The Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ice tonight for the sixth road game in a brutal stretch where they play 15 of 20 games on the road.
When the Bolts began this portion of their schedule, they entered a four game West Coast swing with the best record in the Eastern Conference at 5-2-1.
After last night's 6-3 loss in Washington, Tampa Bay is fourh in the conference at 8-5-2.
It's not so much the amount of road games the Lightning are facing—there's been many an NHL club that has faced a tough stretch—it's how they're grouped together that has Tampa Bay feeling the effects.
A four game west coast swing, followed by a home game, then a back-to-back road trip against two of the best teams in the NHL (Washington and Pittsburgh), followed by another home game, then three more on the road.
Its as if the NHL tried to stack the deck against Tampa Bay in the 2010-11 season. You can't blame the NHL scheduling committee on this one though, as the Lightning ASKED FOR THIS.
That's right, former GM Brian Lawton requested a road heavy first half of the season. We can only wonder why he did it. Maybe he was trying ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by JC De La Torre
Tampa Bay Lightning’s Long and Winding Road
November 12th, 2010 by JC De La Torre Leave a reply »
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