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 tot 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…