By Mark Pukalo
It’s been a while since the Tampa Bay Lightning have faced this many challenges going into a new season.
The last few campaigns, in particular, the Bolts cruised into the season with loads of talent just hoping six months would go by without any major injuries. It was just a matter of getting to the playoffs and finding the magic again.
When they open against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night, Tampa Bay will encounter several more obstacles it must hurdle, and a much-improved division to battle for playoff position.
*The Lightning will be without their best checking center and top penalty killer Anthony Cirelli until December as he recovers from injury.
*They also had to let free agent left wing Ondrej Palat (New Jersey) go and trade dependable top-four defenseman Ryan McDonagh (Nashville) for salary cap reasons after the season.
*They have to deal with the fatigue of three straight long postseasons.
*Seven of nine games in October are on the road and November's schedule is no cakewalk either.
*The bottom of the Atlantic Division - Detroit, Ottawa, Buffalo and Montreal - is much better. The Senators and Red Wings, in my opinion, could fight for a playoff spot in April.
*They must deal with the major distraction - at the very least - caused by the suspension of veteran third-pair defenseman Ian Cole on Sunday due to sexual abuse accusations.
The goal for the Lightning will be to find a way to be in the top four mix in the Atlantic Division around Christmas and have the ability to move forward from there. Coach Jon Cooper and staff will be tested.
It will not be easy. They will need their stars to carry them at times. Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy. No one has a better top five than that, but can they continue to get contributions from the supporting players to win consistently? We will see.
Vladislav Namestnikov’s return as a free agent should help the top nine forwards after his strong preseason. Vladdy has always produced when playing with top players, but waned when running his own line. If he plays with Stamkos and/or Kucherov will he play the same as he does centering Cole Koepke and Ross Colton? The Bolts may need him to.
One of the big keys to the first few months of the season is special teams.
The power play has to be productive. The Bolts need to be in the top five or six in the league with the talent they have with the extra man, but they tend to go through slumps. Overpassing is one of the things that causes that, but with Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman, Point and either Alex Killorn or Corey Perry on the top unit they should punish teams.
Tampa Bay’s penalty killing must also deal with the absence of Cirelli, but Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Killorn, Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul are capable. Koepke and Namestnikov may also get some shifts on the kill. Of course, they have the best penalty killer in the league in Vasilevskiy as well.
It appears Koepke has won the 12th forward spot while Gabriel Fortier is No. 13 for now. Getting Alex Barre-Boulet through waivers also buys them time to bring him up and down if they want a little more offense.
As great as he is, I don’t expect another 100-point season from Stamkos, but the Lightning hope to get full and healthy campaigns from Kucherov and Point. Paul and Hagel can also contribute more while Colton showed in 2021-22 he can score 20-plus goals.
The offense should be there.
The defense has plenty of question marks. Hedman, Erik Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev give the Bolts a strong base and Cal Foote continues to improve. Veteran Zach Bogosian might be healthy in November, but the veteran is injury plagued.
Phillipe Myers has looked very good in camp and the hope is that he can reach his potential and, along with Foote, make it difficult for Bogosian to be more than a No. 7 D man.
But the situation with Cole on the left side of the third pair is to be determined. My prediction after sleeping on the issue is that he never plays a regular season game for the Bolts.
An anonymous young woman posted on twitter Sunday about Cole’s actions when she was an underage high school girl several years ago, pressuring her into sexual relations among other horrid accusations. There have been other things that have come out about Cole recently, including an affair with an engaged woman in Carolina - apparently the team’s TV sideline reporter.
I can’t imagine that the Lightning just looked past the dirt on Cole to sign him for one year and $3 million. It likely wasn’t there without an incredibly deep and thorough investigation that teams just don’t do to sign a veteran for one season. Teams would not go back and interview people at Notre Dame, all his teammates in St. Louis and Pittsburgh. It just doesn’t happen. He had been in the league for a dozen years.
The Bolts released a statement late Sunday: “The Tampa Bay Lightning is aware of the allegations against player Ian Cole and are cooperating fully with the NHL on an investigation. Our organization takes these allegations very seriously. While we continue to gather more details, we have decided to suspend Ian Cole pending the results of an investigation. No members of the organization, including players, will comment further at this time.”
That all being said, unless there are lots of reasons to seriously doubt a woman’s allegations like there were in spades with Tara Reade and President Biden, I tend to believe someone would not go to this length to lie about a hockey player. I’m betting there is some truth to the allegations. Let’s hope the NHL finds the players Cole allegedly bragged to about having sex with the underage woman and the other player she talked to.
Like many have said on twitter, I don’t really want this guy on my team now. But, to be honest, I continued rooting for the Buccaneers after they signed Antonio Brown. So let’s see what happens.
The one thing I’m not worried about is losing Cole. Haydn Fleury can get the job done for now and Sean Day has also played well enough in Syracuse to get a look on the left side. The cap space I assume the Bolts would get back for terminating Cole’s contract would also give them the ability to shop. One question is, do Myers, Bogosian or Nick Perbix have the experience to play on the left side as right shots?
The Lightning most certainly did the right thing by suspending Cole. They need to concentrate on the season at hand. But it’s a headache they did not anticipate with a very difficult early schedule and a huge challenge this fall.
It sure is nice to have two Stanley Cups and three straight trips to the finals in the rearview mirror. That, along with five healthy superstars on the roster, should help Bolts fans ease into this season.
The best thing about it all? We get to watch a lot of good hockey in the next six-plus months.
Drop the puck!
2022-2023 Picks
EAST
Atlantic - 1. Florida; 2. Tampa Bay; 3. Toronto; 4. Ottawa; 5. Boston; 6. Detroit; 7. Montreal; 8. Buffalo
Central - 1. NY Rangers; 2. Carolina; 3. Pittsburgh; 4. Columbus; 5. Washington; 6. New Jersey; 7. Philadelphia; 8. NY Islanders
WEST
Midwest - 1. Colorado; 2. Nashville; 3. St. Louis; 4. Minnesota; 5. Dallas; 6. Winnipeg; 7. Chicago; 8. Arizona
Pacific - 1. Calgary; 2. Edmonton; 3. Los Angeles; 4. Seattle; 5. Vancouver; 6. Vegas; 7. Anaheim; 8. San Jose
So, Boston and Dallas out while Columbus and Seattle make it in
Playoffs - Florida over Wash; TB over Toronto; NY Rangers over CLB; Pittsburgh over Carolina
Fla/TB and NYR-Pitt
Cal over Minn; Edm over LA; Colo over Sea; STL over Nash
Cal-Edm and Col-STL
