Lightning Season Preview

Sorry – I’ve been distracted by the beginning of college football season. For those of you who follow college football, I have to tell you that I’m a Washington Huskies fan, and I’m still a little upset by that celebration call last weekend against BYU. I know that you all know exactly the one that I’m talking about because ESPN was all over that like a bad date. That’s the way the bad rules go, though. The penalty against Locker was technically called correctly. Hopefully the NHL officials will be so dedicated about making their calls, right?

However, I’m now back for the season. We have all been rewarded for our patience, and training camp opens up this week. Hooray for hockey! Too bad I’m too far away to attend, though.

Okay, I’m going to give this Tampa Bay Lightning season preview a try. Right around the beginning of the season I might do a Southeast Division season preview. But I think I’ll wait until then since I’d like to have a better idea of actual rosters.

I’d really like to be able to sugar-coat the Lightning’s outlook, but that’s just not the kind of girl that I am. So here’s my unvarnished opinion – Tampa Bay is going to have a rough time of it, particularly at the beginning. That’s not so profound, I know, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

It all ends and begins with the defense. But that’s no surprise to anyone. All you have to do is read various hockey pages to get that. Heck, all you need to do is to look at the roster for yourself. I’m really hoping that the defense will prove everyone wrong and be outstanding, but I’m not counting on it.

Some people might want to point fingers at the goaltending, but I think that’s actually pretty solid this season. Smith played very well for the Lightning at the end of last season, Ramo was also pretty good, and Kolzig has always been a great goalie. So, I think that position is actually pretty well covered.

The only bad thing with the forwards is that there are too many good ones to choose from. You can come up with 6 pretty good forward lines out of who’s listed on the team website right now. One guy will get a lucky break since Halpern’s out until probably January. But that still leaves a lot of guys to choose from.

I won’t even discuss the possibility of Mats Sundin joining the team. I don’t think it’s likely, one. And two, that’s just plain craziness to add yet another forward when you need to shore up the defense. They have different priorities from the rest of us, I guess.

Not to mention that this is supposed to be Lecavalier’s team, and they want to bring in another star player? Who was also a captain? Talk about a bad dynamic there. Someone’s obviously not thinking clearly with that. It wouldn’t matter if Lecavalier and Sundin were the best of friends – in the end, I just don’t think that would work out very well.

I’m also really hoping that the new coaching staff will work out well. But I get the sneaky suspicion that that’s not going to necessarily happen. Nothing against Melrose or his assistants at all, though. I just think that the ownership, with their overly hands-on approach, is going to end up screwing over the coaching staff by undermining their authority with the players.

Think about it. Melrose used to be a defensemen, and he likes a hard-hitting and tight defensive style of play. He’s said that often enough, anyways. It’s obvious that the ownership doesn’t like that style of hockey since they don’t have that kind of a team. The ownership apparently likes a very skilled and high scoring offensive style of play, and they’ve built their team accordingly without taking their coaching staff’s opinions into consideration – if the coaching staff was even consulted about it in the first place.

I suspect that that difference of opinion is going to get ugly, and probably sooner rather than later. Melrose isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to keep that kind of stuff to himself unless he has to. And, if you’re a player, who would you listen to? Your coach or the guy who signs your paycheck? Probably not the coach. So don’t be surprised if Melrose doesn’t last the season. Not because he’s a bad coach, but because ownership picked the wrong guy for the kind of team they wanted.

So I don’t think this is season is going to be one of the good ones. Realistically, with the kind of talent that they have, they should barely squeak into playoffs – even with the defense being as young and inexperienced as they are. But a lot of that will be dependent upon how well this team finally gels, how good a leader the guy who’s finally named captain is, and if the coaching staff will be allowed to do their thing without ownership interference. In all honesty, talent is the least of their worries right now.

But, in the end, you stick with your team through the good and the bad because they’re your team. And, as a team player – and believe me, fans are an integral part of any team – you’ve got to support your team. I grew up with the mediocre sports scene of Seattle, where most teams either weren’t good enough to make playoffs or bad enough to get a good draft pick, but everyone supported them anyways. And regardless of how the Lightning does, their fans will stick by them – just like they did all last season, despite being dead last in the league. Because that’s just what teammates do.

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