5 reasons why Tampa Bay Lightning will win Stanley Cup
By C.L. Kohuss
The Tampa Bay Lightning are as primed as any club to go the distance in the 2017-18 Stanley Cup playoffs. Here are five reasons they can win it all.
As a part of the FanSided 2018 NHL playoff coverage, we’re analyzing each team that survived the regular season and giving you five reasons why they’re set to win it all. Favorite club didn’t make it? There’s plenty of time to latch on to any of the 16 remaining. It’s going to be a crazy finish. Let’s get it going below in the Eastern Conference.
For vast stretches of this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning have looked like arguably the best team in the NHL. One could say they’ve flip-flopped in that spot with the Boston Bruins, and that’s fair. The B’s did take three of four in the season series. Nashville is certainly in the category also.
But hey, we’re guessing you aren’t looking for waffling. It’s time for icy facts, and you want them now. Though they haven’t sipped from the Holy Grail since 2004, the pieces are there. Every single one of them. Tampa fans, you know what that means. Parades and weird haircuts, baby.
5. The offense is a fever dream
Any time you’re scoring closer to four goals a game than you are to three (3.51), good things are undoubtedly happening in the standings and in the win column. In fact, the Lightning have amassed the most goals in one regular season dating back to 2010. That’s all kinds of fire.
The next closest in that range is Pittsburgh, who tallied 278 last season before going on to smoke teams en route to the Stanley Cup. That seems to bode well. So does the fact that they have Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos, two guys who were dueling for a while with Connor McDavid in the Art Ross race.
On the topic of Kucherov, how many teams regret letting him slip to the bottom of round two in the 2011 draft? All of them. All of the teams regret it. The rest of the East, certainly, when they find that he’s knotted 42 points in 45 career playoff games. He’s, uh, 24 years old.
But this isn’t simply a two man team. We’re laying the groundwork for what’s to come here. Stamkos and Kucherov are at the top of the league in terms of talent, but that only gets you so far before opponents start using their hockey radars to detect a disturbance in lines two through four. The Dallas Stars are living proof of that.
Unless your team consists of a guy who’s going to score every goal ever, there must be quality depth jumping over the boards when superstar-McGee’s shift is done. Let’s hope the Lightning have it….