Orlando, FL - The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves outside a playoff spot in the early part of the BRHL2 season. Going into the season, the team had hopes to once again capture a Wildcard spot. It's still too early to tell what will happen, but they are losing momentum as each day passes.

Some teams have already started to pack it in, the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs are two in the East who started to trade away players. The Lightning considered doing the same, but were only considering moving some depth to start. Players like Nikolay Kulemin, Tomas Plekanec and Torrey Mitchell were offered up to other teams, but the market seems to be trending for more top end players right now then third and fourth line depth.

"We recently saw Komarov go for a 6th round pick, so that kind of changed our plans now for the time being. If that is the going rate for guys like Kulemin and Plekanec, we will just hang onto them", commented Ferraro.

The Lightning are back to being 100% healthy for the first time since the first week of the season. Now is the time for them to start gaining ground on the East. Unfortunately for them, they have a tough scheduling coming up against the Stars, Islanders, Capitals, Blackhawks and Pengiuns.

"If we win as many as we lose the next 2 week, we can compete in da East", said coach Michel Therrien. "Puck to da net, stick on ice, dump and chase. We follow da plan, we can win"

Free agent pickup Jason Spezza currently leads the Lightning in points with 7 goals and 5 assists in 18 games. The team overall hasn't scored very often, while not doing a great job of keeping the puck out of the net either. Jonathan Huberdeau has been great since coming back from injury, rejuvinating team captain Jordan Staal. Since Huberdeau's return, Staal has all 4 of his points since starting the season with 0 points in his first 10 games.

Goaltender Cam Talbot has to be better, he is signed long term and is the goalie of the future and present for the Lightning, despite all the trade offers they have already received. Talbot is sporting a 2.95 GAA and .900 save percentage. In comparison, his backup Anders Nilsson has been superb, but often injured. Nilsson will see some time now that he is back from injury and will look to maintain his 1.95 GAA and .952 save percentage.

We will have a better idea of the direction of this team soon.