Tampa BAE Lightning Game 7: Rock Bottom
It's do-or-die
The Tampa Bay Lightning are back on home ice inside Benchmark International Arena to take on the Chicago Blackhawks at 6:45 p.m. for an ESPN televised event.
The Lightning continued their nightmare start to the season by going 1-1-2 in their recent four game road trip. Overall, the Bolts are a laughable 1-3-2. Vasy still does not have a win on the season. The defense still sucks. And despite some call ups from the Crunch, it would seem that Jon Cooper is still intent on putting Lilleberg-Raddysh on the ice together.
I am going to skip the stats and analysis because everything is plain to see just watching this team.
There is no way to sugar coat this: This Lightning team is playing very bad hockey.
They are getting smoked in transition. Their offensive superstars are invisible. They are in last place in their division.
It may seem a bit dramatic to call Game 7 a must win, but I’m not sure what else you can call it. The team can’t win at home or on the road. They have had four days off to prep for their next opponent—an opponent that has won more games than them despite being heavily in rebuild mode.
Across the bench we will see our old scapegoat friend, Jeff Blashill. He somehow became head coach of the Blackhawks. If there was ever a coach to know every weakness of the Lightning, but somehow still honk away a victory, it is 100% Jeff Blashill.
I really do believe the Lightning have better hockey in them. Are they aging? Yes. Is the window starting to close? Of course. But they still have great players. Players that we know can win. Chicago has shown some flashes of brilliance in the early season there is no doubting that, but they are young. They are still learning how to put it together.
The Lightning need to come out strong. They need to show their home crowd fans that they know what they’ve done to this point is unacceptable. They need to show us that they took their four days off to soul search, work, and come back to make us believe in them again. It doesn’t matter what Chicago does. The Lightning need to dictate this game.
If they fail, then we have truly hit rock bottom and I’m not sure how they would dig themselves out.
It’s early, but it really is do or die. Go Bolts.