Is Tampa cooked?

They don’t deserve no respek on their name. Offense is soft and lacking clutch plays/players, defense can’t clear the crease, Vasy craps the bed at the most inappropriate times. The core looks content with the 2 cups and their comfy contracts with the the no-trade/movement clauses.
No, that was because the guy had Florida Toronto in the next round with no mention of even the possibility of Ottawa
 
Three first round exits in a row but two of them were probably against the best team they could have played, not to mention a team that was designed to beat them. As constructed, unless Florida has a terrible offseason and loses Ekblad, Bob, Marchand, etc., they are not going to make it out of the Atlantic, but they're not cooked either. They are pretty close to having a really competitive team. But they will probably need to make the right moves this offseason, which will probably include trying to trade someone that would have been considered unthinkable to trade to achieve that.
 
Kucherov, Point, Guentzel, Hagel, Hedman is a pretty good setup for a while yet. They may need to bring in a guy who can take some pressure if Hedman now, though.
 
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The NHL isn't designed to be on top forever. They've been on the decline for a while just like how every team that's won multiple Stanley Cups in a short time frame (Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh) has experienced.
Unless they have drafted some players outside Rds 1 like they did in the past, they simply don't have the depth they had in the early 2020's. That's the reality when you load up and get guys at the TDL who are soon to be UFA or only give you 2 PO runs. Eventually, those picks you move leaves a whole in 4-6 years when they are 22-24 and could bring an influx of talent, speed, size, etc.

Good enough to make the POs for the next 2-3 years, then you can begin to wonder.

Cooked, no, but their days as a Legit Cup Contender are probably over.
 
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Unless they have drafted some players outside Rds 1 like they did in the past, they simply don't have the depth they had in the early 2020's. That's the reality when you load up and get guys at the TDL who are soon to be UFA or only give you 2 PO runs. Eventually, those picks you move leaves a whole in 4-6 years when they are 22-24 and could bring an influx of talent, speed, size, etc.

Good enough to make the POs for the next 2-3 years, then you can begin to wonder.

Cooked, no, but their days as a Legit Cup Contender are probably over.
Right. The cap era NHL is setup for teams to have phases of being an elite contender and then declining. They had their elite contending phase, now is the decline. Eventually it will be re-tool (LAK) or rebuild (CHI and PIT) time. It's just the nature of this league. No one is a top contender indefinitely. The cap and entry draft create too much parity.
 
Right now they are probably still better than Ottawa or Montreal so they will safely be a playoff team for a couple years still. They will probably fall off like Boston before too long though assuming Ottawa and Montreal continue to improve and Detroit and/or Buffalo figures things out.
 
Right now they are probably still better than Ottawa or Montreal so they will safely be a playoff team for a couple years still. They will probably fall off like Boston before too long though assuming Ottawa and Montreal continue to improve and Detroit and/or Buffalo figures things out.
At some point they will fall off. And then no guarantee that you find the next Kuch, Hedman, Vasi, Point, etc.
 
Kucherov had an excellent regular season as usual, but was uncharacteristically bad in these playoffs, from the games I saw.
Florida just surrounds him at all times. Tough to do much with Barkov and Reinhart bearing down on you constantly. Point was more of an issue, really, although it's not like Kucherov was good.

Hard to say they're cooked since they are probably still in the playoffs if they were playing against literally any other team in the East but saved them a few weeks of wear and tear playing Florida in the first round. I do think someone making big money on this team probably needs to go, though.
 
Cooked if this is the version of Kuch and Point we're gonna get in every playoffs. Vasi to a lesser degree, but he had a stretch in this series where he was stopping almost everything until his defense decided to leave Cats all alone in front of him over and over again
 
I wouldn’t say cooked, but the cap did its job in causing churn in their depth and their core has aged past their peak.

If they could add a couple of good young (cheap) players they could make another long run.
 
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Kucherov, Point, Guentzel, Hagel, Hedman is a pretty good setup for a while yet. They may need to bring in a guy who can take some pressure if Hedman now, though.

Kucherov is 31. Point, 29. Guentzel, 30. Hedman, 34. Hagel, on the other hand, is 26.

They have a run or two left in them, but that's if things go their way. And I mean... it's the East, so things totally could. Under normal circumstances, though, they're a playoff team for the foreseeable future.
 
Kucherov is 31. Point, 29. Guentzel, 30. Hedman, 34. Hagel, on the other hand, is 26.

They have a run or two left in them, but that's if things go their way. And I mean... it's the East, so things totally could. Under normal circumstances, though, they're a playoff team for the foreseeable future.
I think they’ve got 3 years left. Far from cooked.
 
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Entire core on UFA contracts, draft picks that are late and infrequent leading to a prospect pool light in the way of producing cheap/reinforcement depth. Tale as old as time (well 20 years of salary cap at least$. Last step is big decline in core’s stature around the league as they exit prime and then it’s completely finished.
 
It looks like they won't achieve anything with current roster. They are maybe a playoff team for a season or two and then that's it, even getting to playoffs will be problematic for them after that.

I think they are the second best team in the Eastern Conference.

Unfortunately, they faced the best team in the Eastern Conference in Round One.
 
I saw the 2 best team in the east play each other in round 1 due to the new playoff structure fans don’t like.

they lost to a good team but shouldn’t be in 5 games.
Agreed.

Tampa will make some moves and keep the core together. I think Florida was my east winner favorite. So going to ride that bus till they lose.
 

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