Post-Game Talk: Series Discussion: 2015-16 ECF - Pittsburgh vs. Tampa Bay ‎

[These Are The Days]

Window is slammed shut. We won't sniff the 2nd round for a long time. Especially if you guys get your way and Cooper, Bishop, Callahan and Stamkos get shipped out of town.

Damn seriously? I'm under the impression that next year may go down as one of the best in Lightning history. Possibly even better than 2014-2015. We have a fantastic team but it needs to be trimmed up a little bit. Once we do that we'll have a chance.

 

[MattM92]

Its talent, work, a little luck, a little health, depth, and a lot of video watching/drinking. It is insanely hard to win a cup. Nobody appreciates that. You have at least 16 games of just beating the tar out of four different teams, and I don't know the last time (or ever) someone ran the table and swept all four teams, so things just got that much harder. That is why it is so fun, that is why it is beautiful.

Whatever this "window" is you guys are on about is wrong. We're just fine.

The window isn't close to closed. The majority of this team is still young. The roster just needs to be reworked a little bit. Yzerman took a big gamble last offseason by not bringing in any new bodies and keeping the exact same roster while every team around us got better. He had every reason to believe that the team could win, because for the first 4 games of the 2015 SCF, that young team gave the world class Chicago Blackhawks everything they had and pushed the Blackhawks harder than most other teams ever had. Go back and watch the highlights. I know it's not a perfect representation of the game, but the highlights for games 1-4 were pretty much Lightning scoring chance montages with brief interludes of Blackhawk goals. We took it to them, for real. By game 5 we were done. We had nothing left after having played 20 of 21 possible games in the previous 3 rounds.

I understand why Yzerman didn't change things up after last year, but now it's time to make a few minor tweaks. The team has to get better, it can't just stay the same.

 

[MattM92]

Damn seriously? I'm under the impression that next year may go down as one of the best in Lightning history. Possibly even better than 2014-2015. We have a fantastic team but it needs to be trimmed up a little bit. Once we do that we'll have a chance.

I have very high hopes for next season too. The regular season can't be mailed in like it was this season, but at the same time you can't give it all up just to get there like 2013-14. Find the happy medium. And hopefully the players and coaches have learned what playing it safe gets you.

 

[These Are The Days]

For me it really puts into perspective how difficult it is to win one and really makes me appreciate 04 that much more. A lot has to go right for your team. A lot has to not go wrong too. We have a good team here though, our window isn't closed just yet.

It also shows the importance of drafting well. It doesn't matter how great your team is when Paul Ranger, Evgeny Artyukhin, Nikita Alexeev, Nick Tarnasky, Kari Ramo, Blair Jones and Mike Lundin are the only homegrown additions to your team for about 4 years then you're gonna come crashing down HARD. They weren't bad players, but they weren't big difference makers. I dare anyone to find a team with a worse track record than we had from 1999-2007.

It's absolutely astounding how Rick Dudley managed to hit on all the trades and signings he made and it somehow managed to build a championship team out of it with only Esposito's draft picks in Lecavalier, Richards and Kubina making a difference. Not to discredit Jay Feaster but he didn't have a whole lot of work to do once he took over.

 

[These Are The Days]

I have very high hopes for next season too. The regular season can't be mailed in like it was this season, but at the same time you can't give it all up just to get there like 2013-14. Find the happy medium. And hopefully the players and coaches have learned what playing it safe gets you.

I think so too. I always said to my wife that this team is going to have to learn the hard way. But even though we lost, I could see definitive improvement in the power play by the end of the playoff run. I could see the Drouin being the "x factor" needed to cure our stagnant offense and the Lightning themselves admitted they mailed it in so it kind of relives me to know we aren't as bad as we had looked.

The guys are just gonna have to play hungry. We'll lose a few pieces but we'll still have the core next season. I've never doubted that we would sign Stamkos. In the even that we do lose him, then I'll be more than heartbroken but I've been encouraged by our playoff performance to know we will make it without him and we will have enough salary space to keep the same team that made it to Game 7 of the ECF.

It REALLY IS his choice here because Yzerman's hands are tied. I'm sure he would've offered him a record deal we been able to afford one but I know he's going to do what's best for the team.

I'll always be encouraged by that.

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

Its talent, work, a little luck, a little health, depth, and a lot of video watching/drinking. It is insanely hard to win a cup. Nobody appreciates that. You have at least 16 games of just beating the tar out of four different teams, and I don't know the last time (or ever) someone ran the table and swept all four teams, so things just got that much harder. That is why it is so fun, that is why it is beautiful.

Whatever this "window" is you guys are on about is wrong. We're just fine.

ya detroit with their version of russian 5 won 1996-1997 16 and 4 in games the five scored they were 16 and 0. I dont know of many runs like that ever.

We started real well hell we coulda ended it all in 5 5 6 and then swept to tie that mark

it was close

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Its just hard, this **** is hard, man. We're in a great position though.

 

[Sky04]

I have very high hopes for next season too. The regular season can't be mailed in like it was this season, but at the same time you can't give it all up just to get there like 2013-14. Find the happy medium. And hopefully the players and coaches have learned what playing it safe gets you.

Work ethic from the regular season crept into the most important games of the season, who knew.

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

http://lightning.nhl.com/club/stats.htm

as i look over the stats and try to envision success and solutions. To see for me what is standing out is pretty depressing. Argue wise guarantee some think callahan did ok but 16 games 4 points 2 goals and a team worst -3 kinda sums up his entire year just head shakingly bad.

Next the guy we love to hate matt carle 14 games 5 points all assists and a plus 1 definitely acceptable for a guy who was benched so often at end of year.

Big moves by sustr no credit but 17 games 3 points and third on team with a super solid plus 7 yet he sucks and is worthless ya got it

Next cant view stralmans failure as anything but unfortunately not up to speed to play in finals so will skip.

hedman a super solid 14 points in 17 games but only a plus 2 so that is bad and can expect with healthy stralman him to dominate plus minus next year on top of scoring

filppula taking a ton of abuse was 7 points in 17 games and very respectable plus 5

kucherov tyjo killor killed it plus 13 9 and 6 with 19 17 and 13 points super solid stuff

drouin was a disappointing minus 1 scoring 14 points so that is not good

brian boyle with 5 goals 5 points and a minus 1 unfortunately

garrison 7 points was a plus 4

all in all a ton of blame goes into two things last year our power play and lack of d scoring which would help the lower lines score

hopefully the drouin factor does a lot to fix this and guys like garrison revert to normal form

just me looking at d scoring first leaves a lot to be desired projections

hedman 45
stralman 30
garrison 30
koekkoek 20
sustr 20
coburn 10
nesterov 10

that puts us on the pace of the year before if guys can hit these numbers and all of them did this last two years but koekkoek and he should match carle of two years ago easily imho

looking at forward need to get a couple guys better is all callahan and filppula johnny to get back to form with drouins differences should be fine with or without stamkos as long as we add a guy for 20 goals it should work out pretty well imho

projections
stamkos if here 40-85
drouin 24 69
kucherov 34 77
johnson 32 66
palat 20 58
filppula if here 22 48
callahan 26 53
killorn 20 44
boyle 12-26
brown 13 29
namestnikov ? if here 26 55 will hit 30 goals year after this one
richard 8 24
paquette 4 12

 

[Stammertime91]

It also shows the importance of drafting well. It doesn't matter how great your team is when Paul Ranger, Evgeny Artyukhin, Nikita Alexeev, Nick Tarnasky, Kari Ramo, Blair Jones and Mike Lundin are the only homegrown additions to your team for about 4 years then you're gonna come crashing down HARD. They weren't bad players, but they weren't big difference makers. I dare anyone to find a team with a worse track record than we had from 1999-2007.

It's absolutely astounding how Rick Dudley managed to hit on all the trades and signings he made and it somehow managed to build a championship team out of it with only Esposito's draft picks in Lecavalier, Richards and Kubina making a difference. Not to discredit Jay Feaster but he didn't have a whole lot of work to do once he took over.

Ah, Alexeev. I remember his 4 goal game against the thrashers years ago. I think it was 8-0? I still miss arty, guy was a brute. I doubt Vermette misses him. Lol, helmet smash.

 

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

This feels like 2011 all over again one game away from probably winning a title the way the Pens are dispatching the Sharks. Just more salt into an open wound.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Ah, Alexeev. I remember his 4 goal game against the thrashers years ago. I think it was 8-0? I still miss arty, guy was a brute. I doubt Vermette misses him. Lol, helmet smash.

Artyukhin was fun to watch. He could barely handle a puck but he looked damn cool doing it.

 

[Stammertime91]

Artyukhin was fun to watch. He could barely handle a puck but he looked damn cool doing it.

I'll never forget his coast to coast goal when he was on the thrashers. Put into perspective of how good you have to be to even make it to the nhl. He was like the hunchback but he could skate and do it all, granted at a lower level than most, but he still had what it took to skate in the league. Not to mention his physicality was like Oliwa at times. I will never forget the Hurricane player flying off him in the corner thinking he was going to drill Arty, and failed. That and the Vermette helmet smash rank high in my moments as a Lightning fan. Take that for what it's worth.

 

[RDTBay4]

Helmet smash video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKx9yP6Azpg

 

[Stammertime91]

Helmet smash video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKx9yP6Azpg

Lol. I've watched it so many times. Nostalgia sets in with Boyle, Craig, and Ranger out there.

 

[Steazy Doo]

I remember playing NHL 2005 and trading away MSL, Richards, and Vinny so that Afanasenkov, Craig, and Tarnasky could be my top line.

 

[Stammertime91]

I remember playing NHL 2005 and trading away MSL, Richards, and Vinny so that Afanasenkov, Craig, and Tarnasky could be my top line.

Lollllll

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Hahahahaha !!!

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Artyukhin's awesome.
Should've kept him.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Hes ****ing terrible and should be nowhere near this team.

 

[MattM92]

Hes ****ing terrible and should be nowhere near this team.

No hockey skill at all but he could skate with the best of them. Hell of a fighter too. His player type is extinct in the NHL now. He can't be trusted with any more than 2-3 minutes of ice time in today's NHL.

 

[LightningStrikes]

R2K was fun to watch as hell. Just not a good hockey player.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

He couldn't really fight either, it was just that he was the size of a polar bear and could throw people around.

 

[Todd1a]

I remember playing NHL 2005 and trading away MSL, Richards, and Vinny so that Afanasenkov, Craig, and Tarnasky could be my top line.

Did you win 10 games that season ?

 

[Steazy Doo]

I found an old hockey year book thing from my peewee days, I listed my favorite player as Dimitri Afanasenkov.





Connor McDavid or Dimitri Afanasenkov?


You decide.