Tampa has started the season 1-4-1, with two games where they didn’t score a goal. That is not how they wanted to start a season coming off their first playoff berth in several years. There are expectations on this club of anything short of another playoff appearance will be a failure. The Lightning brough up Logan Cooley, the fifth overall pick just two years ago, to deliver additional playmaking ability to an already talented roster of forwards. He has started with 3 points in the first 6 games.
An early season trade brought in young winger Martin Kaut, along with a big boost in backup goaltender Ilya Samsanov in exchange for Warren Foggle. This trade gives the Lightning as solid a goaltending tandem as there is in the league, it also brought in a slightly younger forward, with a very similar skillset as Foggle has. It was considered a win in the Lightning front office.
Ty Smith was elevated to the first line defense, to play along side Bowen Byram, giving the Lightning a top pair of very young, but extremely talented defensemen. Jett Woo was promoted from the farm, and is now filling a spot on the second line, which gives the Lightning a top 4 all under the age of 27.
There is still a lot of games left, and many bright points in this not so great start for the team. There is likely to be some lineup changes in the next few games to try and find line combinations that will build a little chemistry and allow the players to flourish and play up to their potential. The question is, if this lineup continues to underperform, whill there be changes coming to bring in what pieces may be missing to put them back on the path to the playoffs.
9/8/2023 - 306 words
