The firesale in Washington continues as perennial Capital force, Peter Bondra, is shipped to the Ottawa Senators for prospect center Brooks Laich and a 2005 second-round pick.

The trade is a two pronged sword for the Lightning - a division rival has weakened itself by jettisoning their star. Meanwhile the Senators - a team the Bolts are chasing in the standings, have just improved themselves tremendously.

The battle for the Northeast Division in the Eastern Conference, along with the #2 seed in the Conference Playoffs, just got real interesting.

There are rumblings in the media that started yesterday and continue currently about Martin St. Louis and the League MVP award - the Hart Trophy.

Not only did the St. Peterburg Times Damian Cristordero add a piece on the possibility in his daily team news column, but other sources around the league are alluding to Martin’s plausible MVP nomination.

Start with ESPN.com’s summary about the Lightning not being satisfied with having the Southeast Division virtually locked up. Follow it up with USA Today’s Midterm Report that named St. Louis an MVP candidate and you have two very credible insitutions in US sports making mention of Mighty Marty.

TIm Taylor, Dave Andreychuk and Ben Clymer routinely shut down opponents top lines while the trio of forwards were on ice…

Now Taylor and Andreychuk will be doing it with Dmitry Afansenkov, who was promoted to the 3rd line. Afansenkov has played very well in his limited role as a 4th line grinder. His promotion may well set the stage fro a resumption of his scoring touch. Stay tuned….