The slide, such as it is, has been somewhat easy to miss. Tampa finished Saturday night's win against a fairly hot Nashville team on a skid of 4-5-0. This despite the fact that only one of those games has been against the Carolina Hurricanes or Florida Panthers, the two clubs with which they have shared the Central Division lead for much of the season.

Everyone loses games from time to time and occasionally even the best teams drop a handful of winnable games once they lock up a playoff spot. But this is not ideal for Tampa both because losing is never ideal, and finishing second in the division is the difference between playing one of Carolina or Florida, and playing one of Nashville, Chicago, or Dallas. We all know which is the easier path to the second round.

So the obvious question is, "