dnearhos

Stamkos is great from a media perspective. He is nearly always available to talk and will talk about nearly any topic. He understands that we have jobs to do and that sometimes he'll have answered a question on the road and get asked the same question by someone else when they get home.

My fiance, who is the redditer of the family, was telling me about the MSPaint drawings last night. I'll definitely be checking them out. I'd like to get more involved in r/TampaBayLightning in general.

I don't think anyone can match Girardi's sense of humor.

Kucherov doesn't like talking about himself. He doesn't like talking about anyone/anything when he's unhappy with himself and how he's played. That meant that for much of the first half of the season, he didn't say much and walked away from interview requests a few times.

But when he does talk, I always learn something. He has a great hockey mind, so I like talking to him when he's willing. It's tough when he's not.

You've pretty much got it right there. The Lightning fans and Tampa Bay in general have an interesting relationship with Jeff Vinik. He certainly hasn't positioned himself as a face of the organization and yet fans openly credit him for how well the team has done. The other ownerships .... much less so. It helps that he and the Lightning have really established themselves as a part of the community in a strong way.

They're trying to tweak things to be more responsible with the puck and defensively. It involves changing some habits and that's hard to do (in hockey or IRL). When they fully commit, they're a great team (a la the 10-game win streak). But they have let those habits back in, like all of the turnovers on Monday night. They need to manage their risks. They have the skill to be aggressive without the risks, but sometimes they get ahead of themselves.