Why Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman make the Lightning terrifying (Trending Topics)

As the Tampa Bay Lightning pummeled the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders in the first two rounds of the playoffs, you had to say it was because they were better in all areas than the two teams they faced. 

Thanks to their supreme scoring depth, strong blue line and world-class goaltending they won eight games out of 10 and were the third-best postseason possession team to make it past the first round. Their games have often been close, with only three multiple-goal wins out of 10 tries, and it's tough to say that this team “should” keep winning one-goal contests. That's especially true as a date with the juggernaut Penguins looms in the Eastern Conference Final.

However, they have breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs more convincingly than any other team. It is therefore very easy to forget that two of the better players in the league are still nursing injuries as the Bolts rampage past two admittedly softer opponents than anyone else has gotten.

As of this writing, the latest info is that Anton Stralman, a whopper of a defenseman who is arguably Tampa's best blue liner (with all due respect to Victor Hedman), has returned to full practice and could therefore be back in the lineup by Game 2 after breaking his leg months ago. Stamkos, meanwhile, is practicing in a no-contact jersey as he recovers from surgery to remove a blood clot in his arm. Jon Cooper, understandably, is playing dumb as to their status for a return at any point in the series, telling the assembled media earlier this week, “All injured players are indefinite.”

A return of either or both those players would be massive for the Lightning, and the fact that the team has even gotten this far without either player is impressive. Their value can be stated quite clearly: When either player is off the ice, Tampa is worse off. Having them out for a prolonged run like this — neither has played since late March — should have made the team a lot worse. That they've kind of shrugged off the injuries that would have likely crippled the hopes of any other club is a testament to Cooper's coaching acumen and the performances of the rest of the team in their absence.

Stamkos is, of course, one of the league's premier offensive players, with his ability to generate shots, draw penalties, win draws, and stay out of the box — in addition to all the goal-scoring he does — coming as a major upgrade over the average replacement player. Stamkos alone probably adds as many as three wins to a team's total in any given season, at a minimum.

And while that may not sound like much, one has to keep in mind that unless you have a league-breaking year (think Ovechkin in 2007-08 or Crosby in 2009-10), you're probably not going to clear too many more than that. In fact, it should come as no surprise that in the shootout era, Stamkos has the first- and second-most valuable seasons turned in by any skater in a Lightning uniform, and by a fairly wide margin.

Just as a point of reference, remember the amazing season Tyler Johnson had last year? In terms of the number of goals it provided to Tampa above what the average AHL call-up would have, it was about 4.5 goals fewer than Stamkos's contribution (14.6 for Johnson, 19.1 for Stamkos). Even Kucherov, who was phenomenal last season (15.4 goals above replacement), paled in comparison.

Meanwhile, Stralman is likewise a huge driver of everything you want in a defenseman, and his season this year was in many ways comparable to the one he turned in for 2014-15. It's important to note here that goals above replacement data is very useful for determining a player's quality, but it doesn't exist for this season. However, using past years to contextualize where good-to-great years from both of these players would fall in terms of value is instructive.

As you can see, Stamkos and Stralman both spent each of the last three seasons getting better. It's also worth noting that the GAR they both posted in 2012-13 was, obviously, based on the 48-game schedule, but for Stamkos there is still a big step back from his previous accomplishments. In comparing what they did this season versus those in the previous three, their contributions seem to be more or less in the middle of what they did from 2013-15. 

Stralman's 2014-15 season was the 109th-highest GAR by a defenseman since 2005-06. Stamkos's, meanwhile, was ranked 98th among centers. Both were in the 96th percentile at their positions, so even if they took sizable steps back, they'd still be extremely valuable to their teams.

What's interesting about Stamkos this season, though, is that he was a bit of a detriment to his club in some ways at 5-on-5 this year. When he was on they generated slightly more attempts, but without him they conceded a lot fewer. In terms of straight-up shots on goal, he was worse both for and against. However, his goals-for percentage was dramatically better than the rest of the team's (57.3 percent versus 52.4 percent), in large part because of a significant increase in on-ice shooting percentage.

With a lot of players, you'd say that's an anomaly, but Stamkos, given the quality of his talent shooting the puck, you're always going to get a larger relative shooting percentage when he's on than when he isn't. For his career, his on-ice shooting percentage relative to the rest of the Lightning is better than plus-3. That's a huge difference, and it's one that he can reliably mine to drive scoring numbers.

Moreover, the areas of his deficiency this year were in terms of 5-on-5 play. And we have to understand that Stamkos's relative value is going to increase significantly when his team is on the power play. Tampa will generally score a lot more with Stamkos on the ice with the man advantage than when he's off, full stop. And so even if you feel like he didn't bring it for you this year at 5-on-5 and you have to control his minutes a little more, you can still unleash him on the power play and see your goals per 60 increase by about 75 percent.

As for Stralman, well, the 5-on-5 numbers are a lot kinder, as you might expect. Huge possession driver, huge shot driver, huge goal driver. That thing about arguably being the best defenseman on the team? Yeah, based on this year's body of work, you'd have to say it's pretty close to neck-and-neck with Hedman. And given that Hedman is widely regarded as one of the top defenders in the league, that tells you a lot about the value Stralman provides. They are basically as perfect as you can get in the NHL when together, and while Hedman has been perfectly fine dragging along Matt Carle or Braydon Coburn in this postseason, getting him back with his old running buddy would obviously be quite beneficial.

Again, it circles back to the idea of how good Tampa has been in their absence. And this isn't one of those idiotic “What do you do with _______ when ________ comes back?” like we had when Evgeni Malkin returned to the Penguins lineup. The Lightning crushed their first two opponents but still had clear deficiencies that needed addressing. 

They've gotten this far without a guy who is arguably a top-15 or top-20 defender in the league, and one who is basically a weapon of mass destruction in attack. The return of either or both of these players at some point in the Conference Final goes from making Tampa a legitimate contender to legitimately terrifying.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

All stats via War on Ice unless otherwise stated.

MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY: