Columbus Blue Jackets: Staring Down the Barrel – Bolts by the Bay

We usually ask what’s the biggest strength of a team but its clearly the Tampa offense. So what’s the biggest weakness of this team?

CK: The biggest weakness of the Lightning is the play of their depth defense, including their goalie as of now. Victor Hedman is undoubtedly one of the best defensemen in the league. Anton Stralman is another great defender and there are worse d-men than Braydon Coburn, but other than that, there are some question marks surrounding the Bolts blue line. Mikhail Sergachev, Jake Dotchin and Slater Koekkoek are all promising defensive prospects that just need more time to develop.

Koekkoek seems to be rotating the healthy scratch role with Andrej Sustr, who has turned into a pricey anchor for the Bolts. This decision from Jon Cooper makes no sense as Koekkoek has potential, but not if he’s in the press box instead of on the ice.

Truth be told, I’m really not sure how I feel about Dan Girardi either. On one hand, he is taking up a roster spot that could be filled by one of the Bolt’s developing d-men. On the other hand, (and against all odds) he hasn’t played horribly yet and he hasn’t really given Tampa fans a reason to be mad at him yet.

In his first showing of the year, Peter Budaj looked rusty. He let in two soft goals in the first period against the Devils, which proved more than costly. Vasilevskiy is a workhorse, but he can’t play in every game, and if he were to be injured, the Bolts need a solid backup to rely on. One game isn’t enough to read into, but let’s just hope that game was an irregularity.