BT's 2008-09 NHL Season Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning

But don’t worry, Matt Carle will be able to replace both of them, with his still-evolving defensive game and an offensive game that was surprisingly stunted last year.

Then they traded Filip Kuba for Andrej Meszaros. The acquisition of Meszaros is all right, as it adds more offense, but we’re about to find out how well Meszaros deals with being the man, because there’s almost literally no one around him—the Lightning sent their most experienced defenseman back the other way in this deal, which hurts as much as it helps.

Both Carle and Meszaros should develop well as they extend their NHL careers—but this year? They just aren't the solution in Tampa Bay, as they need more help than just themselves to get anywhere.

Side note: I’ve avoiding doing these during the season previews, but just so everyone knows, YES I am aware we were just talking about Filip Kuba. But still, on a team that’s looking THIS bad in their own end—well, you know it’s bad when trading away Kuba can be seen as a negative.

On the bright side, there’s also Paul Ranger, who can eat minutes and isn’t terrible offensively, Andrew Hutchinson, a 28-year-old D-man who spent all of last season in the AHL (although he did put up some monster numbers), Shane O’Brien who still has to prove his worth at the NHL level, the big, tough Matt Smaby, the untested Ty Wishart, and Janne Niskala—another AHL stud.

I’m not going to lie—the defenseman I’m most excited to see play this season is Mike Lundin. Last season, Lundin played in 81 games and was able to post six assists and a plus-three on a porous Tampa team. I don’t really know if it’s a good thing to be looking forward to Mike Lundin, though...

 

At least we spent a little money on a goalie

Mike Smith, Olaf Kolzig, or Karri Ramo—who would you choose?

Despite a very short-lived trade rumor this summer, Mike Smith is still expected to contend for the number-one job in Tampa Bay.  As he was part of the package landed in the Brad Richards trade, Tampa Bay hopes he can be the real deal.

Smith really went back and forth last year.  In Dallas, he was a pretty admirable backup to Marty Turco, as he went 12-9 with a 2.46 GAA and a .906 save percentage. Following the trade however, Smith’s save percentage plummeted (.893), his GAA rose (2.79), and he only won three games of the thirteen he played for Tampa.

Here’s the thing, though—Smith faced more shots in Tampa then he did in Dallas, which is understandable considering that Dallas was a much better team last season. If Smith had played 21 games in both Dallas and Tampa (he played only 13 in Tampa), he would have faced 10 more shots in Tampa than in Dallas (520 to 510)—granted that's only an extra .5 shots over those 21 games, but over 40 games, that's an extra shot, and over 60 games, that's anywhere from 1-2 extra shots.

Maybe I'm over-analyzing things just a tad, but I think more shots is a bad thing. Jay Middleton just thinks I'm a lunatic.

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