{"id":505169,"date":"2026-03-15T21:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/505169\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T21:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:10:52","slug":"tampa-bay-lightning-week-ahead-schedule-storylines-slump-continues-kucherov-for-hart-and-more-the-hockey-writers-tampa-bay-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/505169\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines \u2013 Slump Continues, Kucherov for Hart, and More – The Hockey Writers – Tampa Bay Lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> fell short in two out of three games last week, including an important home contest against the Carolina Hurricanes. For the week ahead, we\u2019ll look at the team\u2019s current slump, Nikita Kucherov\u2019s Hart Trophy case, and more.<\/p>\n

Lightning Are Still Slumping<\/p>\n

For a while, the Lightning were the hottest team in the league. There was a point you could argue they had overtaken the dominant Colorado Avalanche, winning 20 times in a 23-game stretch. That good fortune has vanished, though.<\/p>\n

Related: 3 Thoughts About the Lightning\u2019s Recent Skid<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Feb. 26, the Lightning are 2\u20137\u20130. According to Natural Stat Trick<\/a>, they have a 46.90% expected goal share during this span, so we aren\u2019t looking at a puck-luck anomaly\u2014the Bolts have genuinely regressed.<\/p>\n

After being defeated twice last week, the Lightning are in danger of losing out on home-ice advantage in the postseason. With 84 points in 65 games, they\u2019re only ahead of the third-place team in the Atlantic Division, the Montreal Canadiens, by a hair. Montreal has 82 points in 65 games.<\/p>\n

At the same time, first place is still within reach. The Buffalo Sabres have 88 points in 67 games as opposed to 65. However, the teams are trending in opposite directions\u2014Buffalo has nine wins in its last 10 matchups. Tampa Bay needs a jolt of energy to right the ship.<\/p>\n

Could Kucherov Win the Hart Trophy?<\/p>\n

In some positive news, NHL.com writers were recently polled<\/a> on who they thought should win the Hart Trophy, and Kucherov was the victor via a tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

\"NikitaTampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov moves the puck against the Utah Mammoth (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

This is notable, since it wasn\u2019t just any poll. NHL.com has been conducting these for a little while now, and their hit rate is fairly high. Since the winner of the Hart Trophy is determined by writers, it makes sense that this would be the case.<\/p>\n

So, while nobody knows who is taking home the hardware, Kucherov most definitely has a shot<\/a>. In 61 games this season, he has 34 goals and 72 assists. He is on pace for a fourth-consecutive 80-assist campaign, something that has only been accomplished by Wayne Gretzky. If you\u2019re curious, nobody else can accomplish the feat in 2025-26\u2014just No. 86.<\/p>\n

Lightning Schedule March 16\u201322<\/p>\n

DateTime (EDT)Opponent (Record)LocationTuesday, March 1710 p.m.@ Seattle Kraken (30\u201326\u20139)Climate Pledge ArenaThursday, March 1910 p.m.@ Vancouver Canucks (20\u201338\u20138)Rogers ArenaSaturday, March 2110 p.m.@ Calgary Flames (26\u201333\u20137)Scotiabank SaddledomeSunday, March 228 p.m.@ Minnesota Wild (38\u201317\u201312)Grand Casino Arena<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning fell short in two out of three games last week, including an important home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,1335,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-505169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-lightning","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nikita-kucherov","12":"tag-tampa-bay","13":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","14":"tag-tampabay","15":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116235251388926035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}