Who were these players on ice tonight and what did they do with the Tampa Bya Lightning?

Uncharacteristically, the Lightning jumped out to a 3-1 lead over the Dallas Stars tonight with only 11 minutes of play having taken place. It was 4-1 just moments after that as well. 4 goals on 9 shots - very different than anything you would expect to see form teh Lightning or from Marty Turco for that matter.

It wasn’t just the lack of shots on goal, it wasn’t just the goals ammassed, it was the war on teh boards that he Lightning were winning and the swagger of it all as well.

Yes, I said it — swagger.

Hell, even the maligned Dmitry Afanasenkov got into the scoring — of course, it was an empty net goal, but I could have sworn I saw him receiving a pat on the head from John Tortorella a few minutes before that goal (OK, him or Dan Boyle - I couldn’t tell for certain).

The win gets the Lightning back into the playoff race, being tied with Toronto at 51 points, 1 behind the Atlanta Thrashers and 2 behind the New Jersey Devils…

And wouldn’t you know, the next stop on the Lightning’s joyride just happens to be Atlanta, GA. Any energy left from tonights matchup has got to be stored in a special place until game time tomorrow.

6-3 the final form Dallas… The Lightning have struck, and I’m wondering if a new stormfront has errupted int eh SOutheast division.

And you thought MY continuity with Blogging has been bad?

No offense intended towards Todd Wright, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s officially blogger, or the Lightning franchise itself (or the NHL for that matter) but a blog is not a semi-annual column. Todd’s last post was before Christmas. Not that it’s a weak post (purely fantasy speculation of 2004 Lightning vs. 1996 Panthers) but the content shoudl be more routine. Little things with the team, with the franchise and with the sport being mentioned instead of elaborate posts are a plus…

‘Course, who am I to say what Todd should do? When was the last time you saw a full course article on Boltsmag?

It would seem Bryan Berard — the league’s posterboy for face shields along with overcoming adversity - has tested positive for a banned substance.

The real black-eye tot eh NHL on this disvovery comes from the fact the US Anti Doping Agency was the oen who discovered Berard’s positive test. The league only had it’s first substance abuse tests on Sunday…

In the meantime, Berard has been banned form IIHF and Olympic play.