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Twenty Four's Blog

Tampa Bay Lightning SOS NHL GM Blog

Posted on March 27, 2014 at 09:04 PM.

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Wins, Injuries, and New Faces

The Past 10 games for GM Twenty Four and the Tampa Bay Lightning has been a stretch of mixed emotions. The Bolts post an 8-2-0 record in their last 10, sporting 2 road losses in LA and New Jersey. The success has been consistent, however the players on the ice have not. The Bolts have started 18 different Forwards, 9 different defensemen, and 3 different goaltenders in the past 12 games. This is partially due to a slew of unfortunate injuries, and some are from a couple block buster trades. Let's take a look at the hectic month it has been for the Lightning organization.

Injuries:
C- Steven Stamkos
C- Jonathan Drouin
RW- Ryan Callahan
D- TJ Brodie
D- Radko Gudas
D- Matt Giordano
LW- Nikita Kucherov
LW- Ordrej Palat

Steven Stamkos' name certainly jumps off the page as a major injury, especially since he is likely to miss another month of action. Most of these skaters have returned or are close to it, the exceptions being Stamkos and Kucherov. New Bolts GM had this to say about the injury bug... "Well, it happens to every team, we look at it as a chance for some young guys to step up and make a big impact, and so far they have done that." And they have indeed, rookies Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, and Radko Gudas have combined for the last 5 game-winning goals for the Bolts. Now let's look at the new faces in Tampa via the trade block.

Notable arrivals:
LW- Zach Parise
G- Cory Schneider
D- Matt Giordano
D- TJ Brodie
C- Paul Gaustad
C- Vinny Lecavailer

Notable departures:
C- Valterri Filppula
LW- Teddy Purcell
G- Ben Bishop
D- Sami Salo
D- Matt Carle
C- Alex Killorn
G- Anders Lindback
RW- Brett Connolly

There have been some very high end trades made here in Tampa, and so far they have worked out for the better. Tampa has a beefier line up now, adding two-way forwards such as Zach Parise, Vinny Lecavalier, and Paul Gaustaud. "It's something I wanted to do when I took over here. Yzerman made a great move in trading for Cally, and we have continued to add some tougher players. We like where we are at now." Currently Parise and Callahan are leading the charge for the Lightning as the leaders in points with 17 and 14 respectively.

The Tampa Bay Lightning post a 15-5-1 record through 21 games, good enough for 2nd in the Eastern Conference. The lightning have went on a tear in the absence of superstar forward Steven Stamkos, winning 10 of their last 13 affairs since "Stammer" went down. They are now halfway through Stamkos' expected time missed, they'll have to keep this level of intensity going if they are to stay afloat in a loaded Atlantic Division without their best player.

Current Lineup:
Parise-Lecavalier-Callahan
Palat-Johnson-Panik
Drouin-Gaustad-Malone
Pyatt-Gionata-Brown

Hedman-Giordano
Brewer-Brodie
Sustr-Gudas

Cory Schneider