New concerns around the Lightning could have immediate consequences

Ray Ferraro put the Tampa Bay Lightning on notice Monday, and three days before their opener, he didn't bother dressing it up.

"They're not getting younger," Ferraro said on the Ray & Dregs Hockey Podcast. "It does feel like something has to happen this year for them."

Then he went after the part Tampa fans hate hearing most. He called them a "first-round-and-out sort of team" since they won the Cups.

Ouch. Accurate or not, that's the label nobody in that locker room wants stapled to the stall.

He didn't spare the bench either, pointing to "the ability to keep bringing back the same team over and over again" with Jon Cooper, who's "been there forever."

The clip has Ferraro building the case piece by piece, the age first, then the coach, then the playoff record, before landing on one word.

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Two early trips to New York test Jon Cooper's Lightning

That word was urgency. And the schedule doesn't give Tampa much runway to find it.

The Lightning open Thursday against the Rangers on the road. They're back in the same building on October 13, two trips to Mike Sullivan's club inside their first six games.

The Rangers have won two straight, including a 6-1 rout of the Islanders last Friday. Not exactly a soft landing.

Cooper, for his part, has run this bench since March 2013. Julien Brisebois has sat in the GM chair since September 2018.

That's a long time to keep the same core, the same voice and the same early exits. Ferraro's fix is youth, speed and "a little more vigor."

Here's my problem with that. Asking a couple of kids to rescue a veteran group is like asking the new hire to fix the company's culture in his first month.

It rarely works. The hard decisions belong upstairs, and if Brisebois runs this group back one more time without a real shake-up, it's the wrong call.

The engine is still in the crease. Andrei Vasilevskiy carries a $9,500,000 cap hit, second-highest among goaltenders in the league.

Tampa did look sharp Saturday, beating Florida 3-2 in the Panthers' building. The Lightning went 2-1-1 across their last four before the opener.

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So is that a team ready to prove Ferraro wrong, or one more fall mirage?

October won't settle it. A western swing through Vegas, Colorado and Utah includes a back-to-back on October 23 and 24.

By then, the young guys Ferraro wants pushing forward will either be in the top six or still waiting on the bench.

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