On paper, the 2019-20 edition of the Tampa Bay Lightning looks as strong as ever. Stronger, even, considering general manager Julien BriseBois brought in a hungry veteran rearguard, depth additions and a new backup netminder to complement the strongest offensive core in the league.
On the ice, though, the club has looked less like the formidable powerhouse we saw last winter and more like the one that fizzled out in the spring.
It’s early, of course — just three games into the new campaign, it’s far too soon for the 1-1-1 club to sound the alarm bells. But that didn’t stop captain Steven Stamkos from calling out his club after a demoralizing loss to the Carolina Hurricanes Sunday evening — one that saw Tampa Bay manage just 13 total shots on goal, with none in the second period and just two in the third before failing to register a single shot in overtime.
“We just continue to be the freewheeling team that thinks we can just come into games and win because we’re skilled,” Stamkos said, via the Tampa Bay Times‘ Diana C. Nearhos. “We keep falling back into the same old bad habits that we’ve been doing, that cost us the season we had last year.
“Unless we change things, it’s going to be a really, really, really long year.”
Hurricanes defenceman Jaccob Slavin won the game in OT for the Hurricanes after Carolina’s third-period rally, handing the Lightning their second loss of the young season.
Possession numbers heavily favoured Carolina, and the opportunities Tampa did have were frittered away by favouring pretty plays over putting shots on net. It’s not all doom and gloom, of course: The Lightning sent a combined 64 shots in two games against the Florida Panthers before their matchup against Carolina, with eight goals and a win to show for it.
“We have skill, but you don’t always need to use that skill,” Tyler Johnson said, via Nearhos. “We try to make those cute plays. We try to make almost Globetrotter plays. In reality, that doesn’t win games.”
The Lightning have plenty of time to hit the early-season reset button and will have a good test when they do, as their next matchup isn’t until Thursday in an Atlantic showdown with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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