The Lightning have taken 191 shots over the last five games — an average of 38 for you kids who have flunked math in school… And yet, on average they have scored 2.4 goals a game during that stretch. just under 2 and a half goals?

Tonights game versus the Islanders resulted in 43 shots — and yet only two goals scored. One was on a penalty shot by Vincent Lecavalier in the 1st period and the 2nd was Martin St. Louis on a one-on-one shorthanded goal. Is it the lack of driving on teh net? Is it the lack of deftness and teamwork to deke out goaltenders? Perhaps it’s just bad bounces and bad luck? It’s frustrating to watch, none the less.

Hats off to Garth SNow and Sean Burke — 36 and 38 years old respectively — for making the game tonight thrillign to watch. Complain about the penaltiies being missed, messed up and just flat out wrong in some situations if you will but the fact of the matter is that Burke (36 shots, 35 saves) and Snow (43 shots, 41 saves) were the ones to watch tonight at Nassau Colessium.

As far as Rumors go, Boltsmag tends not to dwell in that category because of individuals who have spread nothing but bullcrap the past year and have had that bullcrap eaten up by the masses.

In the past I’ve been fed rumors that come by way of the St. Pete Times Forum box office. There have been various things that have fallen my way from ticket reps and from others in the box office that always gie me a chuckle - if not make me roll my eyes and worry about hte future fo the Lightning franchise.

An example of which would be a rumor passed on to me by a potential season ticket holder in 2000, who was talking to a ticket rep about the status of then-QMJHL wunderkind Brad Richards. Would Richards be signed before the junior deadline by the Lightning or woudl they just give up on him? What was the status with that?

THe ticket rep happened to pass on the “knowledge” that the Lightning were either going to trade Richards or not sign him because the Bolts were planning to go after quality players who were ready to contribute right now… not bring in more kids to build for the future.

One Stanley Cup and a Conn Smythe trophy later, I wonder where aforementioned Ticket Rep is now?

…

The last rumor I heard by way of the Times Palace box office centered around injured defensiveman Pavel Kubina. There was supposedly another reason Pavel was being kept out of action and that was because of his imminent trade to the Washington Capitals for Olaf “Ollie the Goalie” Kolzig. Never mind there was a roster freeze in effect, never mind that the team was playing with only five defensivemen and that was an obscene challenge in itself… The Lightning were to deal with their unstable goaltender position by trading not only in-conference but also in-division…

I might here some more Box office blatherings in the future and I’ll pass them along if and when it happens. Rumors — can’t trust them, can’t believe them, can only roll your eyes and chuckle at them 95 percent of the time.

It would seem Dave Andreychuk finally had his locks sheered off and cut back to a more managable level — at least that is what was reported by the St. Petersburg Times this morning. We’ll all know what hte deal is tonight with the Lightning’s game versus the Islanders on OLN.