Tampa’s Top Scorers Need to Share the Wealth

 

As long as the Lightning are able to retain the services of both Lecavalier and St. Louis, fans expect the team scoring to be a little lop sided. But what has the Bolts brude perplexed is that the majority of the goals from this presently playoff bound team aren’t coming from the french Canadian duo, not even close.

Of the 66 goals scored by Tampa in the opening 25 games of the season, Stamkos and Malone have combined for 32 (17 and 15 respectively), representing 48 pieces of the 100 piece pie. If you’re anything like me, than you would immediately question the reliability of this article by asking yourself, isn’t this a good thing? And though the answer is yes, as the Lightning have spent seasons looking for alternative goal scorers to Marty and Vinny, one can not help but be worried after reviewing the following.

Aside from Stamkos and Malone’s double digit tally totals, no Bolt is yet to hit the ten goal mark, in fact only two have reached five – St Louis and Lecavalier. If you break it down further, of the possible 23 goal scorers only 14 have been able to find the back of the net. Of those, two have a single tally, three have scored twice, four have hit the mesh three times (this is getting a little formulaic) and Tanguay is the lone four goal guy before getting to Vinny, Marty, Stevey and Ryan-(y?).

When breaking down the schedule before the season started, I assured readers that if Tampa can hold to eighth place from October through December then the chances are very good that Tampa will make it into the playoffs for only their third time since winning Lord Stanley’s Mug. What I didn’t consider is Tampa’s inability to share the scoring around five of the top six forwards.

The biggest question going into the season on all of our minds was “How drastically can they improve their goals against?” Getting out of the NHL GA basement tends to be at least a two year process, so the Lightning’s jump from 30th to 12th can be viewed as monumental. But if the team hopes to enter the second season and avoid a first round eviction, the following three must achieve success equal to what has been attained in years previous.

St. Louis and Lecavalier, two of the longest running Bolts, must hit the 30 goal mark. This is without question. The years Tampa did not join their comrades in the post-season either Martin or Vincent had not crossed 30 goals. Their offensive leadership is symbiotic with team success. Tanguay too cannot fall by the way side. Alex must finish the season injury-free and nestled somewhere in the 20 goal/50 assist range.

The Lightning are capable of icing two lines with more talent than most teams possess in one. With the playoffs often being a game of line match-ups, Tocchet needs the ability to hit the other team with wave after wave of speedy, powerful, corner-picking offense. Tampa’s ability to push hard in the opposing zone will keep the other team from discovering the inexperience found in the Bolts defense.

Though I stick by my word, and strongly believe the Lightning will make the playoffs if holding at least the eighth spot on New Years, we should all begin to wonder how deep the Bolts drive can hope to be if this inefficiency keeps up.

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