Tampa Bay Lightning 2010 Preview & Predictions

Tampa Bay Lightning 2010 Season Preview, Predictions Picks & Odds

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TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

2009-10 record: 34-36-12
Shootout Record: 4-7
Division Finish: 4th, Southeast
Conference Finish: 12th, Eastern
Goals For: 217
Goals Against: 260

Tampa Bay Lightning 2010 Preview

Getting a proven winner to change teams is often a difficult task as such people are reluctant to leave a favorable situation for the unknown. But the Lightning hit the jackpot when Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman wanted to run his own team after a few years of contributing to the success of the Detroit Red Wings and learning how the front office works.

Fresh from his triumph at the Vancouver Olympics as executive director of Team Canada, Yzerman brought his gold-medal touch, the winning Wings’ philosophy, a Hall of Fame 22-year career and three Stanley Cup wins to a Tampa team that has stumbled since its 2004 title year.

Yzerman learned the inner workings of management from some of the greatest names in the game, Detroit’s Hall members Scotty Bowman, Jim Devellano, long-time GM Ken Holland and super scout Jim Nill.

The Lightning have missed the playoffs the past three seasons, and yet there’s a sense they’ve never been too far from serious contention, jumping 14 points last season and needing about 10 more this term to get back to the party.

Tampa’s assets include top scorer Steven Stamkos, the perennial production from Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, the grit of Ryan Malone and Steve Downie and a budding defense fronted by Victor Hedman.

Yzerman’s first task was to find the coach best suited to bring this conglomerate together and picked Guy Boucher from the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.

One of the things Boucher might try here is a twist on the trap at 1-3-1, with a trio supporting a deep fore checker.

Boucher will have the benefit of Stamkos having gone through two seasons in the League, a difficult rookie year where expectations of the first overall pick clashed with management and coaching unrest, and then a much better sophomore swing with a whopping 51 goals and 95 points, earning a piece of the Rocket Richard scoring trophy.

A second Lightning player was honored on awards night when St. Louis ended a four-year wait as runner-up for the Lady Byng Trophy to Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit. St. Louis’s 94 points and a career best 65 assists included just 12 penalty minutes.

2010 Tampa Bay Lightning Offense:

Tampa was the only team in the Eastern Conference to have its three top scorers play all 82 games, an attendance mark that must hold true again as a step to April success. All three had well in excess of 200 shots on goal. Stamkos’s quick release and improved physical condition, fostered by ex Lightning fitness buff Gary Roberts, paid huge dividends. Yet despite the impressive numbers of Stamkos, Lecavalier and St. Louis, the club had only 217 total goals, more than 100 fewer than Southeast Division champion Washington. After Malone and Downie reached 20 goals, only one other player, the departed Alex Tanguay, reached 10 and even that was a struggle for him.

2010 Tampa Bay Lightning Defense:

Tampa went back to the future for an offensive type, signing Pavel Kubina, from the 2004 Cup champions, after varying success in Toronto and Atlanta. He’s big and he has averaged around 40 points every year the past three. Hedman, who followed the Islanders’ John Tavares to the podium as the second overall pick in 2009, at times found his first year as challenging as Stamkos. He did have 20 points and was a minus-three, not bad for a kid playing more than 20 minutes a night. Brett Clark has also arrived via free agency, but a couple of last year’s Tampa defensemen were into double figure plus-minus territory, giving Boucher more homework to do.

2010 Tampa Bay Lightning Goaltending:

Goaltending has been the weak link of an otherwise strong team for a number of years, ranking 27th in the League last year with a 3.03 goals-against average as Antero Niittymaki and Mike Smith split the duties. Now Niittymaki has split town, with Dan Ellis, who lost his job to Pekka Rinne in Nashville, coming in. Smith would have to overcome some injury difficulties of the past two seasons since arriving from Dallas to convince Yzerman he shouldn’t have to divide the job again in 2010-11. Most of the Lightning’s net prospects are plaYing overseas for another year or so.

Tampa Bay Lightning 2010 Special Teams

Stamkos’s dominant slot presence was the obvious reason he easily led the League with 24 power-play goals and 41 points with the extra man. He helped lift Tampa to eighth overall, moving up from the bottom half of the group the year previous. Seven goals came from each of St. Louis, Malone and Downie. The penalty killing, however, will take a bit of tinkering. Tampa held just above 80%, not bad, but it was below the League average and a definite liability on the road. They had the fewest short-handed goals in the League, just two.

Tampa Bay Lightning 2010 Season Predictions

The influx of talent and staff could mean a fast turnaround in the standings, but there were two years of such predictions before that fizzled. Just keep in mind that where Yzerman goes, success usually follows.

We predict that the Tampa Bay Lightning will finish 2nd in the NHL Southeast.

Tampa Bay Lightning Betting

Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup Odds: +3000
Tampa Bay Lightning Eastern Conference Odds: +1400

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