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The Tampa Bay Lightning are still Stanley Cup contenders in the upcoming 2022-23 NHL season. With guys like Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, and Andrei Vasilevskiy the ceiling remains very high for the Bolts. With that said, let's take a look at three bold predictions we have for the winners of two of the last three Stanley Cup Finals for 2022-23.
3, Tampa Bay finishes regular season with two 100-point studs
The Lightning are not getting younger, which, of course, you can say about Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, every other team in the NHL, and every human being. But in the proper context, that hits harder for Tampa Bay because they are third-oldest among all teams in the coming season with an average age of 29.23. Only the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins are closer, by average, to getting their AARP cards than the Bolts. I said all that because I just wanted to emphasize that as a key factor why odds are a bit stacked against the Lightning producing two 100-point getters in the 2022-23 NHL campaign.
Even when they were at their absolute peak in 2018-19 – when Tampa Bay won 62 games only to strike out in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs – the Lightning did not have two 100-point scorers. That season, the Lightning had Nikita Kucherov winning the Hart Memorial Trophy after churning out 128 points. They also benefited from the hot stick of Steven Stamkos who found the back of the net 45 times to go with 53 assists for 98 points. Brayden Point also deserves mention for his 92 points.
Stamkos is coming off a 42-goal season in which he also led the team among players with at least 900 minutes of time on ice with a 60.91 GF%. With Ondrej Palat gone, that could mean a heavy dosage of a line that features Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov. Sure, they are older but assuming they will stay healthy, any of those three players should be sniffing 100 points in the coming season.
2. Andrei Vasilevskiy wins both Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy
Vasilevskiy finished fifth in the Vezina Trophy voting last season, but he made sure to shine in the postseason where he handled the first two rounds as best as anyone could. To refresh, the Lightning faced the No. 2 and No. 2 highest-scoring teams in the league in the first and second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, respectively. Tampa Bay passed both tests in large part because of the body of work by Vasilevskiy between the pipes. Vasilevskiy had a subpar .897 SV% against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening round, but he turned it up in against the Panthers whom he held to just a total of three goals in a four-game sweep.
In the third round, after a shaky start in the series versus the New York Rangers, Vasilevskiy once again flashed his form and out-Igor Shesterkined Igor Shesterkin in the final four games of that matchup. Vasilevskiy would lose gas in the conference finals against the Colorado Avalanche, but the Avs were golden last season and looked really destined to win it all, which they did.
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Even with the tough assignments, Vasilevskiy still managed to post a 15.5 goals above expected in the postseason, per Money Puck. Regardless of how you view Vasilevskiy after bombing in the Avs series, he is still a premiere, elite, top-of-the-line netminder nearly all teams in the NHL would gladly trade for their starter.
1. Lightning make it back to the Eastern Conference finals
Why not make this one prediction spicier by saying that the Lightning will meet the Colorado Avalanche in this series?
The Avs are widely viewed as the top team to beat not only in the East but in the entire NHL, considering how dominant they were last season, including of course in the Stanley Cup Playoffs where they steamrolled one opponent after another. Plus, the Avs still have Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Gabriel Landeskog, and Mikko Rantanen. The Lightning definitely have not forgotten about that loss and would love to have the opportunity to get back at Colorado.
“It’s not like we lost to some powder puff,” Cooper said. “That’s a baller team over there. We never had home ice. We played all these star-studded teams. They found a way. We just ran into one more brick wall, and we just couldn’t get through this one.”
It's not that long ago when the Lightning were two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. But while many expect them to take a step back in the coming season, it's undeniable that this is a team that still is deep and talented enough to make another run at the Cup.
