Lightning: Tampa Bay taking it day by day, hoping injuries only strike once
Steven Stamkos and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates are deflecting the question about whether the club has a goal of winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regularseason team. They’re more concerned about making up for an injuryplagued 2016-17, when they failed to make the playoffs for the first time in four seasons.
“We had a tough string of injuries that affected us,” said Stamkos, whose Lightning faced the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. “You could tell back in training camp this season, everyone had a chip on their shoulders about not letting that happen again.”
Stamkos, in his 10th NHL season, has learned there is nothing to be gained from talking about team goals 38 games into an 82-game season. Injuries can derail any success, as the Lightning forward knows all too well. Stamkos was a part of that injury rash a year ago, suffering a torn meniscus in his knee that ended his season. It was the third time in four years that his season was cut short, with a clotting issue in his shoulder ending his 2015-16 season and a broken tibia ending 2013-14.
Tampa Bay’s playoff failure a year ago came after six of the club’s 12 forwards suffered long-term injuries. That forced coach John Cooper to work with AHL call-ups. Several nights, he had to go with 11 forwards and seven defenceman.
Now, after going 11-2-0 in December, tying the club mark for wins in a single month, the Lightning are looking like a championship-calibre club. Tampa entered Tuesday leading the NHL with 28 wins, points (58), points percentage (.763), goal differential (plus-51), and road goal differential (plus-21).
Tampa also led the NHL in goals with 142, and goals per game (3.74), while ranking second in goals against per game (2.42), making them the only NHL team in the top six in both those categories.
But the Lightning were in a similar same position in 2013-14 before Stamkos broke his leg. They lost in the first round of the playoffs that spring, then advanced to the Stanley Cup final and the Eastern Conference final the next two seasons.
When injuries helped plunge the team out of the playoffs last season, it narrowed the team’s focus this season to being consistent on a daily basis.
“As a player, you have to focus on trying to get better,” Stamkos said. “You have to want to be the best. I think Coop wants to be the best, and he’s been in this league long enough now, so to see him go through (having his team miss the playoffs) . . . it was like the rest of us, a kick in the butt. And for all of us, we don’t want to see that happen again.”
While embracing the challenge of rebounding this season, the Lightning have benefitted from the leagueleading goaltending of Andrei Vasilevskiy and the league-leading scoring of Nikita Kucherov.
Kucherov returned to Tampa early in the off-season, renting the ice at Amalie Arena and working out five days a week to prepare for this season. Stamkos, facing a massive mental challenge in returning from his third major injury in four years, has also set an example, with points in 27 of 38 games. He was fourth in NHL scoring entering Tuesday.
“A lot of hard work,” Stamkos said. “I didn’t know what to expect this year, and the tough injury luck I’ve had . . . The worst part is sitting back and watching your teammates, and not being able to help. Now, we haven’t accomplished anything yet. It’s all about consistency right now.”