hockeyfan89

ON • Canada •

Spin the Roulette -S2-The Lightning Strikes

Ok well taking out my charming lil wheel again and seeing what team it lands on for me to give a run down on .

So on to the spin
..... Tampa Bay it is.

Ok as with my other blog i will give a run down on the ,Offence , defence and goaltending. Once more if i get anything wrong or something doesn't look right , remeber these teams I'm writing on are not teams i am horribly familiar with . I am just trying to tell as it appears to me and is strictly opinion.


Tampa Bay lightning - The first aid team. This is a team that has had a whole load of medical work done to it everywhere. What with bandaids for it everywhere. Even having an old heart (goaltending) resucsitated. But enough analogies I will start with the forwwards.

Forwards(projected lines)
Prospal - Lecavalier - St.Louis
Malone-Stamkos- Vbrata
Jokinien-Halpern- Rechhi
Roberts-Craig- Hall

Ok that was harder then it semmed . Seeing as alot of those players are interchangable and can play on any line (exception VL , 1st line set in) . Tampa this year doesn't have to worry about scoring and should see a definite increase in GF , and now can officially get rid of the whole "big three " one line combo that has plagued them since the cup. But obviously though most of those forwards can legitametely all shoot for 20 goals. It remains to be see if they can mesh together early on to be able to play properly together. I leave a big question mark next to these guys . Either spectacular or disasterous results are heading their way.

Defence
Carle - Ranger
O'Brien- Picard
Kuba- Hutchinson

With the current D-corps bbeing iced by Tampa they better hope their offence gets going early on because they are gonna have a lot of goals coming their way . As it stands the Defence is definitly the achilles heel of the lightning . While not the worst group ever to be iced , they are definitly not the best . I think the loss of Boyle will truly be felt . But on a brighter note this could be a chance for Picard and Carle to ste it up and shine . While most fans will know what to expect from Ranger and O'Brien . A major issue will be who will be their steady 1st pairing who will play a large portion of minutes and be on the ice against the top lines. Time share for the D is definitly not gonna work that well . Either they play a more conservative game and not allow their forwards to break out or they trade one of their many forwards for a proper D-man.

Goaltending
Kolzig
Smith

Ok goaltending is the only place i see true stability . Kolzig will most definitly not be guaranteed starter , but he will play more the 30 games i think . Smith has shown flashes of brilliance but I think can really take it up a notch in consistency . Also by playin with Kolzig he should be able to learn enough this year to improve his game to starter level for next season .

Ok so their it is for rundown on what I think . Last thing to pass judgement on is where the lightning will finish .

Division- 2nd
Conference- Truly no idea

Well with the Division i think the other SE teams have gotten worse enough to allow Tampa to slide into the 2nd spot in the division , obviously not in my opinion gonna take first with Washington being the team it is now .

In terms of Conference i really don't know where to place this Tampa team , can shoot for as high as 4th or they can really crash and burn . Once more depends on how well their team can mesh . bowling over SE division opponents will onyl get them so far .

thanx for reading and am looking forward to hearing comments back

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