Tag: 2019-20 Tampa Bay Lightning
The Flukish Sgreak or Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey Since the 2019 Holiday Season
The Tampa Bay Lightning are having one hell of a “fluke”, eh? That ph4ase is from 2011-12 and the Lightning’s AHL team (Coached by Jon cooper_. Thee remark, tweeted by goaltender Dustin Tokarski, was coined to push the fact the Admirals hockey club had to ignore accolades and keep performing top-level hockey.
Iy worked in the end, the Ads won the AHL championship.
You should be left in awe by what the Bolts are doing — and by the way, that was the 100th win in 140 NHL regular-season games (since the start of the 2018-19 season).. That soort of defies the cat-calling of disappointed fans who wanted Jon Cooper fired because of playoff failings in 2018 (…and 2019). Yes, winning in the regular-season isn’t the same as hoisting Lord Stanley’s cup, but neither is having a pro sports team that competes at the top-level of their sports league repeatedly.
Fans don’t want to settle with success, but it’s also important to keep a level head during success or failings. Show depth. The Bolts are doing that, and thus still succeeding.
Vaulted production levels from Alex Killorn are elite for his career
“Killer Elite” is the term that popped out of my mouth when center Alex Killorn scored on Thursday night during the Bolts 4-0 blanking of the Arizona Coyotes. It was seeing the 18-goal mark that seemed above what Killorn has done in his time with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Oh, how it is so…
18 goals from Killorn in 41 games he participated in so far this season is equal-to or above all his full-NHL-season goal-scoring totals except one: in 81 games in 2016-17, Killer scored 19 times. That was a season marred by injuries to just about everyone and playoff-short team performance — the only one in head coach Jon Cooper’s career in Tampa Bay.
HockeyDB shows that Killorn’s final season with Harvard is the high-point of his hockey career in general in goal-scoring. That’s not a surprise, hockey fans know that players in juniors or college tend to go gonzo before going pro… The catch, in this case, is that Killorn’s goal-total in 34 games-played was 22 – four more goals than he has so far in 2019-20.
Killer’s also 10 points shy of his career-high of 47 points earned in 82 games (15 goals 32 assists). He can’t go that high in games-played this season (he’s already missed games), but unless he misses more playing time, his offensive production should continue as killer elite this season.
In brief, a response to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s current success
Ahem…
Eight wins in-a-row is a fluke, nine would be a streak.
Unless you are a long-time Lightning fan or have paid attention to Golts fans on social media, you won’t know where that type of thinking/phrasing comes from. It was said on Twitter by goalie Dustin Tokarski as the Norfolk Admirals – helmed by Jon Cooper with h Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, and Cory Conacher – tore up the AHL in 2012 on their way to a Calder Cup championship.
It’s an odd coincidence in Tampa Bay sports that the Lightning’s surge of-the-moment coincided the end of the Tampa Bay Buccneers NFL season of meh. It’s also a nice distraction from news of the moment.
Will it last? I don’t know. The talent and agility is there, that’s been proven time and again in recent years. We’ll see how it goes and where i6 goes as the season goes on…A grand tial is Thursday as the Arizona Coyotes stop by Amalie Arena.
The season after regular-season domination and the Tampa Bay Lightning (with poll)
The 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning achieved. Oh, boy, did they achieve… The spectacular run was complemented by the spectacular, Hindenburg-like crash in the 2019 playoffs). The in-season run amounted to 62 victories, a feat that’s only been accomplished one other time in the history of the National Hockey League. Only two teams in league history won 75% of their season contests like that.
Yeah, but what happened next?
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