Is Tampa cooked?

[BednarIsStupid]

It's never going to happen but bring back 1-16, 2-15 ect, evens out the travel advantage of the eastern teams and is more organic.

This year the matchups would have been

Winnipeg - Montreal
Washington- St Louis
Vegas- Calgary
Toronto- Ottawa
Dallas- Minny
LA- Florida
TB-Carolina
Colorado-Edmonton

Hell no if it's 16 teams. I think the NHL needs an approach similar to UEFA. Winning a Cup is way too hard and format rewards teams that scrape by instead of excelling during the season. There's a reason why viewership in NHL is tanking.

 

[Crunchrulz]

Tampa on paper still looks like a legit cup contender.

What exactly are their weaknesses?

• Lack of Depth-They used their young talent and draft choices to get the pieces needed for the run they had from 20-22 and the farm system is very weak right now, whether Howard finally signs or not. No franchise in professional sports would not have done the same thing given the chance. Many Tampa fans seemingly refuse to understand that if you go all in now, you will have to rethink your strategy when that one is no longer effective and/or you no longer have the pieces and parts needed to keep using it.
• Core Players Underperforming-The core is getting slower and more physically beat as they age, like any person not named Jagr. With the lack of capable support, if the core fails to perform, their weaknesses are easily exposed. Many fans constantly blame the third and fourth lines and bottom pair while ignoring the lack of performance from the top six, first two pairs, and number one goalie due to the "Fan Favorite" status of the players in those roles.
• Lack of Cap Space-Gone are the days of old, when the Lightning had VERY team friendly salaries for the core players and they were able to afford quality support. After the 22 season the core asked for and was given fat contracts and trade clauses as a fitting reward. This is now coming back to prevent the Lightning from making adds that will significantly help the team unless they deal aging fan favorites.
• Lack of Toughness-Any organization that relies of Emil Lilleberg to be its "tough guy" needs to wake up and realize that is NOT the answer. This past Florida series exposed the Lightning for exactly what they are, a soft team that is built for the regular season but cannot perform up to the physically demanding play of the post season.
• Injury Excuses-Lightning fans will argue injuries, as they have now for each of the one-and-done postseason disappointments of the last three seasons. Irony is, EVERY team has injuries, the successful ones have players who are able to play through those as well as enough depth to provide capable backup when the core players have to rest.

 

[Webster]

@Crunchrulz Lilleberg's PIM is 7th in the league, so I'm sure he's tough enough, right up there with the heavyweight fighters. But he's not a goon, that era is over. He's a promising physical defenseman who can deliver some hard hits and drop the gloves when necessary.

 

[JTBF81]

Vasi has been a "Numbers look good but lets in absolute backbreaking stinkers at the worst time" goalie for a few years now. When he was in his prime, he locked things down when they needed to be locked down. Vasi is good for 1 stinker a game.

He let in no bad goals in G3 or G4, and he let in one in total in game 2. Regardless of whether it was bad or not, when you let in one all game and your league #1 offense can't even get one to equalize, the fault isn't on Vasy for the loss.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Hell no if it's 16 teams. I think the NHL needs an approach similar to UEFA. Winning a Cup is way too hard and format rewards teams that scrape by instead of excelling during the season. There's a reason why viewership in NHL is tanking.

The NHL and UEFA are completely different things. Same reason relegation wouldn't work with current North American leagues; they're not set up for it.

 

[BednarIsStupid]

The NHL and UEFA are completely different things. Same reason relegation wouldn't work with current North American leagues; they're not set up for it.

You can make different tiers for all the trophies teams can win. You don't have to work with relegation either. Just give an advantage and incentive to good regular season teams to do well and make the path harder for bubble teams as is.

 

[Picklepete]

Doubtful they can keep it up going forward, though. Which was the point of my statement.

Well that statement was stupid
We're fine in Tampa don't worry about us we're happy going to the playoffs most years and having a shot at the Stanley cup unlike about 15 teams consistently in NHL.
We're fine being on a Red wings type run of making a playoffs year after year.
We realize you can't win it ever year.
And we got two more cups out of our current run !
I don't know what you people are talking about.

 

[KingsFan7824]

You can make different tiers for all the trophies teams can win. You don't have to work with relegation either. Just give an advantage and incentive to good regular season teams to do well and make the path harder for bubble teams as is.

Different tiers? The NHL is one league. Nobody is playing hard for some second or third tier trophy. If you want to cut it off at the top 8, so you don't get those stupid underdog teams, ok, but it's not the champions league.

 

[ClydeLee]

Well that statement was stupid
We're fine in Tampa don't worry about us we're happy going to the playoffs most years and having a shot at the Stanley cup unlike about 15 teams consistently in NHL.
We're fine being on a Red wings type run of making a playoffs year after year.
We realize you can't win it ever year.
And we got two more cups out of our current run !
I don't know what you people are talking about.

Red Wings fans were fine with that in 2013... what about in 2016? No... they weren't fine anymore, Then 10 years later and they're not fine anymore.

 

[Crunchrulz]

@Crunchrulz Lilleberg's PIM is 7th in the league, so I'm sure he's tough enough, right up there with the heavyweight fighters. But he's not a goon, that era is over. He's a promising physical defenseman who can deliver some hard hits and drop the gloves when necessary.

A lot of PIMs don't mean squat. He is average tough at best. The ONLY reason he was put in the situation he was is he was the biggest bottom tier player on Tampa Bay's roster.
There is a difference between being legit tough and being another player's punching bag who occasionally gets lucky.
Closest Tampa Bay has to an up-and-coming tough guy is Roman Schmidt, who played in the AHL for Syracuse this season.

 

[DFC]

A lot of PIMs don't mean squat. He is average tough at best. The ONLY reason he was put in the situation he was is he was the biggest bottom tier player on Tampa Bay's roster.
There is a difference between being legit tough and being another player's punching bag who occasionally gets lucky.
Closest Tampa Bay has to an up-and-coming tough guy is Roman Schmidt, who played in the AHL for Syracuse this season.

I don't think it matters if a defenseman can fight. The kind of toughness we need is more like Palat and Killorn. Guys who can fight through checks and make plays when they're taking punishment.

 

[Crunchrulz]

I don't think it matters if a defenseman can fight. The kind of toughness we need is more like Palat and Killorn. Guys who can fight through checks and make plays when they're taking punishment.

Which is all well and good until push comes to shove. Who would you rather serve five and risk a hand injury, players like Palat and Killorn or Maroon and Jeannot?

 

[Webster]

A lot of PIMs don't mean squat. He is average tough at best. The ONLY reason he was put in the situation he was is he was the biggest bottom tier player on Tampa Bay's roster.
There is a difference between being legit tough and being another player's punching bag who occasionally gets lucky.
Closest Tampa Bay has to an up-and-coming tough guy is Roman Schmidt, who played in the AHL for Syracuse this season.

Well Lilleberg sent 3 guys out with a concussion this season. 1 fight (Kastelic knockout) and 2 hits (first of those got him suspended). So there's your punching bag...

The Bolts signed him because he's the perfect 3rd pairing guy with his size and physicality. But I agree they could use more physical players, one guy can't deal with everything alone.

 

[eojsmada]

Red Wings fans were fine with that in 2013... what about in 2016? No... they weren't fine anymore, Then 10 years later and they're not fine anymore.

This 100%. It always feels great until all of the sudden core players start losing their legs and then retire or LTI-Retire and the fans realize that a rebuild isn't as easy to pull off when you have zero draft picks/prospects and you're no longer a desirable location for winning.

 

[Mrb1p]

He wasn't close to as good as Hedman. Several tiers apart.

He was this year IMO and the gap is going to get bigger.

 

[DFC]

He was this year IMO and the gap is going to get bigger.

He ran out of time to show it in TB.