Behold, the magic touch of Steve Yzerman! He took over a non-playoff Tampa Bay Lightning team last summer and was expected to gradually improve it with his unique hockey knowledge. But there was nothing gradual about what Tampa Bay did last season. <\/p>\n
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING<\/strong> The Bolts crusaded all the way to the Eastern Conference final and pushed the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins to a seventh game.<\/p>\n In theory, Tampa\u2019s goal this season would therefore be Stanley Cup or bust. But I wonder if Tampa might wind up slightly disappointed in 2011-12.<\/p>\n One aspect of Tampa\u2019s team that should remain powerful as ever: its top-six forwards. They flourished under head coach Guy Boucher\u2019s system. You may have remembered Boucher before Tampa as Le Chiffre from the James Bond film Casino Royale <\/em>or as the man who made the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 power play the best in hockey during the late 2000s.<\/p>\n He was the perfect fit for dynamic offensive players like Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier. Boucher got the most out of rising star Teddy Purcell, too. This season, scoring again won\u2019t be a problem for Tampa.<\/p>\n The Lightning\u2019s defense should more or less stay the same in 2011-12. They have outstanding size with a beastly top four of Victor Hedman, Eric Brewer, Mattias Ohlund and Pavel Kubina. Hedman should also keep improving. As we learned over the years with high draft picks like Chris Pronger and Ed Jovanovski, big blueliners often take a while to mature.<\/p>\n But there are some red flags with Tampa\u2019s \u201cD\u201d as well. With the size comes a serious lack of foot speed, which could be problematic against great-skating teams in their division like Washington, Carolina and Winnipeg. Kubina and Ohlund are also well past their prime and on the decline. [ad-4437448]<\/p>\n Overall, though, I expect Tampa\u2019s frontline scoring and defense to mirror last year\u2019s productivity. So why am I worried?<\/p>\n I\u2019m worried because the two X-factors that vaulted Tampa into the conference final last season may not be sustainable. The first is checking-line scoring. For some reason, unsung heroes like Steve Downie, Dominic Moore and Sean Bergenheim filled the net in the playoffs. While they\u2019ll remain fantastic checkers, they won\u2019t score like that again. Bergenheim has changed teams, too.<\/p>\n Secondly, the Lightning\u2019s goaltending may implode this season. Dwayne Roloson was a total revelation upon joining the team last season but he can\u2019t play at an elite level for much longer in his 40s. We saw signs of it in the conference final last season when he started to wilt and posted a few stinker games. If Roloson crumbles, backup option Mathieu Garon isn\u2019t a carry-the-team type.<\/p>\n The Lightning still look like a clear playoff team to me in 2011-12 but I think their fans should temper their expectations. This team played over its head last season; everything went right. All their best players also stayed healthy. Chances are, Tampa will face more adversity this season, especially since its main division rival, Washington, looks improved.<\/p>\n Prediction: <\/strong>2nd<\/sup>, Southeast Division <\/p>\n CappersPicks.com\u00a0NHL Betting<\/strong><\/a> and gambling site provides the BEST Online\u00a0hockey predictions<\/strong><\/a> for you to bet on for the 2011\/12 NHL hockey season! Stick with us all season long!<\/p>\n Shea Matthews weighs in with his 2011-2012 Tampa Bay Lightning Season Gambling Picks and NHL Preview, plus he provides the lastest NHL odds, Lightning future lines, and Stanley Cup predictions\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":34159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[52383,52384,52104,52105,52385,52386,17638,17823,1968,22942],"class_list":["post-43786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-2011-lightning-predictions","tag-2011-lightning-season-preview","tag-2011-2012-nhl-predictions","tag-201112-nhl-preview","tag-lightning-nhl-schedule","tag-lightning-odds","tag-nhl-hockey-predictions","tag-nhl-season-preview","tag-stanley-cup-odds","tag-tampa-bay-lightning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43786"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43894,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43786\/revisions\/43894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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