Good morning. Sunny and 12C outside right now. Got down to a balmy 6C last night. The natives consider that "cold" .... let's all laugh in their faces again... 
Lightning opposition scouting report :
The Lightning poop the bed last night. Lost 4-2. Looked like they could win in the first half of the game, but they just lack the depth to clamp down and strangle a trailing team like they used to do in their championship years. I think we have already seen peak Vasilevskiy when he won the Vezina and Conn Smythe. I'm not saying he sucks now, because he's still a great goalie overall, but he's lost that elite touch he used to have. Last night was a good example. He made a spectacular elite save that made you go "goddamm!", but then a minute later he let in one he'd like to have back.
The Lightning's 4th line is trash. Essyimont was actually decent last year, but his offense (what little he had) has dried up. Former Leaf Glendening is a fine faceoff guy, but a blackhole for offense. Girgensens just skates around and hits things and generally doesn't move the needle at all. For a once-stacked team that could roll four lines, it's a staggering lack of depth.
The 3rd line is actually starting to come together and might end up being decent. It's a kid line. Goncalves - Conor Geekie - Mitchell Chaffee .... Chaffee is quick, motivated, and has some scoring touch. He reminds me of a Ross Colton type or maybe a Yanni Gourde. Geekie is good and very young and will only get better. He has some unexpected stick-handling ability for a guy projected to be a physical middle-six player. Good passer with a hard shot. More importantly for a young player, he reads plays very well and finds the right spot - he's not just wheeling around all over the place like a rookie. Goncalves is a callup who might steal geezer Atkinson's job. Can't comment too much on Goncalves much - small sample size, but doesn't look bad. Not sure if he will stick. I do like him better than Atkinson, but that's not saying much.
Lightning's top-six is dangerous. No need to say anything about those guys. They all have good chemistry together and you can throw the top-six into a line blender and any combination will work. Cooper has been double-shifting Kucherov and he's something like 5th in the league for icetime for forwards. His dekey-ness has gone up another level. Every year he shows something new in his toolkit. Barring an injury, he'll be in the running for another scoring title.
The defense is tighter than last year. McDonagh really plugs in well on that second pairing with Cernak. JJ Moser has been very good as Hedman's wingman. The third pairing is a committee affair with Perbix, Raddysh, and Lilleberg all doing decently well. Perbix has offensive instinct, Raddysh has a cannon of a shot, and Lilleberg is the physical guy. None are spectacular and can be exploited in matchups.
Special teams are nothing exciting now. The PK is good with Cirelli and Hagel as shorthanded threats. The PP is not the same with Stamkos as a pick your poison option. Everyone just keys on Kucherov now, so they are having to rework years of PP muscle memory. It will take time.
Speaking of Stamkos, Guentzel has been as advertised. At this point in their respective careers, Guentzel is a better 5v5 player than Stamkos.
So there you have it - the Lightning report you didn't ask for.
- GalacticStone
I enjoy reading about the decline of the Lightning, thanks man!
When I was in Florida one day it was on the cool side and the locals practically had parkas on. We hosers went to the beach.
All the rest of the time it was hotter than the surface of the sun.
