Art Ross Trophy - Martin St. Louis
Lester B. Pearson award - Martin St. Louis
Jack Adams Award - John Tortorella
Lady Byng Award - Brad Richards
Hart Memorial Trophy - Martin St. Louis

Marty deserves his awards — including the Selke which he wasn’t even nominated for (but with a high plus in teh +/- and a league leading total of Short Handed goals, can you deny he wasn’t a force on defense?)

Meanwhile — Bradmaster taking home the Lady Byng is no surprise to me… Though I bet he wishes he didn’t get it.

Tortorella winning the Jack Adams is the biggest surprise of the them all. Record is one thing but challenges faced by the coach is another. Torts had to bring the guys together and that’s it. His competition — Darryl Sutter — had to change the players in his system time and again because of injuries. On top of that he had general manager duties to further cloud his palette. Torts had Jay Feaster doing the GM stuff.

Record be damned, Sutter deserved the Adams.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers salute the Tampa Bay Lightning with their opening flash animation.

For those not in the know, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers routinely feature flash animations on the opening of their web site (usually devoted to the Bucs and the next opponent). It’s nice to see the Football team pay homage to the Hockey team.

Much thanks to Doug Girvan who sent me the below image from Vincent Lecavalier’s home town.

Photo of Billboard located at main intersection upon entering ile Bizard the home of Vincent Lecavalier.
“Felicitations A Vincent Lecavalier” - Congratulations to Vincent Lecavalier

The island, L’ ile Bizard is situated to the north west of Montreal with a population of approx. 12,000.

Photo taken this evening 9 June 2004

Knowing how little we find out about Ile Bizzard here in Tampa (and yet we’ve heard of over and over again since Vinny was drafted), I’ve asked Doug if he can give us more information or perhaps more pictures of the town.

Speaking of which, I’m also interested in hearing more about the history behidn Rimouski Oceanic. Any die-hard Bolts fan knows the relevance of the Oceanic - the junior team that had Lecavalier and Brad Richards - but of course we hear very little about the team (which goes for most of the Canadian Junior leagues for that matter) down here.

What’s up with Boltsmag?

I’ve been hosting someone from out of town and just now getting back online a good bit — will have updates for you soon enough…

Anyway, I’m not letting this rain on my parade…. STANLEY’S GETTING A TAN!

Never thought you’d hear those words together, now did you?

And that’s the NHL season… I’m exhausted but OHMIGODDIDTHISJUSTHAPPEN?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

The floor is yours.

His foot is broken and he was not on the team bus when it pulled into the hotel in Tampa, TSN.ca reports.

But that news is from Yesterday. He may be here tonight to try to play.

**UPDATE** Er, maybe not. Regehr’s season is over and Shean Donovan is also sitting this one out, NHL.com reports.

For those who will be watching in the Tampa Bay region, an extra hour has been tacked on to the Sunshine Network pregame show.

For all of you who don’t already know (and there shouldn’t be many), Sunshine has been broadcasting pre-game shows since they stopped being able to broadcast games in the 3rd round of the playoffs. Bobby “The Chief” Taylor, Rick Peckham and Paul Kennedy broadcast live from Times Palace and give reports with special commentary from the likes of Brian Bradley and others.

I’m getting ready to leave for the St. Petersburg Times Forum for game 7… I’ll be joined by my colleague from the great white north, Keith, who’ll be adamantly hoping his Calgary Flames can win the Cup…

While the Tampa Bay Metro region that surrounds him will be hoping for just the opposite.

We never expected it to come to this. And I can’t believe it’s happening - not only am I going to a Stanley Cup final game, but I am going to the grand finale of the series — Game 7. The Cup will be in the building and, if God wills it, Gary Bettman just may say “Dave Andreychuk, come get your Stanley Cup” when all is said and done.

This is the apex of the Pass the Friggin’ Torch tour — the Lightning / Flames finals may be low rated on TV but they are creating more movement in the league than can be seen. Teams are watching the systems at work and adjusting, or making plans to mimic them, to better their own chances next year.

One team will be left standing tonight. One team that no one thought would be at this point. One team that no one expected to get this far. The question is - which one?

I’ll post another open thread before I leave - so those not in attendance can post during the game…

And my final thought is this: