Are the Lightning finally showing signs of fatigue?
For all the panic surrounding the Leafs and the rough patch they've hit lately, there hasn't been much talk of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have now slipped into a Wild Card spot. The 2-time defending Stanley Cup Champs looked poised to take the Atlantic by storm just a few weeks ago, but since then they've fallen into a rut. The Lightning have lost 6 of their last 10 games, and the culprits are their top players. If this was happening in Toronto, there would be complete and total panic, but in the case of the Lighting, it seems nobody is noticing.
Six of the Lightning forwards are in deep scoring slumps. Nikita Kucherov has just one goal in his last 10 games. The same goes for Steven Stamkos and Corey Perry. Alex Killorn has just 3 goals in his last 13 games. Worst of all, Ondrej Palat hasn't scored in 19 games, with his last goal coming against the Sabres January 11th. That's over 2 months without finding the back of the net for a player who scores at a 20-goal pace nearly every season.
Now, of course the reason Tampa doesn't receive the flak that the Leafs do are the 3 cups they've won since the Leafs last won a playoff series. It seems that winning championships really takes the heat off. Who knew?
Still, it looks like the seemingly unstoppable Lightning may finally be running out of gas. Who can blame them? Two straight years playing the regular season plus 4 grueling playoff rounds, not to mention missing out on the rest and recovery time teams who don't go deep get. I'm far from writing this team off. I know better than to do that, but it seems like we're seeing exhaustion take hold here. You have to wonder where this team would be without the heroics of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has put up a very respectable .913 save % over his last 10 games.
Still, if the Lightning truly are running out of steam after dominating the league for 2 years, the Leafs may have a chance of pulling off an upset once playoff time comes around, should the Bolts be their first round opponent. All they need now is a few saves, and for the Leafs' top players to avoid falling into the same slump they did last season.
| POLL | ||
MARS 25 | 244 ANSWERS Are the Lightning finally showing signs of fatigue? If the Leafs and Bolts meet in round 1, who do you have winning the series? | ||
| Leafs | 141 | 57.8 % |
| Lightning | 103 | 42.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
