from Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times,

The offense is still on holiday and the result was a discouraging 2-1 home loss to Colorado, the third loss in a row for a team that didn't lose three in a row all last regular season.

After the Lightning carved its way through the Eastern Conference all the way to the Stanley Cup final a season ago, we figured that all that stood between Tampa Bay and another trip to the final was that pesky thing known as the regular season.

Now 11 games into that regular season, we've learned this definitely is not going to be easy.

The Lightning season will be a grind, saddled with really high expectations and littered with really determined opponents.

The Lightning is an eighth of the way through the season. So far, it has everyone's best shot. Whether it's a good team such as the Blackhawks or Blues, or a middling team such as the Bruins, or a lowly team such as the Sabres or Avs, it hardly seems to matter. Regardless of the opponent, the Lightning has yet to run into a team that has played like dogs.

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