Ushering in a New Generation: Tampa Bay Lightning
Ushering in a New Generation, features our talented writer Katlyn Gambill taking a deeper look into team success based on a player’s age. Today, she looks at the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are the fifteenth oldest team in the league.
After a fairly disastrous rookie campaign, Steven Stamkos carried the Tampa Bay Lightning this year. As the 15th oldest NHL team, the Lightning saw a powerful young 20-year old score 95 points this year.
Unfortunately, despite having a 95-point scorer out of Stamkos and a 94-point guy (Martin St. Louis), the Lightning failed to make the playoffs yet again.
Eight points out of the playoffs led the Lightning to an early off-season. Yet, several players finished with successful individual games.
Obviously Stamkos tops the pack for the biggest improvement, but St. Louis stepped up his game as well.
St. Louis last registered more than 100 points back in the 2006-2007 season. Surely not a coincidence, that year the Lightning made the playoffs. Since then, the Lightning has yet to see playoff action while St. Louis has yet to see more than 100 points.
As with any team, more than two players need to perform well for the team to succeed.
One of those players that did not perform to his capability was captain Vincent Lecavlier. He received grief over the season for disappearing, but his 70 points did help the Lightning out quite a bit.
After the top three in statistics, the fourth (Ryan Malone) sits with only 47 points. Tampa went from three players with 70 or more points to a player with 47 points. That cannot happen if the Lightning want extra hockey in April and May.
Steve Downie showed a little promise while playing with Stamkos and St. Louis. Playing in his first full NHL season, Downie registered 46 points.
Although highly-touted defenseman Viktor Hedman failed to notch more than 20 points, his defense actually appeared fairly “NHL ready.”
Hedman played in 74 games, suffering briefly from a hip-flexor ailment.
Despite their offensive ups and downs, the Lightning’s biggest problem came in the form of injuries. Thirteen players suffered injuries (though not all missed games).
Yet, only three players (the top three offensive forwards) played all 82 games. Their injuries certainly hurt them, but their lack of experience devastated as well.
Only ten of the players had more than three full NHL seasons under their belt (or the equivalent of 246 games played).
Frankly the Lightning’s youth did not prevail in this case. Their youth hurt them more than it helped. Luckily, the next few seasons appear fairly promising for Tampa Bay.
Katlyn Gambill
NHLHS Feature Writer
kgambill@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @freezethepuck
