I don’t know who to be angrier at — fate or Jay Feaster.

Pavel Kubina goes down with a groin injury and doesn’t play last night’s hockey game. The Lightning dress five deensivement and lose after one of them (Pratt) is penalized.

Tonight? Nolan Pratt suffers an injury during the 1st period and a depleted defensive core, playing for the 2nd night straight, is down to four defensivemen…. 2 pairs expected to cover the full of the game.

The Lightning have three AHL0level forwards contributing right now and 3 NHL veterans riding the pine… There is depth at forward is what I am trying to underline here. The Lightning carry only 6 defensivemen on their roster to begin with. No spares. Why wasn’t someone called up and Reid, Craig or Artuhkin sent down?

A loss tonight may be looked at as bad luck, as a tough loss, as disappointing. It can also be looked at as helped along by negligence in the front office.

UPDATE: Pratt back out on ice - yet I stand by my comments

Lecavalier suspended for one game…

The Lightning trailed late in the second period when Lecavalier scored an apparent goal on a deflection in the slot. But the goal was waved off because Lecavalier had hit Rangers center Dominic Moore in the face with a high stick. He was assessed a minor penalty and will miss Tampa Bay’s game against the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.

Right, and next Nolan Pratt is going to be suspended for 14 games for disrupting the 3rd period of the Rangers game…

I really should hold my snide remarks to myself on this, I missed the non-goal and penalty…

The son of Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy has been foun ddead in an apartment in Lutz, Florida. James Dungy, I believe, was a regular at Buccaneer games (on teh sidelines) while his dad was coaching here…

He was 18.

SticksofFire.com will keep you better updated as this story progresses. My heartfelt condolences to the Dungy clan who are nothing but the best sort of people.

EDIT: 12-23 at 12:36 PM
For all of those searching for James Dungy’s Myspace profile, it has been removed from Myspace.

There is far reaching NFL Fallout on this story as Tony Dungy and his family have had a wide swath of influence on people over the years. Dennis Green - Arizona Carinals head coach and former boss of Tony Dungy in Minnesota is quoted as being “devestated” at Jamie’s loss. All around the league current and former players and coaches are speaking out in support of Tony Dungy in this dark time. I‘ll let Google News guide you on this story instead of linking to several news sources… But names to look for quotes from include Lovie Smith, Herm Edwards, Mike ALstott, Keyshawn Johnson, John Lynch, Green, Malcom Glazer, Derrick Brooks, Rich McKay and a wide plethora of others.

I don’t care if you’re projected as the star of the team or the captain of the team. I don’t care if you’re the grinder of the team. I don’t care if you’re the ice cream man. If you don’t push and play with intensity, you are not going to get your ice time.”
-John Tortorella, Thursday Morning

Threats of lost ice time seem to be the only weapon John Tortorella has left in his arsenal for the moment… And I love that quote, by the way. Tom Jones makes the excuse for the Bolts that the Salary Cap makes it hard to trade players, but the excuse is just that - an excuse. It comes back to an old addage that Phil Esposito used to crowabout during his tenure as Lightning General Manager, “You’re not just trading players, you’re trading salaries.”

Erik Erlendsson puts a positive spin on the breakdown last night: The team looks like it’s close to getting back on track, they came back from 2 goals down for the 2nd game in a row…

I missed the fact Pavel Kubina was not out on ice last night and the Lightning were playing with five defensivemen. In that case - I really don’t care how enamored with Craig and Reid Tortorella is, one or both should be sent back to Springfield and replaced by the likes of Doug O’Brien and Timo Hebling.