By Dave Semyck
Here we are eight games into a season where the experts picked Tampa Bay to not only finish out of the playoffs but really near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Honestly, its not surprising as it was clear that Tampa was trying something new this year. Malkin was being shopped, rookies were being traded for and it had the makings of rebuild in Tampa. Instead of a rebuild, the team was leaning more towards another retooling, so far its paid off.
Tampa Bay is currently 5-3 and only one game out of the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference. Obviously its early and its still too hard to tell if Tampa Bay is actually decent or just running through a small hot spell in the start of the season. The players themselves though are enjoying this start to the season and the stats show for it. Brayden Schenn currently leads the roster with 12 points in eight games and rookie Kirby Dach and Taylor Hall are a point-per-game pace with 8 points each. There is only one forward on the entire roster with a negative +/- rating and ironically enough its Marcus Kruger, one of the better defensive forwards on the team. Looking at the goalies on the roster, Pekka Rinne is enjoying a strong start with a 2.47 GAA and .927 SV%. In order to give Rinne a few days off Mike Robinson took the crease last game and had an incredible performance to up his numbers to 1.74 GAA and .939 SV% so far this year.
Tampa Bay will get to play a struggling Arizona Coyotes next who have currently started their season off as 2-5-2. Tampa wont take this game lightly as they hope to increase their record to 6-3 and make a bigger splash in the Eastern Conference.
11/1/2020 - 302 words
