31 Takes: Tampa Bay Lightning quietly running away with the league

It’s been an interesting NHL season to date, with plenty of storylines to distract from the fact that the Tampa Bay Lightning are the best team in the league by a pretty wide margin.

They have the most wins and points in the league. They have the highest points percentage in the league. They have the sixth-best 5-on-5 possession numbers in the league, which is made even more impressive by the fact that they’ve had about 130 more minutes leading in their games than the next-closest team.

They have the best goal difference, and second-best expected-goal difference. They have an 11-4 record in the past month — and play a bad Rangers team at home tonight — while only one of those wins came in a shootout. They have the second-best power play. They have the eighth-best penalty kill.

This despite the fact that the play in a tough division, with a number of teams that got out to notably hot starts (Toronto, Buffalo, Montreal). And the fact that their All-Star goaltender and a high-end defender have both been missing for about a month, plus Victor Hedman, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, missed seven games earlier this season, while Ondrej Palat missed 16.

And yet, people don’t seem to be paying a particularly large amount of attention. Perhaps because it’s unsexy for a team that finished third in the league last season, then kept everybody without really needing to add much, to just be as good or better than everyone else on any given night. It really seems like a function of “everybody just goes to work and does their jobs, and because of how good the roster is, that means they win far more often than not.”

These guys are currently on pace for a 124-point season, and maybe it’s not fair to put that on them since they haven’t played any of their four scheduled games against Toronto, but it’s worth noting that last year’s Predators team that everyone considered a buzzsaw had 117 points with relatively little injury trouble for its best players.

The thing that makes Tampa scary is, of course, the offense. At this point, Steven Stamkos is probably their third-best forward, which is really saying something. But everyone seems to chip in pretty consistently; this isn’t a one- or even two-line team. They’ve scored at least four goals in 16 of their last 21 games. Maybe you’d like to see them tighten up the defense (allowing two or fewer in 9 of those 21), but if you can score that much that consistently it probably doesn’t matter to any significant degree.

And again, their goalies with Andrei Vasilevskiy out have been Louis Domingue (.906 in 17 appearances) and, for one game, Eddie Pasquale (.792). They won the Pasquale game in a shootout, which maybe tells you everything you need to know.

Maybe it’s the fact that we all expected them to be good. Maybe it’s the fact that they haven’t really ripped off any particularly big winning streaks (their current one is the longest of the season, at six games). Maybe it’s the fact that in part because of the injuries, they’re not speedbagging teams — like they did to Colorado on Saturday night — as often as you might expect. Maybe it’s the fact that for all their high-end talent, no one is really putting Nikita Kucherov or Brayden Point in the Big Discussions for year-end awards.

But no matter the cause for the lack of national enthusiasm here, there’s little reason to suspect these guys are going to slow down. Again, all the underlying numbers say this team is just punishing opponents despite the fact that they’re only trailing opponents for about a quarter of every hour they play. And they’ve done this without one of the best goaltenders in the world — Vasilevskiy was .927 in 13 appearances before getting injured.

The Lightning are just dutifully going about the work of absolutely clobbering the NHL. Maybe people will notice in 2019. Could be a fun New Year’s resolution.

31 Takes

Anaheim Ducks: How Bob Murray got an extension out of ownership with his team carrying the fourth-worst goal difference in the West is beyond me.

Arizona Coyotes: So close, and yet so far.

Boston Bruins: This was a big-time W for a team that needed it. They didn’t just beat Toronto. They made Toronto look real bad.

Buffalo Sabres: When all those Sabres fans got mad at me for saying the 10-game winning streak didn’t make them elite? Huh what happened there I wonder.

Calgary Flames: Five straight for these fellas, and it hasn’t exactly been a soft schedule in that stretch either.

Carolina Hurricanes: You’d love to see these guys really put it together for like a month. Would be terrifying to behold.

Chicago: This team is insanely cooked. Stan Bowman’s gotta be gone before the draft, no question about it. Trade everyone. Who cares.

Colorado Avalanche: Sometimes it’s just that kinda night against the best team in hockey.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Man the Metro is just kinda mediocre, eh? It’s like no one is allowed to look competent for more than five or six games in a row.

Dallas Stars: Hold on, the Stars don’t have a regulation loss against a team from the Pacific yet this year? They’re 9-0-1 and about to play three games against teams from that division again. Man the Pacific stinks.

Detroit Red Wings: Imagine being the kind of person who thinks the Red Wings are or should be a playoff team? Yikes.

Edmonton Oilers: The Hitchcock Oilers really do look pretty good, you gotta say.

Florida Panthers: These guys just went 3-2-3 in an eight-game homestand and they’re still third-bottom in the East. Should be a bigger story. Probably need a coaching change. Might get one soon given that they have five home games between now and Jan. 22.

Los Angeles Kings: Doughty should really try ripping his opponents for lack of talent.

Minnesota Wild: Yeah man seems like this team just isn’t good at drafting.

Montreal Canadiens: It’s really tough for me to think this team is really any good but they keep winning, so I dunno.

Nashville Predators: Nice for Eeli Tolvanen but someone’s really gotta start scoring here.

New Jersey Devils: Now. Now is the time for these guys to sell. Right now. They’re bad. They need to be sellers. Right this second.

New York Islanders: It’s nice to be able to play Detroit. Really helps you get that ol’ confidence going.

New York Rangers: “Should we have given this way-over-30 goalie an eight-year deal with a huge AAV?” Hmm yeah tough to say.

Ottawa Senators: The Sens want to re-sign Matt Duchene, but we’re all in agreement that Duchene would be crazy to take that contract, right? Like the only positive outcome is that you sign for eight years instead of the seven you’d get elsewhere then hope you get traded by Year 4.

Philadelphia Flyers: Claude Giroux has 138 points in his last 109 games. Pretty good.

Pittsburgh Penguins: What I guess I would say is that if Jack Johnson is your best player on any given night, it shouldn’t be a surprise if you lose.

San Jose Sharks: Fair to say Marc-Edouard Vlasic isn’t exactly being put in a position to succeed this season, huh?

St. Louis Blues: Maybe the group is “fragile” because it’s “bad.” Just something to consider.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Oh yeah I forgot to say earlier but both Stralman and Vasilevskiy are back soon. Uh oh.

Toronto Maple Leafs: They basically have to be super-aggressive about Matthews and Marner’s new deals now, yeah?

Vancouver Canucks: Are we acting like the thing the Canucks really missed in the last year was…….. Derek Dorsett?

Vegas Golden Knights: Well uhhhhh, woof.

Washington Capitals: They’re looking good again. One day, we’ll all figure this team out.

Winnipeg Jets: Nice boys here.

Gold Star Award

Stamkos going 2-2-4 in 15:36 on Saturday? That was good.

Minus of the Weekend

Three guys in the Pittsburgh/Ottawa game played fewer than five minutes each on Saturday. In my opinion maybe try dressing good players instead.

Play of the Weekend

Here’s a goalie goal from college hockey. Pretty cool!

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “Kid Icarus” demands change.

Signoff

No, no, no, no! Donde esta mi tequila?

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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