The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming off of a marvelous season in which they earned 101 points and made the playoffs for the first time since 2011. As great as the last season was, this team cannot waste time reflecting on their past success. The organization has made a plethora of moves to improve the team and take the next step to another great season.
The team has brought many new veterans in to help the team, along with infusing it with some young prospects. The new additions include Jason Garrison, Brian Boyle, Anton Stralman, Brenden Morrow and Evgeni Nabokov. When asked about which new teammate he was most excited to play with, forward Ondrej Palat said, “[Jason] Garrison is a good addition; he has a great shot vision and everything, [Brian] Boyle is a big body, also [Brenden] Morrow is a good veteran leader, [Evgeni] Nabokov same thing. I’m really excited to go into the season with those guys.”
Associate Coach Rick Bowness added his thoughts on Stralman. “Yeah, he’s pretty good. He is everything we hoped for and more. He is a wonderful person but when we signed him, [Alain] Vigneault, who is a good friend of mine, called me and said ‘you want this guy, he does everything well,’ and he does. He moves the puck well, he defends well, he gaps up well and makes great plays. What you guys don’t see on the bench is the eyes, we see calmness. We see guys that get their eyes and they’re all wired up and then we see other guys that are nice and calm and can see the ice in slow motion and he has that ability. He is very calm and that’s what you see on the ice with the puck, he just never panics.”
In addition to the new acquisitions via free agency, captain Steven Stamkos is excited to be playing with 2013 first round pick Jonathan Drouin. “I think each guy brings a different dynamic but we are obviously excited with Jonathan Drouin. Hopefully he can get healthy soon and we can see him. He is a high pick guy that brings a lot of skill and worked extremely hard this past summer to get ready. It was unfortunate that he got injured before but looking forward to see what he can do this year,” Stamkos said.
The Lightning have 2014 Calder Trophy Candidates Tyler Johnson and Palat returning to the team and are looking to improve on last season. “It was a good season and I just want to get better. I worked hard during the summer to work on everything and I just want to be better than last year,” said Palat.
The Lightning have their two most important players trying to work themselves back from injuries after an offseason of rehab in Stamkos and goalie Ben Bishop. Stamkos is still recovering from a broken tibia that he sustained in a game last November. Meanwhile, Bishop is recovering from offseason wrist surgery. When asked about if he feels 100 percent, Stamkos said, “Yeah, I mean, I’m definitely getting better day by day. I don’t know percentage wise where it’s at but it’s definitely getting better. It is way better than where I left the season off last year.”
Bishop also talked about working his way back from injury. “Yeah, I’m getting there. I don’t think ever think you will be back at 100 percent after surgery but I feel better. That the key, so hopefully I’ll feel better as the season gets going,” Bishop said.
The Tampa Bay Lightning organization is ready to start the season after a successful training camp. Bowness spoke to the things that he saw during training camp that he wants to see the team improve on during the season. “We want to cut down on goals against. We made huge strides last year from where we were two years ago, but it’s still not good enough. We want to continue to cut down our chances against, shots against, goals against. If you look at the L.A Kings, one of the lowest scoring teams in the league, they win the Stanley Cup because they keep the puck away from their net. Our offense will take care of itself. We need to continue to focus on keeping that puck out of our end,” Bowness said.
Stamkos talked about what he is looking for from the team this season, “We just want to build on last season. I think it was a pretty big step for us last year to kind of transform our team. We got a lot of young guys this year, a lot of new faces, those young guys have the experience now and we are going to expect that and more this year and the new guys coming in, veteran guys that have won. This will be a good test for us this year; it’s not gonna be easy, but I think at the same time we are ready for that. Obviously our goal is to get back in the playoffs because once you get there anything can happen.”
The Lightning are excited to get back to playing meaningful games and improve on their success last season. As Stamkos said, this season will be a challenge but the Lightning are ready for it, and they will push to be a contender in the Easter Conference. The team is set up for them to make a run and they have a real chance. It will end with the team holding up the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2004.
Make sure to come out and watch the Lightning’s success this season. There are plenty of opportunities throughout the season with the team’s student rush promotion, which has tickets for only $20 for college students with school IDs.
Dominick Falco can be reached at dominick.falco@spartans.ut.edu