30 Teams In 30 Days: A Power Outage In Tampa

If you're a Lightning fan, has the charm from the 2004 Stanley Cup championship officially worn off? In 2008-09, the Tampa Bay Lightning's point total dropped for the second consecutive year and was actually lower than the 71 points that earned them the 1st overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft. A year later and not much changed besides now instead of the number one overall pick, the Bolts now had the number two overall choice.

Despite their lack of success, you can't say that the Lightning front office hasn't done their part to try and put a competitive product on the ice.

Following the 2007-08 debacle of a season the team drafted Steven Stamkos with the 1st overall pick but they also traded for the rights and signed both Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone away from the Pittsburgh Penguins. After this, the team went out and nabbed veteran Mark Recchi on a one year deal and added Vinny Prospal back to the club.

However, the biggest weakness for the Lightning, like most bad teams, was their woeful goaltending. The offseason addition of Olaf Kolzig proved to be close to meaningless as Ollie played in just eight games and went 2-4-1 with a 3.66 GAA before missing time due to injuries and being traded to Toronto. Injuries also hindered the season of young netminder and terrible hot-head Mike Smith. Post-concussion syndrome ended Smith's season prematurely as the 27 year old finished with a respective .916 SV% despite his 14-18-9 record.

Along with injuries, promising star Steven Stamkos struggled playing under Barry Melrose. During Melrose's tenure with the Bolts, Stamkos had just four points and a -7 under Melrose's game plan. Once Melrose was officially relieved of his duties and Rick Tocchet, Stamkos' production shot up dramatically as the 19-year old was given more ice time and saw his role become larger on a poor Tampa club.

Stamkos finished with 46 points following a red hot final month and a half of the season where he put up 11 goals and 8 assists in the Bolts final 20 games of the season.

With Stamkos confidence surely on the rise, the Lightning have drafted what they hope to be their blue-line stud of the future when they selected Victor Hedman with the second overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft. Hedman, frequently compared to Detroit captain and 7-time Norris winner Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Pronger, was considered by most to be a "1a" in this year's draft as he could have arguably gone first over John Tavares.

Hedman is coming off a solid season in the Swedish Elite League for MODO Hockey where he posted 21 points in 43 games. One knock on Hedman came from his performance in the World Juniors with Sweeden as he posted just two points in six games. With a blue-line deep with let's be honest, third pairing caliber defensemen, Hedman is sure to get his chances and a lot of ice time with the 2009-10 Tampa Bay Lightning.

Next to Hedman, the Lightning's biggest addition was also on the blue-line with the signing of long-time Canucks defensemen Mattias Ohlund to a 7-year contract that'll pay him 3.5 million dollars a season. The soon to be 33-year old defensemen is coming off another solid season in the Northwest Division where he put up 25 points and finished with a +14, his first time finishing with a plus since 2003-04.

Ohlund is slated to provide an added veteran presence to the Lightning's group of young defensemen such as former Bruin Matt Lashoff.

Along with Ohlund, the (soon to be) addition of Alex Tanguay to the Tampa Bay roster is sure to bolster what seems to be a rather barren offensive team now considering the buy-out of Vinny Prospal. Tanguay is reportedly going to sign a one-year deal worth 2.5 million dollars to join Vincent Lecavalier and the rest of the Lightning for the 2009-10 season.

The Bolts also added Flyers back-up Antero Niittymaki with a one year deal set to pay him 600,000 dollars. The 29 year old Finnish goalie is coming off a solid season backing up Martin Biron as he went 15-8-6 with a 2.76 GAA.

As of right now, the Tampa Bay Lightning go into 2009-10 expecting this line-up

Alex Tanguay - Vincent Lecavalier - Martin St. Louis

Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Steve Downie

Stephane Veilleux - Jeff Halpern - Adam Hall

Todd Fedoruk - Ryan Craig - Martins Karsums

Extra Skaters: Zenon Konopka & Drew Miller

Mattias Ohlund - Andrej Meszaros

Victor Hedman - Matt Lashoff

Paul Ranger - Matt Walker

Extra Skater: Matt Smaby

Mike Smith

Antero Niittymaki

Despite the depth from the blue-line, when Steve Downie is considered your second line winger, you know your team has issues on the forwards front. It'll be interesting to see if Marty St. Louis, Alex Tanguay and/or Vincent Lecavalier are actually moved this year if this team continues to follow their recent trend and be completely tanked by February.

Prediction: 5th in Southeast Division, 14th in Eastern Conference.