Early season favorites for the Cup, Tampa Bay Lightning still have work to do to live up to 2004 standard

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 4, 2017

TAMPA – Off to the best start in franchise history, the Tampa Bay Lightning are considered one of the odds-favorites to win the Stanley Cup this season.

With an 11-2-2 record following Saturday’s 5-4 shootout victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets, it’s easy to see why Tampa Bay is an early-season pick.

Pretty apropos considering the 2004 Stanley Cup team was celebrated in a pregame ceremony. But it’s way too early to start making comparisons between the two teams.

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It’s simple to start talking about this year’s team in the same breath as the championship team. This year’s team, after all, has matched the 2003-04 team for most wins at the 15-game mark. This year’s team has more points through 15 games that the 2003-04 team, all though the NHL did not have shootouts at that time and still recognized ties, which Tampa Bay had two of through 15 games.

For the time being, that is where the comparisons should probably end (with one exception we’ll get to shortly).

Let’s also keep in mind the game 14 years ago had one major difference in how the game was played as the red line was still in play and the two-line pass (behind the blue line to beyond the red line was whistled down for offside) so the neutral zone was squeezed compared to now where it’s stretched.

So the two teams played a bit of a different style, some of it due to how the game was played, some of it due to how the two teams play the game.

That 2004 squad centered around the young nucleus of Marty St. Louis, Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Dan Boyle – the Pillar of Four – with other talents such as Ruslan Fedotenko, Cory Stillman, Pavel Kubina, Dmitry Afanasenkov and Fredrik Modin. There were the veteran leaders brought in to help change the culture – Dave Andreychuk and Tim Taylor. There were the glue guys such as Brad Lukowhich and Andre Roy. The unheralded role players such as Cory Sarich, Nolan Pratt, Chris Dingman, Martin Cibak and Ben Clymer.

Over the course of the season, that team, which started out strong, grew out of midseason adversity and surged in the second half.

This year’s team is built differently. They are more talented throughout the lineup, their lines are deeper and adaptable to different styles of games. The 2017-18 team has two elite goal scorers – Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, both of whom scored in the same game for the sixth time this season on Saturday. This year’s version of a third line is more of an offensive threat with Tyler Johnson at center.

All four lines can skate and have skill and any of them can be tough to play against for various reasons.

The 2004 version had two lines with top skill, a checking line and a grinding line.

On defense, the 2004 team was more experienced as a group, but this year’s has more talent.

Two different types of teams that have two different on-ice personalities and styles of play.

But there is one comparison that can be made, which I referenced above, and that’s in goal.

Sure, Nikolai Khabibulin was already an established top flight goaltender at the time he joined the organization at the end of the 2000-01 season. But what he did for that team was give them the confidence to grow together in an environment where they could still find success. It was a group who learned how to win.

Andrei Vasilevskiy is not necessarily at the same level as Khabibulin, but he’s doing something similar in playing at a level that is helping the Lightning grow as a group, learning their strengths and weaknesses all while finding success in the standings.

That right now is the only area that you can look to this year’s team and find a similarity to the greatest team in franchise history.

As this season goes on, as this current team grows, there may be opportunities to draw some more comparisons. But for now, 2004 is remembered for their camaraderie, their chemistry on the ice, their drive to succeed and for lifting Lord Stanley’s Cup high above the ice on June 7, 2004.

For now, they’re in a class of their own.

ABOUT THE GAME:

* – Brayden Point was a menace in the game, scoring the Lightning’s first goal 24 seconds after Columbus took the lead early in the game. He ended the game with 21:45 of ice time, was denied on a breakaway chance in the third period and has 12 shot attempts in the game. His play caught the attention of Columbus head coach John Tortorella.

“Forget about their top line, I think that Point is one hell of a player and quite honestly it looks like he’s the heartbeat of that team right now and that line, that’s a good second line,” Tortorella said.

* – Stamkos finished with a goal and picked up the shootout-deciding goal. Throughout his career, Stamkos has not exactly excelled in the shootout, converting just 8-of-37 chances. But after picking up a penalty in overtime that gave Columbus a power play chance to win the game, head coach Jon Cooper gave the team captain the chance to pick up the team after the team picked him up in overtime. Stamkos was tabbed to take the third shot and delivered with a quick wrist shot just under the crossbar for the only goal in the shootout to give Tampa Bay the victory after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period.

“Just goes to show you can go from hero to goat pretty quickly after that dumb penalty I took in overtime,” Stamkos said. “The PK did a good job, Vasy came up with a couple of big saves. So just to get that chance and see it go in was nice.”

It wasn’t exactly a gut-feel for Cooper, but he saw an opportunity for Stamkos to respond.

“I think he was pretty down on himself for taking that penalty in overtime,” Cooper said. “He was very positive on the bench after the guys killed it off and I was hoping he would go out there and snipe one and he did. I think for him, to be able to go out there and lift the team up after we lifted him up, it was a great job by him.”

* – For all the negativity that has surrounded D Dan Girardi from the moment he was signed, the veteran put together another solid game on Saturday, playing 21 minutes with five hits, six blocked shots and picked up an assist.

Postgame notes: D Andrej Sustr was on the ice for the first two goals scored by Columbus in the first period and took one more shift the rest of the game, and that did not come until the third period. … C Cedric Paquette continues to take part in practices but remains out with an upper-body injury. … RW Nikita Kuchoerov has not gone consecutive games without a goal this season.

My three stars:
1.Lightning C Brayden Point – Goal, plus-2, 12 shot attempts

2.Blue Jackets D Seth Jones – Goal, assist, plus-4

3.Lightning RW Niktia Kucherov – Goal, assist, six shot attempts

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