Almost halfway through December, the Tampa Bay Lightning sit outside of the playoff picture, trailing the Boston Bruins by two points for third place in the Atlantic. For a team that expected to compete for a championship this season, that has to be a surprise.
But with almost two thirds of the season still left to play, the Lightning still have time to regain the form they showed in going deep in the playoffs the last two seasons. With that context in mind, let’s see what we can learn from looking at where the Lightning rank by a series of key indicators.