I really have nothing left to say for the time being…. I believe this team can play the heart breaker instead of ending up heartbroken.

The Floor is yours. I’ll comment during the game at times….

Dear Eric Francis, Calgary Sun reporter who said he saw no signs of support for the Lightning in Tampa:

You must be blind —

Much thanks to Sharon Loe for the image.

How pathetic is Eric Francis in this piece?

Mr. Francis tries — or more like lies — in order to justify the Cup returning to Canada in just about every paragraph of the above linked article. (Calgary Sun piece republished in the Tampa Tribune). It seems because Mr. Francis can’t take the Lightning hockey team to task — he takes the Tampa Bay fan base to task.

Hey Eric? If this is the best you can do, please go back to college and spend a few hours in journalism 101.

“Calgary deserves the Cup because of 7 years of bad hockey.” 7 years? Amateurs — try 10 years out of 12 of your very existence.

“Calgary deserves the Cup because the Lightning never had a superstar traded for monetary reasons.” Oh ye of little information. Though we haven’t had SUPERSTARS per se traded for monetary reasons (note - Lightning have lacked a player that resembled a super star for the majority of it’s existence), we’ve had more than our fair share of players, fan favorites and future stars traded away for financial reasons.

“The Flames fans deserve the Cup because they’ve supported their team through 7 bad, heartbreaking and frustrating years and have been threatened with relocation.” Hello, earth paging Eric Francis — are you so ill-informed about the Tampa Bay Lightning that you find this a legitimate reason?

The Lightning fans have supported their team through 10 years of hell, four 50-loss seasons in a row, a couple of horrendous owners, lousy management,
numerous seasons with 50+ players going through the revolving doors, pay more property taxes than all other 29 NHL teams combined and continuously threatened with relocation by numbskull’s such as Mr. Francis or others in the north who’s ignorance proclaims that hockey doesn’t belong in the south and Tampa doesn’t support it’s team.

Ignorance is bliss, isn’t it Eric? You would sure be the one to know….

If you were to tell me that the Lightning were under the most pressure to perform tonight, I would have to disagree with you.

Oh, sure… the Lightning are in need of a game 6 victory to bring the series back to Tampa and get one last shot at Lord Stanley’s Cup… But then again? Think of how it is for the Flames with game 6 and a shot to clinch the Cup tonight. You have 20 thousand fans in the building, you have the entire city riding on them, you have close family and friends in town wanting to see it happen, plus Canada is holding out hope the Calgarians can bring the Cup home and this causes the Flames to feel and added reason to perform…

…And to the potential to make mistakes.

The Lightning are the wounded animal - they have absolutely nothing to lose and that makes them more dangerous… It’s a type of Beast the Flames have not yet encountered during the playoffs - as they have been the one who has been in the underdog slot for the entirety of the playoffs.

If the Lightning react the way they did to the Game 6 loss vs. Philadelphia (angry), this game will not end in a victory celebration. There is no more need for the team mantra “Safe is Death” because there is little to no safety where they sit right now.

Calgary’s got to be hoping Game 5 was a loss the Lightning cannot bounce back from, because for the Flames to lose Game 6 with the amount of pressure to perform on them - there may be no getting up from that.