Tampa Bay Lightning Tickets

Tampa Bay Lightning 2011-12 Mid-Season Review For a team with as much offensive firepower as the Tampa Bay Lightning, it's been a tremendously disappointing first half of the season.

The Lightning are sitting in fourth place in the Southeast Division and missed out on a great opportunity to establish themselves as the top dog. The Washington Capitals have struggled mightily in the first half of the season, which opened the window of opportunity to the other four teams in the division.

For whatever reason, the Lightning have been unable to walk through that door. Tampa Bay has played very poorly away from home and has been flat-out awful defensively. While they aren't scoring as often as expected, even a significant improvement in offensive performance would not make a major difference.

Tampa Bay has a team full of great playmakers on the offensive end of the ice, but the defense has to get much, much better. It's hard to believe this team has struggled so much, but unless they find a way to keep the puck out of their own net, it's going to be more of the same in the second half of the year.