I thought Calgary was supposed to play a wide open game with a strong forecheck?

I thought this playoff series was going to be exciting hockey that would be optimal for the hockey fan if not the casual fan?

What the hell happened on the way to the Rink? Darryl Sutter, in all his defensive omnipotence, employed the Neutral Zone Trap with clutch and grab galore and the series that was supposed to mark a new era in the NHL instead marked a reviled and lingering past. The Trap and the boring game of Hockey that comes with it.

Dump and chase, clutch and grab, etc, etc, etc. I didn’t want to see this, I wanted to see the FUN hockey both teams played during the regular season. Did game 2 show Darryl how outclassed the Flames were that they needed to switch to the trap? Or was it the fact that the Flames had the Lightning twice on the ropes with loses in game one and game three?

Suffice my Trap complaints, I can’t complain about the end result of Game 4. Brad Richards records his 10th goal of the playoffs and sets a new league playoff record with his 7th Game Winning Goal while Nikolai Khabibulin records his sixth shutout as the Lightning edge the Flames 1-0.

Yes there were penalties not called, yes there were stupid penalties that ruined the ending of the game (thank you Ville Nieminen), and yes that was very boring hockey for anyone who watched this game at home. There were a lot of positives going into this series (now tied 2 games a piece and heading back to Tampa) but they have turned to negatives thanks to a style of play employed by Sutter.

Short list of needs for Tampa Bay and one immense need for Calgary:

For Tampa Bay — they need a better adjustment to the altitude. I saw them get sapped in the second half of the game and it seems that the altitude took it’s toll. Last time they were in Alberta they played Edmonton close before going to Calgary and taking it to the Flames and outclassing them on ice.

They also need a good attitude — positive attitude and a sense of urgency.

Meanwhile… Calgary? You need some originality boys…. I heard of this wide open system with an aggressive forecheck… I see clutching, grabbing, and the trap being employed. Certain people (aka Keith here at Boltsmag ) contends that this isn’t the trap and is just aggressive defense… It’s odd when I hear “Trap” from several Calgary fans (Usenet newsgroups) and I hear “Aggressive defense” from others.

Oh, one last need in the originality department from Calgary: A better guy to psyche the crowd. Bill Goldberg? He’s not a Calgarian, he’s an American. What’s worse is he lives in Tampa… If you are going to have a wrestler psyche the crowd — get a local hero like Bret Hart to do it. If he can’t (due to his medical condition) then there are plenty of other Albertans and Calgarians to use instead of asking guys with absolutely no local connection to do it.

That’s the reason Hulk Hogan is doing it in Tampa — Tampa resident (born and raised, and still residing here)…. He’s a local asset.

From the Calgary Herald:

“In my mind, I thought it would be no problem to beat them because they’d be tired after coming after us the way they did,” said Bolts centre Tim Taylor. “They just come at you, come at you, come at you. That’s why I felt very confident after the first period. They don’t have too much offence, and I just thought that they’d tried to give us everything in trying to hit us.”

You know, Tim, if you are going to comment about how easy you figured it would be to beat a team, it would be wiser to do it after a win, rather than a loss, eh?

The Flames have played this style through 104 games now, and still show no signs of slowing down. If you figured one period would wear the Flames out, you havent been listening to your coach, who said to expect that kind of play throughout.

Besides, we all saw how effective hitting the Lightning that hard was in the third period. The Flames were able to use an over aggressive 3-2 forecheck numerous times in the final stanza as Lightning players continually turned the puck over fearing the big hit that was coming.

The result, Miikka Kiprusoff’s 5th post season shutout, leading the NHL, and a Flames franchise record.

As to the belief that Calgary has no offense? Calgary’s 54 goals this postseason is the most of all teams, and their average of 2.46 per game is third only to Tampa (2.74) and Philly (2.78).

But feel free to keep speaking, Tim. I have no doubt that your comments are finding their way onto the Flames dressing room wall.

For those close to Times Palace — the St. Pete Times Forum is having a special watch party right now in the Chrysler-Jeep plaza (main entrance).

I didn’t know about this until WFTS ABC Channel 28 broadcast live from their during their Pre-Game show.

Bring lawn chairs, bring drinks, and bring your passion in case you don’t want to sit at home watching the game. This will be repeated for game 4.

D4n B0yl3 0wnz j00.

Well, so does Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier, Ruslan Fedotenko and Martin St. Louis.

In a game where the Lightning needed to show that they did in fact belong in the Stanley Cup Finals, the team put on a performance that got them that far by dominating the game 4-1. Brad Richards posted his 6th Game Winning Goal of the playoffs to tie the Stanley Cup Playoff record of 6 by Joe Niewundyke.

Dan Boyle scored — and tended to play like his house was burning down (a phrase I repeated over and over with friends on Thursday Night).

All in all the Bolts played more up to par — and I don’t say this simply because they won. Game 1 saw failures in passing, shooting the puck ON GOAL, defensive lapses and the like. It was a rare let down from a team that has been firing on all cylinders since January.

And Thursday Night, they gave all at Times Palace a glimpse of the team that they knew full well — the team that could perform at all ends of the rink and not be intimidated.

Game 3 is set for Saturday and the Lightning put their perfect game 3 record on the line in front of the “C of Red” at Saddledome.

With the Flames’ rampant success, and tickets for games selling out in an average of ten minutes, the profiteers have come out in full force.

While you can land a pair of tickets to finals games held in Tampa for a couple hundred dollars on eBay, tickets for the games in the Saddledome are going for over c$1000 a pair.

But one idiot really takes the cake. This twit actually wants $8000 American for a pair of club seats to game 3. Face value of these tickets are $325 each.

Gee, wondering why you have no bids yet, Sparky?

ESPN.com – NHL – Stanley Cup Final Game 2 Preview

TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) — The Calgary Flames can tie the NHL record for the most road wins in a postseason on Thursday when they face the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Game Two of the Stanley Cup Finals at the St. Pete Times Forum.

No respect I tell ya, no respect…. My mother never breast fed me… She said she liked me as a friend — Rodney Dangerfield.

Rodney is King and, with that treatment by EPSN (Extremely Partial Sports Network) I can think of no other guy to represent the Lightning… At least for the moment.

I like the Tampa Bay Lightning, I really do. If they werent playing the Flames in this final, I’d probably even cheer for them. But could someone please gag Tim “the Tool” Taylor already?

Taylor has been whining about the trap being employed by the Flames to win game one.

“Once again, a team says they are not a trap team,” Taylor said. “They are definitely a trap team. The way they play, I see us going back as a league another five or six years back to the old trap and not calling clutching and grabbing. This is a time for the league to really step up and do a job calling the game the way it’s supposed to be called.”

A couple of points, Mr. Taylor:

First, the Neutral Zone Trap is not based around clutching and grabbing – which your team was quite adept at as well on Tuesday – but on sound positioning.

Second, find me one team in the NHL that wont employ the trap up 3-0 in the third period of a hockey game.

Third, dont you find it odd that as a checking forward yourself, that you should be whining about your opponents checking you to death?

Fourth, going into the final three minutes of that game, Tampa held a 5-2 advantage in powerplays. I would suggest, Mr. Taylor, that the officials were doing exactly what you wanted them to do.

And finally, do you really want to wake the officials up? I agree wholeheartedly that the officiating could have been better. Cory Stillman leaving his feet to drill Marcus Nilson’s head into the glass would have been a major penalty, game misconduct and a suspension in the regular season. It should have been such on Tuesday as well. Andre Roy should also have gotten a major and a game misconduct for running Ville Niemenen from behind on the exact same play.

Thus, instead of being down two men for a full five minutes, you were only shorthanded one man for two. If anything, the officials allowed you the chance to try and get back in it. You didnt.

You went 4-0 vs the New Jersey Devils, Tim. Obviously the trap didnt affect you then. So why are you crying about it now? Or are you just looking for an excuse to explan why you were beaten silly in your own barn in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals?

Might I recommend that you play better tonight? Or would you prefer to spend your time trying to think up another excuse should you be outworked again by the Flames?

Two types of Flames – the team and the natural disaster – are costly to Boyle last night. $300 thousand dollars worth of damage is being reported as what has been caused by a blaze in Boyle’s South Tampa home.

Ugh.

Classless play by TB (Roy and Stillman and their elbow-lead checks), and inability to shoot the puck or control it (how many shots went WAY off course? And how COULDN’T Modin control the puck which led to Jerome Ignila’s shorthanded goal) and general lackluster play made this game a laugher.

Start with the fluke goal to open the first — off Gelinas right skate while his left leg blocks Khabibulin’s right movement — and then factor in missed opportunities, blown shots and you have the makings of a game that proves the anti-thesis to the “Great series” arguments.

This was a one way game despite the Lightning having a shot total advantage. This game deserved to be won by Calgary after Corey Stillman and Andr? Roy decided to go head hunting with their elbows in the third… That was not Lightning hockey and it makes me very angry.

I was 11 or 12 when the Lightning played their first game… Me and my younger brother would hang out at a local sports card shop that was owned by a Canadian gentleman and his wife. This guy happened to ref for the Lightning during pre-season and he just fueled the flame of interest in both myself and my younger brother, Andrew.

We started playing street hockey – not exactly knowing the rules but doing it anyway out of interest in the sport. We loved the sport even if we didn’t totally understand it.

A couple of years later, the Lightning made there first playoff appearance and the entire area was going crazy. This was the first pro-sports playoff appearance for Tampa in decades and through the awkwardness of this Canadian sport more fans fell in love with hockey.

Unfortunately, 1996 was the end of days at the Thunderdome and the end of the positive time for the Lightning. That summer started the downfall of the Lightning and by November of 1997 I only paid attention to the Lightning for comical purposes (if I needed a laugh – I’d read about the team and the moves they were making). The teams direction was straight to the gutter and it was obvious… A team of castoffs and a few young players had helped the Lightning make it to the 1st round of the 1996 playoffs. Phil Esposito loving value cast-offs and not truly understanding that an expansion team needs to be built with talent and youth disregarded the draft and the fruits that it could bring.

Things got worse and worse. Even Vincent Lecavalier’s drafting in 1998 didn’t bring me back to the Lightning. It was after Phil was fired as GM (he still is the father of the Tampa Bay Lightning however) and Jacques Demers re-acquired Chris Gratton that my interest truly picked up again. It wasn’t that Gratton was a great player, it was the fact the Lightning needed young talent instead of hordes of has beens. Demers didn’t last as ownership of the Lightning changed hands again and I truly didn’t believe in the five year plan preached by Rick Dudley and William Davidson… Five years to contention? Yeah, right — this team needs to be built and even though there was hope because competent business people and hockey people were brought into the fold with the Lightning, it just didn’t seem realistic to think of the Lightning as ever being Stanley Cup contenders.

Last year made me realize I was wrong.

This year? Five years into the five year plan… I realize that the miraculous can happen. That resurrections do occur, and that Tampa Bay – the maligned hockey market that had been a doormat for so long – is indeed a Stanley Cup contender.

Four Wins will place the Lightning into history and into hockey culture. Four wins will give Dave Andreychuk his long-sought Stanley Cup.

Four wins.

That’s all that’s left.

Game on.

….FIGHT!

And lets show the entire league why the Lightning and the Flames have gotten to this point — because they play that damned good

MVP, Best Coach and Best exec awards head Tampa Bay’s way in TSN’s awards.

But I think Marty, John, and Jay will all agree with me right now that individual accolades mean shit. There is one team accolade that they are playing for and there is no way The Sporting News awards matter to them right now.

There are tickets available in very limited quantity. NHL rules state that 2300 tickets have to be available for the opposing team, and these tickets are released to the public at unknown times / unannounced usually.

So in very limited numbers (meaning if you are looking for one ticket alone) you may have a chance to still see the game. The same should be the truth for Game 2 if you could not get tickets.

(information was found on Sunshine Network’s message board and this webmaster has to wonder how many people will harp that the Lightning didn’t sell out their games until today after seeing this post :tongue)

Tommy over at Sticks of Fire dropped me a line letting me know there would be a Pep Rally tomorrow for the Lightning.

From the Tampa City Government web site:

Pep Rally Planned To Celebrate Tampa Bay Lightning

TAMPA, FL (May 24, 2004) – The City of Tampa, in conjunction with the St. Pete Times Forum, will host a pep rally for Tampa Bay Lightning fans on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 at 6 p.m. on the plaza at the Forum. The rally will celebrate the team?s Eastern Conference title before they take on the Calgary Flames for Game One of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals. Members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend to support the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Rick Peckham, known as ?The Voice of the Lightning? will emcee the pep rally and members of Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners will join Mayor Pam Iorio on stage to celebrate the team?s success. Mayor Iorio will proclaim May 25, 2004 ?Tampa Bay Lightning Day.?

After the pep rally, the St. Pete Times Forum will host a viewing party for Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals and will televise the game on large screens on the plaza. The viewing party will begin at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Parking will be available for $10 in the city?s South Regional Garage located at 301 Channelside Drive adjacent to the St. Pete Times Forum. Overflow parking will be directed to Ft. Brooke Parking Garage located at 107 N. Franklin Street and Whiting Street Garage located at 400 Whiting Street. Parking will cost $8 in both the Ft. Brooke and the Whiting Street garage, which are conveniently located three blocks from the St. Pete Times Forum. Please keep in mind, because the game is sold out, carpooling and walking to the event is encouraged.

CBS.SportsLine.com – NHL Series: Lightning vs. Flames

If it’s not exactly a match made in television heaven, then at least this year’s Stanley Cup Finals seem to have been created with true hockey fans in mind.

Click the above link for their full series rundown from CBS.

From TSN.ca

Panthers fire GM Dudley
TSN.ca Staff

5/24/2004
The Florida Panthers have fired general manager Rick Dudley. He has been offered another position within the organization.

Multiple sources have told TSN that former Panthers head coach Mike Keenan will likely take over as general manager with long-time friend and former Ottawa Senators head coach Jacques Martin taking over as head coach. Keenan and Martin have a long history together dating back to the Peterborough Petes and St. Lawrence University.

The mess just keeps on brewing in Miami… Mike gets fired, Dudley hired, Panthers bring in young talent through trades and the draft and Iron Mike is brought back with little patience for young players…

This is sure to be interesting.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING – - – GAMEDAY

The Tampa Bay Lightning will be holding auditions for the 2004-05 Ice Girls. The Ice Girls last year were seen at all Home Lightning Games, Community Events, Concerts, Hospitals, Lightning Watch Parties and Corporate Events.

Click on the linka bove to see the dates and to sign up!

Paul at Witty Librarian posted on the Usenet a simple FAQ for all those from North of the Border who will be flocking to Tampa to see the Stanley Cup Finals up close (note, this is all humor so try not to be offended :smile ):

1) the really lousy drivers down here in Tampa are actually from New York.

2) for God’s Sake, don’t bring your bloody useless quarters down here! You keep sticking’em in our vending machines and then we’re stuck with coins that can’t be exchanged back for American quarters. You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you! :mad :evil

3) Please tip well at our strip clubs. They’re under a lot of stress lately and they need all the love they can get…

4) Okay, it’s the Bucs that are the football guys and the Devil Rays that are the baseball guys. And the Devil Rays, well, if you’ve seen Montreal then you know what the Rays look like…

5) Clearwater and Treasure Islands across the Bay waters are the good touristy beaches.

6) All the great Greek food is in Tarpon Springs, but don’t do Pappas, that’s a tourist trap. Try Palatka’s, the really great gyros!

7) Yes, there IS a Yeehaw Junction just down the road on State Rd. 60 (uh, about two and a half hours east, but hey it’s there!)…
There’s the Dali art museum in St. Petersburg down near the USF Bayboro campus, there’s the Ringling art museum in Sarasota about 45 minutes south of Tampa, and there’s the Weeki Wachee mermaid show up US 19 about an hour north of Clearwater…

9) Buy my book! No, wait, shameless plug…

10) The password at Mons Venus is “Buckbeak” Remember that. “Buckbeak”

And if no one has a twisted sense of humor about any of this, well then, whoops…

I’m just running across a few Tampa Bay “Fans” (read: people rooting for Tampa Bay and those who haven’t necessarily been following the team more than a season) who have been running smack on both Calgary Flames forums and in Philadelphia Flyers forums.

Frankly I think this is low class and I apologize on behalf of the few and the proud Tampa Bay fans who actually stuck with this team since their inception, through the dark days of the franchise and to this point in time. There IS the fact Tampa has the rivalry with Philly between two sports that would cause more gloating in front of Flyers fans, but I have absolutely no qualms with Calgary fans and neither should any Tampa Bay fans.

Many of those on the Tampa Bay forums and newsgroups don’t venture into others forums… nor do they tend to run smack in other forums. Most of those fans that do post have been through the down times of this team and realize there is nothing to take for granted with the Stanley Cup run of this team. Anyone who does is either a bandwagon fan or just a troll that comes out of the woodwork when any certain team loses.

So, on behalf of Tampa Bay Lightning fans, I apologize for any idiots that post on others forums or newsgroups – gloating. I also ask that other Lightning fans not run smack or gloat. Be responsible… Would YOU have liked it if the Bolts had lost in the EC Final? (or would you have been running Smack in the Lightning forums / newsgroups, claiming to be a Flyers fan?)

People will look at the Tampa Bay / Calgary series with questionable eyes… They’ll see a Canadian City — Canada is Lord Stanley’s proper home – and they will see a Sun-Belt start-up franchise. You’ll hear about the oil in Alberta and the lack-of-it in Florida. The warm and humid conditions in Tampa Bay and the dry, cool-to-cold conditions of Calgary.

Lets just drop the differences for a moment and think of the one thing that both cities can boast…

Brother…..

We’ve got the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be to brag about – and I ain’t talking hockey teams.

Tampa Bay and Calgary both boast links – if not all-out homes — to Professional Wrestling. For every crowd-rallying speech by Hulk Hogan we’ve seen this post-season, Calgary would erupt at the sheer site of Bret “The Hitman” Hart.

Calgary can brag the Dungeon and Stu Hart, and Tampa Bay can chime in that it was home to Rocky Johnson for a time — and there son Dwayne — AKA, the Rock. Home to Dean Malenko and a plethora of transplanted Wrestlers.

SO lets rally around one thing we have in common instead of trying to tear ourselves down in differences before we play a good series of hockey, eh? :biggrin

STACK’EM!!

PACK’EM!!!

SHIP’EM AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!

The Tampa Bay Lightning have defeated the Philadelphia Flyers to win their first ever conference title and have earned them their first ever berth to the Stanley Cup Finals!!!!

And you know what this means kiddies?! It’s time for the grand finale!!!!

As minutes tick away and fans flock to the St. Petersburg Times Forum (or Times Palace, as I like to call it) I can’t help but realize this is the biggest game ever played in Tampa Bay. One can point out the Bucs and the 2002 Super Bowl appearance, but the NFC Championship and Super Bowl were played in Philadelphia and San Diego respectively. One could mention that Tampa Bay has hosted 4 Super Bowls and I can only say those were other teams, representing other cities.

This game is the biggest in the the history of the Lightning, that is for sure. This playoff series has been a lot more eventful than the entire history of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and most playoff appearances by the Bucs….

For the Lightning, a win would push the team into a final confrontation — the grand finale of the Pass the Friggin’ Torch Tour — for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. It will deliver a 40 year old dreamer to his dreams, and give a taste of legendary status to the rest of the players on the roster: The cocky 24 year old from Ile Bizzard, the consistent and resilient young man from Prince Edward Island, the 5-nothing, 100-nothing pound forward who has taken nay-sayers opinions and shoved them up their collective asses this year. There’s the balls-to-the-wall Swede, the “potential realized” Czech, etc, etc…. All rounded out by the man known to his enemies and allies alike as the Bulin Wall…

Potentially, sixty minutes of hockey is all that is left for one of these teams. A bitter resentment of how close they came will be all that lingers for the next three months (or more pending work stoppage) as they prepare themselves both mentally and physically to try, try again…

And the winner? The winner gets the chance at glory — to realize boyhood dreams or to re-live them that they once experienced in a different town, among different people. Nothing is certain as any sports fan can tell you.

Throw out your clichés, for there truly is no tomorrow for the loser… The quest for Lord Stanley’s cup ends for all but one in the Eastern Conference tonight…

And my final question to you is this: Are you ready for some hockey?