Joe over at Tasca’s Take had a sit down with Sunshine Network broadcast announcer Rick Peckham and discussed a few matters of the game and a few old Whale tales :wink

Rick makes the (obvious) observation that winning brings in fans and that teams that don’t win, don’t bring in fans… Gee, what a perception… Too bad there are too many that believe even losers should show great attendance records in order to keep there teams :rolleyes:

Give me a minute - I am trying not to have a heart attack…

Dave Andreychuk notched #20 tonight, giving him 19 seasons of 20 goals or more — nice job right? The goal was a game-tying goal in the final seconds of regulation — so it was absolutely huge…

Unfortunately it didn’t hold up and the Lightning were swept by the Senators for the season after Ottawa scored in overtime - a thrilling game all the same and one that the NHL would be smart to highlight as one of the years best (even though there were plenty of missed calls all over again :rolleyes)

The Lightning now have 104 points with 80 games played. They face no more playoff competition as the season finishes against Florida and then Atlanta.

With 104 points and a game in hand over Philadelphia, the Lightning are guaranteed no lower than the #2 seed in the playoffs. That may very well be a good thing with the Boston Bruins in the best position for a run at the #1 seed. With 2 games in hand, the Bruins have 99 points with two games vs. no playoff teams to come (Carolina and the flailing Washington Capitals) before finishing the season with a two game set against the Devils.

The Devils are going to be no pushover for the B’s — the Devils have a very good chance of winning the Atlantic division as they sit only 2 points behind the Flyers — and trying to take the #3 seed in the East.

The Buffalo Sabres are another story — they are on the bubble for the playoffs with 3 games left (which they must win all of and see the Islanders fall two out of three times before the end of the season to gain the #8 seed in the East. The Isles have Montreal, Carolina and then Philadelphia to close out the season while the Sabres have the Rags, Toronto and Les Habs to close the season out.

And don’t even get me started on the West…

“Smashville” finds itself out of the playoffs as of this moment - but probably only for another 24 hours. They face the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow. Edmonton would be the team bumped if the Predators win and part of me is going for the Oilers to make the playoffs (all six Canadian teams playoff bound? Holy smokes)… but then again, another part of me wants Nashville to make it and give a big middle-finger salute to traditionalists who hark that the Music city shouldn’t have hockey.

Bob McKenzie doesn’t even like the discussion when it comes to the Hart Trophy… Who’s the guy who should bring it home?

His name is Martin St. Louis. Best player on one of the very best teams in the NHL. Leads the league in points, is right up there in goals. The choice, it would seem, is obvious.

This comes while talking heads and fans are starting to make a case for guys like Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur and other goalies for the Hart. In this dead-puck era, maybe we shouldn’t give out any forward awards? Maybe goalies should get them all anyway? :rolleyes

TSN.ca - NHL - Canada’s Sports Leader

Report: Bettman issues warning

3/29/2004
Gary Bettman has seen and heard enough.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the NHL Commissioner sent a memo to all teams last week warning coaches and general managers that they are accountable for the behaviour of their players on the ice.

Oh gee, Gary, it’s only been a matter of WEEKS since the Bertuzzi incident, and there have been several incidents since then that have further given the NHL a black eye… You’ve been MIA all this time — do you REALLY think you should speak up now?

Really, Gary… Do you?

You’re only the commissioner… It’s not like you’re expected to show fortitude… or are you? Hmm, you are probably wondering about that….

:rolleyes

Tampa Bay goes to 103 points for the season as the Bolts demolish the Washington Capitals (or was that the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight? There really wasn’t much of a difference in play) 4-1 at Times Palace.

The 103 points furthers Tampa Bay’s record number of Points in a season, while Brad Richards 190th career assist set the Tampa Bay assists record. The game was played before the Lightning’s 8th straight sell-out crowd, another record… The victory was Tampa Bay’s 23rd at home this season - another franchise record.

Dave Andreychuk just missed his 20th goal of the season during the final minutes of the 3rd period. Andreychuk has 18 20 goal seasons and a 19th would put him one behind Ron Francis….

I make the cruel comparison to the Pittsburgh Penguins because Capitals goalie Matthew Yeats played well in front of a porous defense and was peppered with shots by the Lightning.

It should also be noted Eric Perrin — Martin St. Louis’ partner in crime at the University of Vermont — made his NHL debut tonight, notching 1 shot on goal as he played on the fourth line in place of Martin Cibak. Perrin played 9 minutes and forty three seconds on ice….

Cleared to play with the Hershey Bears following shoulder surgery, Nikita Alexeev returns to action tonight in an AHL matchup between Wilkes-Barre and Hershey.

Tampa Bay sweeps the New Jersey Devils for the first time in Franchise history.

Brad Richards scored his sixth game winning goal of the season, Fredrick Modin continued white-hot by notching two assists, and the Lightning reached the 100 point plateau for the first time in franchise history to remain on top of the Eastern Conference.

“I don’t think it’s the officiating, no,” he said. “You can maybe keep the game under control a little more with what happens leading up to an incident. But I don’t think you can change the officiating to where it will stop the incident. It’s the mind-set of the players, absolutely.” — Dave Andreychuck (c), 3-24-04 St. Petersburg Times

With all due respect to Dave, but it’s not the players alone that should be held accountable over actions taken on ice. I don’t want to liken Hockey Players to children and Owners and executives to parents, but honestly — if you don’t discipline your child and send a message NOT to do something — they’ll keep doing it. If you keep sending an uneven message what not to do, they’ll keep doing it and exceed what they aren’t supposed to do.

If officials don’t step in and call all penalties that occur on ice EVERY time they are officiating a game, they continue to slip up and incidents occur on ice that are detrimental to the league.

Dave goes on to say “I believe the respect has to come back for the players to each other. We have to take it upon ourselves as players. I think it will be an issue this summer.”

Coming from a team captain, you have to respect the idea of players better respecting each other on ice… but lets think this through - every player has a different story and different pressures. Their amounts of respect for each other vary. If you don’t have some governing of the game — much better governing than what we are seeing now — then you cannot expect players to show each other respect on ice. Instead, they’ll continue the eye-for-and-eye tactic until it’s too late and something truly tragic occurs on ice because someone in the league office didn’t get the message across that they were the ones that levy punishments - not opposing teams.

Martin Brodeur is the best goalie in the game and he proved that a little more tonight by winning his 400th game. Congratulations Mr. Brodeur.

It’s Ironic that this victory took place against the Florida Panthers. The hottest up-and-coming goalie in the league is Roberto Luongo.

With three assists tonight in the Lightning romp in Toronto (more on that in a bit), Martin St. Louis moves to 89 points for the season and a five point lead on Joe Sakic for the Art Ross Trophy. He also just shattered Brian Bradley’s single season Lightning record for points in a season (the record was 86 points which Martin was tied at the last few games).

So, with that out of the way, the title of this post deems tonights game a return of Lightning hockey. The last few games (since a victory in Carolina and arguably the game before it) the Lightning have looked and played like a tired, haggard team and with an intensive schedule to end the season it’s no wonder why. Fortunately, starting with a generous 5 on 3 Power Play at the beginning of the game, the Lightning quickly got into gear and got on the board.

Of course, with some botch ups (John Grahame mishandling a puck behind the net) it looked like the Lightning would relinquish a 3 goal lead in the 2nd and make this game closer than it was… Fortunately it did not happen. Vincent Lecavalier scored his 30th goal, Dave Andreychuk notched number 19 for the season (with 20, he will have 19 seasons of 20 goals or more — only Gordie Howe and Ron Francis have more) and Freddy Modin tallied number 27 on the year (2nd highest total since 32 in 00-01). Brad Richards, Ruslan Fedotenko, Brad Lukowich and Martin Cibak (Martin “Anemic” Cibak?) rounded out scoring for the Lightning…

7-2 the final in Toronto… The next road game the Lightning face is likely to be game 3 of the opening round of the playoffs. But up until then they still have to overcome being 2 and 4 over their last six games…