Quoting: PointStamkosVasilevskiy219188
OK, thoughts after last night.
I don't know what to do at this point. Losing to a Bruins team missing Pastrnak (AND Hampus Lindholm to boot) in a regular-season game of that magnitude is seriously concerning. Also, against the Bruins, Leafs and Panthers this year, the Lightning are a combined 3-5-2. Needless to say, NOT good.
It never clicks together in one game-if the offense is firing, the D is abysmal, if the D is shutting it down, the offense can't buy a goal. Contrary to popular belief, Vasi is not superhuman, and can only do so much.
They've been bad at the absolute worst time of the regular season, now having sunk to the 1st wild card, which would almost definitely mean starting off in Carolina. If they can climb past the Bruins down the stretch, they'll still probably open up in Toronto, as if the Leafs beat the Habs tonight, they'll be 6 up on the Lightning with 11 games left (for the latter). Not ideal with the way the Leafs and Matthews have been playing of late, even with their playoff history.
In short: THEY NEED TO FIGURE IT OUT, FAST. The talent is there, the urgency is there, the quality of play is not. Tomorrow against the Sabres is a HUGE opportunity to right the ship, and cannot be let go to waste.
3 in a row is almost unheard of. With the talent on this team, it's definitely possible. The way they're playing right now, it's definitely not.
They need to figure it out. They can. But they're running out of time.
I think they need to keep the lines in a blender for a couple more weeks. We still haven't hit the optimum lineup.
Foote was noticable. I liked his game last night
Heddy was pissed with Kuch's bad read in OT.
I think we matchup better against Carolina than any other option we've got this season, so if they don't climb out of the wc spot it's not the end of the world so long as they start trending in right way and develop a bit of chemistry.
And I've changed my mind. Give Elliot more starts Vasy is gassed.