Many Lightning fans could see this coming. After all, the best start in franchise history couldn’t last all season, could it?
It hasn’t.
Some cracks in the armor are starting to develop. The big one is All-Star defenseman Victor Hedman out for 3-6 weeks with a sprained MCL. The Bolts have lost 4 of their last 6 games...and allowed 23 goals in the process. Now, they play their next eight games on the road, sandwiched around the All-Star break. Talk about a little adversity.
“They’re just not working smart,” Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper said after Thursday’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. “They’re not playing the right way, so we’re just taking the easy routes out now, that we never took before. That’s what we’re doing.”
Defenseman Anton Stralman pretty much summed it up.
“What makes us successful is when we play simple. We play simple hockey, skate hard, work hard, and we out-work teams. We’re not a good team if we don’t work.”
And that leads the solution to the desk of Jon Cooper. It’s virtually impossible to keep that strong work ethic through 82 regular season games. It is impossible to do it without your best players, like Hedman this season...or Steven Stamkos last season.
After Thursday’s loss, the captain said, “We need to take a look in the mirror, starting with myself and give more of a passionate performance.”
To a large degree, that is Cooper’s job. As head coach, he has to put his players in a position to win...to get them in the right frame of mind to perform, and win. Coop has done that a lot in his six seasons with the Bolts. He has to do it again. Along with recognizing what other teams are starting to do, to adjust to the Bolts’ quick, dominating style of play.
Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury saw how his teammates did it.
“The guys held the puck, took their timing away.”
There are no secrets in sports, so every team in the NHL is seeing how to beat the Lightning...or at least slow them down. It’s up to Cooper, and the team leaders, to respond.
“The leadership group is going to take responsibility in this room,” said Stammer. “The belief in each other is what’s going to overcome this skid that we have.”
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