Do the Tampa Bay Lightning Have What It Takes to Overtake the Panthers This Season?
The Tampa Bay Lightning are looking to close the gap with the Florida Panthers. Nick Morgan of Locked On Lightning is here to talk about their off season and their outlook for the upcoming year. All that and more on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. [Music] You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League. Part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Gil Martin here and welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Locked on NHL podcast. We are part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. It is great to welcome back to the show the co-host of Locked on Lightning, Nick Morgan. And uh Nick, an interesting off season for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They didn’t make headline moves, but I think they made smart moves. Yeah, I think sort of the joke around Tampa is this was a boring off season, but after the past few, Tampa could use a little bit of boring, you know. Um again, they didn’t need to make a big swing this year. Their big swing last year was some of the moves they made going out freeing up space to get Jake Gensel obviously making some tough choices and getting rid of Male Sergeef. But the people that they brought in fill a very specific need you know you talk about Pontis Holberg big right wing from from Toronto that’s going to be a great fit on the bottom pair. You know, you talk about somebody like um you know, Jacob Pel uh Peltier, that’s somebody who I think a lot of people, especially in in your neck of the woods in the Metro division, have been talking about. That’s somebody with some interesting high upside. So, no, they they didn’t go out and make a big swing, but the players that they brought in, I think, fit a very specific role that that the are going to help the Lightning this year. A and depth was an issue last year. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s the biggest thing that Julian Breezes addressed going into the off season is some of the pieces that had sort of led the Lightning to all the success over the past couple years. You know, you talk about, you know, Alex Korn, Barkley Goodro, a lot of these big names that were around during those back-to-back cup years. The Lightning didn’t really have the liberty of those quality of players on their bottom line, on their bottom pair last year. Now, it’s interesting because they do have some good pieces and it looks like as the season went on, they started investing more in some of the youth coming up. So, it’s going to be interesting to see a how well those new pieces fit and b is there somebody in the lightning system right now that can jump up and maybe take on that role of a good bottom six depth player. I is there a player or two that you have in mind who are the top candidates for that? Yeah, I mean, everybody in Tampa talks about Mitchell Chaffy. That’s a guy that I think a lot of people are still trying to figure out what exactly he’s going to be. But, you know, whether Tampa fans necessarily agreed with his level of play last year or not, I think a lot of people were like, why is this guy in the lineup? Um, it’s clear that John Cooper really trusts him. So, he’s somebody that I think is going to play um, you know, a big role going into next year. Uh, you also look, you know, we we mentioned um, you know, we mentioned Jacob Peltier. That’s a guy that’s been around the block a few times in the NHL. You know, obviously didn’t quite have the success in Calgary that I think a lot of people were expecting from him. Goes to Philadelphia, impresses in some of his limited role, but not enough to kind of earn a full-time spot. I think there’s a lot of people saying, look, if you can put him on the third line and maybe just let him kind of pick and choose the type of, you know, situations in which he’s used, that’s somebody that can be a big boomer bust player. Um, you know, at least that’s that’s kind of what I’m thinking in terms of Ford. On defense, the one name to watch out for to me is Max Croer. This is a guy that’s been a star in Syracuse. He’s been up and down the past couple of years. He’s another depth defenseman and I think maybe maybe he starts the year as sort of that seventh guy, but he’s somebody that I think can evolve into a really interesting bottom four type defenseman for the Lightning. So, here we are training camp rapidly approaching. What are your biggest concerns about this team at this point? The biggest for me is health, you know, and if you listen to Locked on Lightning, Greg Stevens says it pretty much with any player that comes up is can they stay healthy? Look, if you put the Lightning roster up against anybody else in the NHL, you have an argument for this being one of the best rosters in the league. They’re loaded. They have an absolutely dynamite first line. Uh one of the best number one defenders in the league, elite goalending. But beyond them, that’s where the question marks start. you know, as as you mentioned, the depth that they’ve had the past several years wasn’t necessarily there last year. They’ve had moved to fix it, but what happens to Coutroof if he gets injured? You know, is there somebody else that can put up that level of production or multiple players that are capable of that quality of production? If Victor Hedman goes down, who’s that guy that’s quarterbacking the defense? That’s that’s a big question mark for the Lightning. So, there’s a really good roster, but there’s also not a lot of room for, you know, error if somebody gets hurt. The Atlantic division, a very tough division and obviously contains your biggest rival and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers. Have the Lightning done enough this off season to close the gap between them and the Panthers? You know what? If you ask Armandoz the same question, our our good friend at Locked on Panthers, me and him did a crossover where he said the same thing. He’s like, “Look, of all the teams we played last year, that Tampa Bay series was maybe the toughest we faced, and he included the Edmonton Oilers in that.” Uh, the Lightning are right there. And you saw at the end of the series last year, the lack of depth is really, I think, what kind of wore the Lightning down over time more so than maybe, you know, no goals from Coocher. So, I think if these depth pieces pay off and some of these savvy moves that JB made this off season and some of these young players step up, like we said, I think that the Tampa Bay Lightning are right there with the Florida Panthers. Obviously, Florida, for good reason, is going to be the favorite going into this year, but Tampa’s got a team that I think can threaten if some of those pieces stay up. And like I said, if they can stay healthy. Always a big if in this game for sure. One prospect who will not be with the team is Isaac Howard. He was traded. Were you disappointed that they couldn’t reach an agreement with him and were you satisfied with the return in that trade? I mean, yeah. Anytime you have a Hobie Baker winner on your team and somebody who’s got an the personality of an Isaac Howard, that’s a guy that you would love to have on your team. I think most hockey fans would say. But look, you know, for whatever reason it didn’t work, whether there’s, you know, the rumors of he wanted guarantee for more ice time, whether he just didn’t think he fit in the Tampa system, whatever it was, for some reason he just wasn’t that keen on being a Tampa Bay Lightning player. So, you know, Julian Breezewan company did the best they can do. And hey, look, Sam O’Reilly, maybe he doesn’t have that name factor that Isaac Howard had. Maybe he doesn’t have that explosive ceiling, but he still projects to be a really good NHL player. You know, maybe a really solid second line, third line guy for years to come. And like I said, the Tampa Bay Lightning need players like that that they can kind of build spots around moving forward. So, you know, getting O’Reilly, I think, was a good um, you know, I think a good stop gap to losing Isaac Howard. Uh, what do you think are the keys to the season this year, besides obviously, as you mentioned, staying healthy? Well, there there’s two that stay in mind to me and one is does the offense come out with that same firepower they did last year? You know, Tampa Bay Lightning number one offense in the league during the regular season last year. A lot of it was due to some of the depth guys like Brandon Hegel, Anthony Cerelli having career years. Can they keep that level of production up and you know guys like Oliver Borkstrand, can they get back to the level that they were at a few years ago and become also really big death contributors to the team? I’m also looking at guys like Gage Consal. Can he take the next step in his career? And then the other one is on defense. Who’s going to be the guy behind Victor Hedman that kind of steps up and becomes a block for this defense? Ryan Mcdana, love him. One of my favorite players in the entire NHL. Uh, but he’s also 36 years old or 35, something like that. But, you know, towards towards the late end of his career. Uh, I look at somebody maybe like JJ Moser who they got from the rest in peace Arizona Coyotes a few years back in that male Sergeef trade. That’s a guy that I think maybe is ready to take the next step in his career and sort of be that complimentary piece to Victor Hedman. And if he does, if he can project to be not even like a number one guy, but maybe just like a 1B, then I think the Tampa Bay Lightning have a pretty good building block on defense beyond Victor Hedman. Going to be an interesting season down in Florida. Nick, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you and your co-host on social media? Yeah, you can check out me and my new co-host, Greg Steven, uh, at Locked on Lightning. We’re on five days a week. You can follow us on Twitter at l_lightning. Uh, follow us on social media at Locked on Lightning. And yeah, tune in five days a week wherever you get your podcast or on YouTube. Nick, thanks so much. 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The Tampa Bay Lightning look to extend their window for Stanley Cup contention but have they done enough to close the gap with the Florida Panthers?
Nick Morgan of Locked On Lightning joins us to discuss the offseason moves and the keys to overtaking the defending Stanley Cup champions for the Bolts.
All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.
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