Mike Brophy

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday on Sportsnet.ca and appears regularly on Hockeycentral.

I used to think Tampa Bay could challenge for a Stanley Cup final berth. But now?

Vincent Lecavalier.

Got a call last week from Tampa Bay Lightning owner Oren Koules.

The man who brings you the Saw horror movies as well as Two and a Half Men was a little upset at his team being identified as one of my three disappointing teams through the first quarter of the 2009-10 season. At the time the column was published, the Lighting ranked in the middle of the pack in the overall standings and Koules wondered how disappointing can that be? He had a point.

At the same time, and maybe it's just me, but I thought this year's version of the Lightning had a legitimate chance to be a contender. On paper I'd put the Lightning up against the majority of contending teams. Just look at what Tampa Bay has up front: a former Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner in Martin St-Louis, a superstar centre in Vinny Lecavalier and a rising star in Steven Stamkos not to mention top flight depth players such as Ryan Malone, Jeff Halpern and Alex Tanguay.

The defence received a huge upgrade in the off-season when Tampa Bay signed veteran Mattias Ohlund to play with No. 2 overall pick Victor Hedman. One hoped the addition of Anrej Meszaros, David Hale and Kurtis Foster would have provided the Lightning with a dependable blueline, but through 21 games Tampa Bay had given up seven more goals than it had scored.

Goaltending? Well, most of the world seems to think Mike Smith has the potential to be a true blue No. 1 stopper, but thus far he has yet to prove that true. He shows glimpses of being a safe keeper, but not enough to make the league's best shooters toss and turn the night before facing the Lightning. Luckily, Antero Niittymakin has played some of the best hockey of his revived career.

Still, I worry about the Lightning. I am no longer convinced this is a team that can challenge for the Eastern Conference championship.

For starters - and this is hardly a news flash - the team needs to figure out a way to get Lecavalier going. This is a guy working on the first year of an 11-year contract extension that will pay him countless millions of dollars and a player who should be challenging for the scoring lead. Instead Lecavalier doesn't even lead his team in scoring - he's fourth. At just 29 years old, seemingly in the prime of his career, Lecavalier is in a funk with just four goals and 19 points in 21 games. Playing for Canada at the Olympics is pretty much out of the question now so it remains to be seen if he can find his game in time to help the Lightning make a run for the playoffs.

Stamkos and St-Louis have been the Lightning's best forwards while Malone is on pace for 55 goals. But there is a huge drop off in performance after those players.

Frankly, I also worry a little about Rick Tocchet being the guy to lead this bunch. Not that I don't think Tocchet has a bright future ahead of him in the coaching game, it's just that he's learning on the job and this team needs answers. Serving as an assistant to Wayne Gretzky in Phoenix isn't exactly like apprenticing under Scott Bowman, now is it?

One thing I know is Tocchet has a burning desire to win and if that can rub off on his players, the team will be fine.

As it stands today, the Lightning are in the playoffs. Tampa Bay has an impressive 5-0-4 record at home and is 4-5-3 on the road. The Lightning has only lost twice in regulation in its last 10 games so the team is competitive.

Maybe it's just a matter of being patient. It is, after all, still just November. Besides, Tampa Bay isn't the only team with high expectations that can be described as a work in progress. The same could be said for the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers.

I still like a lot about the Lightning and perhaps Koules is right; maybe I was a little hard on them. The thing is I had high expectations for Tampa Bay heading into the season and no longer view the team as money in the bank. Hey, that's another issue we didn't even touch on.