Trade targets, line juggling and Chicken Little Syndrome, all in this week’s Monday Morning Faceoff

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 27, 2017

Welcome again to the Monday Morning Faceoff a weekly debate here on LightningInsider.com.

This weekly feature brings together Erik Erlendsson, creator of LightningInsider.com, and Greg Linnelli, who hosts Lightning Power Play Live weekdays from 6-7 p.m. or one hour prior to puck drop on game days on TBLPowerplay.com (which simulcasts on 970-AM in Tampa for the final 30 minutes) as well as intermission host during radio broadcasts. We will also look to bring in special guests on a regular basis to debate topical items surrounding the Tampa Bay Lightning and around the NHL as we exchange our thoughts in a back-and-forth exchange that will appear every Monday morning.

This week Erik and Greg discuss Chicken Little syndrome, if line juggling will take place and exactly what potential trade targets should center around.

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Erik: Three out of four games the Lightning have now dropped, including two in a row for the first time this season. Based on my Twitter feed, Greg, the sky is falling. I’d point out that really only the game in Washington did the Lightning play a poor 60 minutes. They had a chance to find a way to pull out the game against the Islanders while in Pittsburgh on Saturday, I feel Tampa Bay played a rather good game before some very questionable calls changed the complexion of the game.

So instead of going all Chicken Little following a couple of games or pulling out my Psychiatrist Lucy photo at the moment, I’d look at the past few games as a bit of the natural ebbs and flows of the season. Now with a couple of days off before another set of back-to-back games at Buffalo and Boston, it’s a good opportunity to reset just a little and make sure two losses in a row don’t turn in to three

Greg: I thought they deserved a better fate in Pittsburgh. They played a good game and had several scoring chances throughout. The Washington game wasn’t nearly as good but that’s a place they don’t traditionally play well in so it wasn’t a surprise they lost.

I’m not concerned. I’ve been telling listeners to my show that at some point this team was going to hit a little bit of a rough patch and that fans shouldn’t panic. When you have the goaltending the Lightning have you shouldn’t run into long losing streaks so I expect them to get two points against Buffalo.

I’d like to see the Stamkos line get going a little more. They’ve struggled over the last few games and need to generate more shots. I’d expect that to change against Buffalo.

Erik: Sounds like you’ve been proactive with your Lucy Can, but hopefully you’ve been charging more than a nickel for the service.

I agree, Stamkos and Kucherov have been held in check for the past few games and you’d like to see them start to create more chances than they have since the Dallas game.

What I hope we don’t see is the coaching staff get impatient with the lines. The top two have been steady since the end of training camp and have been very effective. Sometimes, though, if things start to give the appearance of stagnation, the first rule in the coaching playbook is to bring out the blender and move things around. We’ll have to see what happens when the team gets back on the ice for practice in Buffalo on Monday, but one would hope that the little speed bump doesn’t knock things out of whack.

Greg: I think what we are finding out is the loss of Jake Dotchin, or really anyone in the top six defensively, is a pretty big loss.

The coaching staff has had to reshuffle the defensive pairings and that’s led to some breakdowns and odd man rushes for the opposing team since he’s been out.

It may be some pretty obvious but maybe Jon Cooper’s best coaching decision this young season is not tinkering with the top two lines. I don’t expect him to start Tuesday.

Erik: Yes, the defensive situation is worth monitoring moving forward. With Dotchin out we’ve seen Victor Hedman’s ice time tick back up and his partners rotate not only from game to game but often from shift to shift.

We’ve discussed the depth on defense on more than a few occasions and by the end of the season, I’d expect the situation to be addressed by general manager Steve Yzerman. Over the past few days the rumor mill has churned out perceived Lightning interest in a forward. I think it’s a rope-a-dope. There is some belief that the Lightning are a defenseman away from being a true contender..

Greg: There is “some belief” they are a true contender if they get another defenseman? I think they are a contender regardless. Whoever made that comment needs to take a deep breadth, subscribe to Lightning Insider and listen to Lightning Power Play Live, and relax.

I fully expect Yzerman to make some sort of move before the deadline. What he does is anyone’s guess but this team will continue to get better internally because they have so many younger players on this roster. Point, Sergachev, Dotchin, Namestnikov, Vasilevskiy, and even Kucherov all are ascending players.

What also helps Yzerman if he wants to make a deal is that he can make a trade without tinkering with his NHL roster. They have some really good prospects they could deal as well if they wanted to keep this team together.

Erik: Hey, don’t shoot the messenger here ?

Yes, this team is a contender as currently constructed, but to survive a long playoff series, it’s important to have depth on defense and as we get closer to the trade deadline, I think you’ll start to hear this more and more.

And of course, we can all listen to you more this week as Tampa Bay gets set for three games – Tuesday in Buffalo, Wednesday at Boston in a national televised game as part of Rivalry Night on NBCSN before the Lightning start a four-game homestand on Saturday against San Jose. We’ll pick up some of this conversation when I join you on Tuesday on Lightning Power Play Live at 6 p.m. for some Great Hockey Talk™

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