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Following their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning were picked by many to potentially come out of the Eastern Conference again.

Approximately halfway through, it hasn’t exactly been a dream season.

Most of the 2015 portion of the 2015-16 season was marred with injuries, a cycling of AHL players through the team, drama surrounding 2013 first-round pick Jonathan Drouin and many questions about Steven Stamkos’ future with the team.

However, that has all changed in January. The team has only lost two games in the entire month, and have one game to go before the All-Star break. That’s a far cry from their 7-6 record in December. The Lightning seem to have finally found their groove.

Interestingly enough, from the first part of the season to January, not much has changed statistics-wise.

Through the first three months of the season, the Lightning had a Corsi For percentage of 52 percent, a PDO (team shooting percentage plus team save percentage, a measure of “puck luck”) of 100.5 and a High-Danger Scoring Chances For percentage of 50.6.

In January alone, their Corsi For percentage is 53.1 and their PDO comes in at 100.2, which isn’t much of a change from the beginning of the season.

The one major statistic that did change was their High Danger Scoring Chances For percentage. In January, they jumped to 57.9 percent, good for third in the league in that time frame. This looks to be the biggest change in the new year. “High Danger” means the Lightning are getting to the dirty areas right in front of the crease, which is one of the most important ways a team can improve themselves.

Shots from the perimeter of the offensive zone without any traffic in front will not win any hockey games. Gritty goals and shots from the slot with traffic in front will win games.

So, what inspired this change in scoring opportunities?

The biggest reason has to be their lineup’s return to health. This season, according to ManGamesLost.com, the Lightning rank ninth in the NHL in man games lost with 169 as of January 23rd. Half of the eight teams with more man games lost are out of playoff position, so Tampa Bay fans should be thankful they have that going for them.

Most of those missed man games stemmed from injuries to key members of the Lightning forward group. Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Cedric Paquette have all missed extended periods of time due to injury. That’s two-thirds of the “Triplets” line and a key depth scoring threat.

Without those players in the lineup, the Lightning had to rely heavily on forwards like Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn. Kucherov and Stamkos are the top two point getters on the team at 41 and 37, respectively, but that isn’t enough to carry a team through those injuries.

If those three players hadn’t missed so much time, nobody would be saying that Stamkos has “underperformed.” The reason this iteration of the Lightning was so good compared to past Stamkos-led teams was that they had a group of talented forwards surrounding him that could share the weight with him. With a few of the key players out, the overall production of the team slipped.

As long as the Lightning can stay healthy, and those injured players can return to the production they saw last season, this team should be just fine. However, they need to avoid more slip-ups and try to stay healthy through this last stretch. They are just a point ahead of the Boston Bruins, who currently sit in the first wild card spot, and four points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens. A two-week long losing streak could see them out of a playoff position.

The Lightning have come back to normal. Now they need to keep it that way.