & 3 ere the most consistent lines last season, since Palat isn't ass this year him and Stamkos should be able to do 5v5 damage.

Completely agree

 

[LightningStrikes]

Are we actually gonna keep witkowski in the lineup when Paquette comes back? Don't think many stanley cup winners have such terrible players on their rosters.

I think as it stands today Carty V is the odd man out once Paq returns (he was the 4C in practice in place of CV).

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

ya id rather have carter with kucherov over killer non playoffs every damned day of week lol.......i like witko cause of liberties but carter should be playing and killer could get us some new people in future dont need him imo

 

[waterboy65]

When it comes to your 4th line, speed is very over-rated. Give me players that can win board battles, stand in front of the net and take abuse, score and prevent gritty goals on either end and then you have yourself the makings of a very good hockey team. Heck in the playoffs, you better have 3 out of your 4 lines capable of doing that! Havent we learned watching the Blues and Capitals hoisting the Cup the past 2 years that speed is highly overrated!

 

[JoVel]

When it comes to your 4th line, speed is very over-rated. Give me players that can win board battles, stand in front of the net and take abuse, score and prevent gritty goals on either end and then you have yourself the makings of a very good hockey team. Heck in the playoffs, you better have 3 out of your 4 lines capable of doing that! Havent we learned watching the Blues and Capitals hoisting the Cup the past 2 years that speed is highly overrated!

How about the Pens and Hawks before that? Some of the fastest and softest teams in the league have won five Cups this decade.

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

basically fourth line you want to simply change the ice get in offensive zone and win a faceoff with next line....wearing out opponents also is a good thing so time of puck being in their the other teams own end is good. we pretty solid this year in this....

 

[HoseEmDown]

Verheaghe hasn't been good but he hasn't been bad either. He seems to be playing way too vanilla and scared to make a mistake so his offensive isn't showing up. But in the same regards he isn't doing anything bad in the defensive zone to bleed goals, he's a plus player while both Maroon and Witkowski are minus. I think he would be better with Paquette cause Paquette has some scoring touch and Verheaghe needs a linemate who can score when he sets them up. I'm not sure if it's the fact that he's being asked to dump and Chase rather than carry the play like in Syracuse but he isn't nearly as dangerous or creative as he should be.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Verheaghe hasn't been good but he hasn't been bad either. He seems to be playing way too vanilla and scared to make a mistake so his offensive isn't showing up. But in the same regards he isn't doing anything bad in the defensive zone to bleed goals, he's a plus player while both Maroon and Witkowski are minus. I think he would be better with Paquette cause Paquette has some scoring touch and Verheaghe needs a linemate who can score when he sets them up. I'm not sure if it's the fact that he's being asked to dump and Chase rather than carry the play like in Syracuse but he isn't nearly as dangerous or creative as he should be.

I would guess they told him to focus on his defensive game and play it safe.

 

[HoseEmDown]

I would guess they told him to focus on his defensive game and play it safe.

Which is why it would suck if he was scratched once Paquette comes back. He has done what they asked and been pretty solid at it. He's still shown some flash in the offensive zone but had been rather unlucky with finishing or guys finishing his passes. I think if he pots a goal here soon he'll get his confidence back and be more the player he should be.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Which is why it would suck if he was scratched once Paquette comes back. He has done what they asked and been pretty solid at it. He's still shown some flash in the offensive zone but had been rather unlucky with finishing or guys finishing his passes. I think if he pots a goal here soon he'll get his confidence back and be more the player he should be.

I agree. But the team has to figure out how to get a winning streak going pretty soon so I guess CV will fall victim to that until we get comfortable again to give him some time to get accustomed to NHL speed.

 

[Ducati Boy]

I'm going to take a different tack than most posters (not just posters here but elsewhere on HF boards and in the media).

I think we have talent issues. Yeah, yeah, I know that everyone (Bolt fans and others) take it for granted that we are a team of Superior Talent, likely the 'Most Talented Team' in the league, but I don't buy it. Sure, our 5th best player is probably better than any other '5th best player' in the league, but our 10th? No. Our talent level drops off considerably after 5 or 6. I can name several teams (Columbus last spring was one) that have 12-15 players more talented than out best 10. Our top 15? Again, no. Far from it.

We overrate our talent. We weren't as good as 62 wins last year talent-wise and we don't have the depth of talent to expect to out perform all other teams.

Coaching? Effort? Systems? Hmmm... maybe we're just not that great.

 

[Sky04]

I'm going to take a different tack than most posters (not just posters here but elsewhere on HF boards and in the media).

I think we have talent issues. Yeah, yeah, I know that everyone (Bolt fans and others) take it for granted that we are a team of Superior Talent, likely the 'Most Talented Team' in the league, but I don't buy it. Sure, our 5th best player is probably better than any other '5th best player' in the league, but our 10th? No. Our talent level drops off considerably after 5 or 6. I can name several teams (Columbus last spring was one) that have 12-15 players more talented than out best 10. Our top 15? Again, no. Far from it.

We overrate our talent. We weren't as good as 62 wins last year talent-wise and we don't have the depth of talent to expect to out perform all other teams.

Coaching? Effort? Systems? Hmmm... maybe we're just not that great.

You do know our bottom 6 last year consisted of Callahan, Miller, Paquette, Joseph, Cirelli and Killorn right? You're telling me that's not a talented bottom 6?