The talk around the Tampa Bay Lightning, at least the talk I’ve come across, has been mostly centered on a pretty general (and pretty fair) question: What the heck is going on there?



If you were to sort the Atlantic Division standings on Dec. 22 for points — which are fairly important to a team! — you’d see the Lightning in sixth place, ahead of just the Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators. The latter team there, the Sens, just took them to overtime on Tuesday, though the Bolts did manage to grab both points. They weren’t so lucky Thursday, when they lost in OT to the Stars. Then they lost to the league-leading Capitals on Saturday night, which leaves them with a 5-6-2 record over their past 13 games.



There’s a lot of reasons, and a lot of ways to look at the Bolts’ season and wonder what’s going on there — it’s an exercise that’s been endeavored upon numerous times by our own Joe Smith, and...