Tampa BAE Lightning Game 58 Post Mortem: Division Woes

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedEveryone played
with very little effort
Caved in on home ice

The Tampa Bay Lightning got blown out of their own arena on Saturday night by the Buffalo Sabres. The final score was 6-2, but it could have been much worse. Vasy got chased early on in the game. The Sabres had all the time and space in the world. To top it all off, more Bolts got injured as Goncalves & James both went down and left the game.

This was an ugly, ugly game for the Bolts. With Buffalo on the edge of making the playoffs for the first time in forever, it got me thinking: How are the Lightning stacking up against their division rivals? The answer. Not bad (except for one outlier).

The overall record is solid at 10-5-1, but let’s break down into the play off teams. At this moment that is Buffalo, Montreal, Detroit, Boston.

• Boston: 1-1-0 (10 goals for, 8 goals against, +2 differential)
• Detroit 1-0-1 (7 goals for, 4 goals against, +3 differential)
• Montreal 2-0-0 (11 goals for, 5 goals against, +6 differential)
• Buffalo 1-1-0 (6 goals for, 9 goals against, -3 differential)
• Overall 5-2-1 (34 goals for, 26 goals against, +8 differential

Last year, I called the Lightning fraudulent because their division record was not great. Accordingly, they were out in the first round. This year their division record is pretty good (for now), but their performance against the Sabres has got to be worrying. They have shown the ability to score pretty easily on the Lightning. In fact, they are one of two division teams where the differential is upside down (Ottawa is the other).

The Lightning have 23 games left in their season. 11 of those games will be against division opponents. 8 of them are against teams currently in the playoff picture. The Bolts have been having a great season. I’m not arguing against that. They’re most likely going to make the playoffs.

But if they’re going to go on a run, they’ll need to sharpen up for the final two months. Those division matches are going to be massive. And getting skunked at home by the team breathing down your neck for 1st place in the Atlantic? Well, that’s worrying.

Go Bolts!