I can’t watch…. I can’t watch…. I can’t watch. This is NOT the way to re-start the season.

6-0 Panthers in the 2nd. Someone please get me when the Lightning return from Turin?

Did a little standings-reading last night just to get re-acquainted with this… thing known as the NHL. Carolina is sitting pretty on top of the the Eastern Conference right now (82 points) and has a commanding lead over the Lightning (68) in the Southeast (14 points).

They need 10 points to wrap this thing up… The Lightning are almost assured a second place finish, but it’d be one to remember for the ages if they ran the board to close out the season. Not going to happen of course…

Welcome back to NHL action… They’ll be rockin’ at Times Palace momentarily as the Lightning square off against in-state nemesis, the Florida Panthers. Last time these two teams met, I was left shocked and awed… It’s time to shake off the rust and put on skates, put up your dukes and check your jock strap. The Run hath come undone by the Olympic break. It’s time for the Lightning to Dash.

You’ve probably ntoiced the enforcer poll at left, I hinted about it last week and I thank everyone for their input…

So who’s tops and who’s bottoms? Has it been so long that people have forgotten Chico? How does Gordie Dwyer rank, even though he played during the Bolts lean years?

Big thanks go out to reader Joshua Bernard who sent in this desktop wallpaper image to Boltsmag:

And of course, I’ve crafted a new wallpaper in homage to the Lightning’s sweet Swede:

Both images are also part of the Wallpaper Page.

He done won gold!

It would seem that
John Tortorella isn’t much for the Lightning’s presence in the Olympics:

“I don’t care what people think about it, whether it’s against your country or this, that and the other thing,” Tortorella said. “That’s not in my mind. My mind is with the Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s our job at hand here. If we get a player back early, I’m happy about it.

That was yesterday’s St. Pete Times… Today’s has Torts continuing his comments putting down the Olympic break:

“I don’t agree with the setup here as far as taking players from the National Hockey League season, in the middle of the year, and going over there,” Tortorella said. “I don’t care if it’s once every four years or once every six years or once every 10 years. This is our job. This is our domain and it shouldn’t be interrupted.”

I really side with Tortorella on this.

People have had it in their mind that professional players taking part in the Olympic Games is a must since the 1992 Olympics and the USA Men’s Basketball “Dream Team” took to the court. There was hype, there was hope and there was a financial windfall on a world scale for the NBA afterwards.

Yes the difference between The NBA Dream Team, the NHL’s participation in the Olympics and even Major League Baseball committing any personnel to games in the past (be they minor league players or coaches) was that the NHL and MLB are in the middle of their seasons when the games take place. THey are paid to be part of the NHL or MLB – not to take part in a tournament during the season.

They hype and the windfall haven’t been there for either league, MLB has been dropped from the Olympics and the NHL — which was already facing the uphill climb of winning back fans after a year long work stoppage — couldn’t have had the Olympics come up at a worse time.

Of course, some saw this as a great opportunity to win back fans and saw this as a must participation… But how is this a must if it further compromises the game both scheduling, injury risk and other factors that don’t jump to my mind immediately while writing this)? The NHL’s focus needed to be on the NHL this season and not on the global market — even if the NHLPA bitched and whined for Turin participation.

I’m not anti-Olympics… But I am questioning sending pros to the games. Argue about playing with heart if you want, argue about representing your country… Players on NHL squads are paid to take part in the NHL, not the Olympics. Their focus is on the NHL and that influences performance. Did anyone see Vaclav Prospal deliberately pass on a check of Vinny Lecavalier during the Czech Republic vs. Canada game? That shows you where Prospal’s priorities are…

John Romano’s got soem choice words for the US Hockey team:

What an embarrassment.

Oh, the team put on a show in the final minutes of its 4-3 quarterfinal loss to Finland. It looked gritty. It looked determined.

And when it was over, it looked beaten. Just as it had since it arrived in Italy.

26 years since the Miracle On Ice and the US team has no direction but blah.

…the REAL “Next One” has made the biggest statement of his young career sus far.

Alexander Ovechkin helped send Team Canada back to North America as Team Russia beat the defending Olympic Champions 2-0. This is a continuation of a bizzare year in hockey as Canada will not be playing in the semifinals for the first time since NHL players started to take part in the Olympics in 1998.

And my final thought on this is — what affect will thsi have on the NHL season when it resumes? Will we see more aggressiv eplay from stars with a chip on their shoulder? Or will we see bellyaching and sluggishness from players whose morale was hurt in this loss?

I’m planning on doing a poll in the near future about Lightning enforcers and then I hit a rough spot — who has been an enforcer for Tampa Bay sinc etheir inception? I mean, certain names stand up right away (Enrico Ciccone, Rudy Poeschek) while others escape me or make me shake my head at the thought “this guy was supposed to be an enforcer?” (Matthew Barnaby)

So, if you don’t mind giving me a response through comments – who are some of the tough guys that come to mind in the history of the Lightning?

This will come as no shock for those who are season ticket holders for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

Bucs: Bucs raise ticket prices

The Buccaneers announced ticket prices for the 2006 season, raising them $1 to $6 per ticket.

Typical day at the office for the Glazer family…

bizjournals.com

Los Angeles seems to have everything a marketing executive could want. It’s big (metro population: 17.5 million) and loaded (combined annual income: almost $600 billion).

But it doesn’t have pro football.

It should, though. Los Angeles is the most attractive place in America to put a new professional sports team, specifically a National Football League team, as determined by a Bizjournals.com study.

Tampa-St. Petersburg, on the other hand, is the most overextended sports market, according to the study. The total amount of personal income the region generates is inadequate for its current teams, let alone any new ones

It’s the Tampa/St. Pete part of this story that has my attention.

The Tampa Bay Metro population has little to no disposable income while housing costs and transporation costs skyrocket. State and local leaders trumpet how well the state of Florida is doing with job growth but alas – wages are largely stagnant and jobs offered larely are not those one would make a career out of.

Of course, this isn’t saying you should expect the Lightning, Buccaneers, Devil Rays or Storm to jump ship out of town for a more favorable market – if there is one thing the Tampa Bay region has shown it’s willing to spend on – it’s sports. This is just saying don’t expect those rumors of the Magic moving to Tampa to come true… Or rumors about the National Lacross League expanding to Tampa.

(Originally mentioned in a post by Tommy at Sticks of Fire)

Oh my….

Draw your own conclusions on this one. I’m keeping my trap shut.

Word of warning to Boltsmag regulars that the site may be slow the next few weeks. I’m not a great source when it comes to International Hockey — so many games, so much to follow, so many storylines and what not — and will only post sparsely (most likely) on the topic.

I’ve been made aware of the current SNAFU with comments. I’m working on the problem but no guarantee when they will be sorted out.

In the meantime, the Forum is open for business.

EDIT: Fixed. Comment away.

I complained about he Isles game earlier this week as being an Ugly win.

If THAT was ugly, the Lightning’s win tonight in Boston redefines the term Ugly. Teh first period saw the Bolts sleepwalking and Boston taking advantage. It also saw the Refs bowing to the home crowd. Hell, that was the case most of the game…

On the plus side — the Lightning preservered and came back from a 3-1 hole to win in Boston for the first time since 1994..

But thank God the break is taking place because it will take me a few days to get this bad taste out of my mouth.

The Run halts… The Lightning went 10-2-1 with 21 points since January 17th until tonight. We’ll take a break for the XXth WInter Olympiad and see if the Lightning can turn a Run into a dash to the finish.

Came across a new “Canes blog on my evening web surf… This is just fitting seeing we just played them… Of course CasonBlog has some problems with Tampa Bay radiocasts…

Espo sounds like a some old guy in a wife-beater t-shirt, kicking back in his lazy boy recliner, seven beers into a twelve-pack, griping and grumbling incoherently more to himself than anybody else in the room. The only diversion from homer propaganda I heard last night was an Espo rant directed towards Darryl Sydor. It kind of went like this: “That was terrrible. Just terrible. What are you doing Sydor? Agnes, get me my smokes and another beer.” And that little weasel Mishkin-in a nanosecond, he goes from the monotone delivery of Chris Schenkel calling a Pro Bowler’s Association event, to some lathered up Hamas protester at a “Today we hate the Danes more than Jews” rally.

For the record — I’m hearing impaired. I stand neutral on this one as I add Casonblog to the blogroll…

spectorshockey.net

Stan Fischler yesterday reported the following: – NY Rangers goaltender Kevin Weekes could be attractive to some NHL clubs seeking goaltending depth, like the Vancouver Canucks, by the trade deadline.

If there is a single trade rumor out there for a goaltender being traded, this is the oen that I would think Jay Feaster was exploring (instead of Manny Fernandez, or other names that have been tossed around the last few months).

What Jay Feaster may be thinking on all of this: He’s interested in team players, high character guys who will not rock the boat and ruin locker room chemistry. Kevin Weekes is all those things, he’s also a former Bolt (which is another quality that Feaster actively looks at) who has played with the core of this team in the past. He’s not an ego, he’s not a troublemaker and he’s not an overhyped player that will fetch a ransom.

The entire Ranger situation and Weekes expendability makes me smack my head and say “duh!…I, and other Lightning fans, should figure that Weekes is on Feaster’s radar as a acquisition of last resort. If the Lightning do pick up a goaltender after the trade freeze passes (it is already active0 I think we will see Weekes back in Tampa before you see Manny Fernandez or Jose Theodore traded to the Lightning.

Oh, and no — Weekes will not fetch Brad Richards in trade . Just heading that one off at the pass.

I’ll revisit the Tampabaylightning.com poll again in the future…

The new poll that is up on site asks — Do you believe the impending Olympics have been a distraction to NHL players at all this season?

Today marks the second anniversary of Boltsmag… I don’t have anything articulate to say this year with regards to the anniversary – which is a sharp contrast to last year where I gave the plea for hope…

Well, lockout is over. NHL Action is back… The Lightning are back, the Refs are back to their old ways… Everything seems (almost) right in the hockey world once again.

The site has nearly amassed 1000 posts, nearly or exceeding 100 thousand visitors depending on which tracking program is used to observe visitor numbers.

Thanks to all the regular readers of the site and thanks to my compadres in the blogosphere who keep me going.

Tuesday’s game had nothing go write from teh get go. Tonights game seemed to reflect that as Sean Burke started between the pipes tonight for the Lightning. Aaron Ward scored on teh first shot fo the game, 23 seconds in and Anton Babchuk scored on a powre play only minutes afterwards. The two-Oh hole looked mighty formidable for the Lightning.

Yet they fought back…

Goals by Evgeny Artyukhin and Freddie Modin at the bottom half of the perido erased the whole and the game started looking like a mighty high scoring affair.

But when Eric Cole scored four minutes into the third period, Coach John Tortorella had seen enough. Sean Burke had again allowed 3 goals on eight shots. His night was over. Enter John Grahame…

And Exit the Lightning with two points, defeating the league leading Hurricanes 5-3 at Times Palace.

Dare I say it, Grahame was the difference maker as he closed out the game with 28 saves. Nary a shot got past his blocker. This was the ultimate redemption for blunders in Tuesday’s loss to the Devils.

Fun moments of the night were Artyukhin (or Artoo for short) coming full blast at Martin Gerber behind the Carolina net over and over again. Gerber took his dear sweet time clearing the puck and was the post boy for why running the goalie should be legal. Freddie Modin’s first goal was also something to savor as he powered to the net. Crashign the Net isn’t Lightning style but in this case — it worked just fine. Modin ended up with two goals on the night, Vaclav Prospal had one, as did Ruslan Fedotenko.

The Run blows on… 9-2-1 over the last 12, 19 points… But just one more game to go before the Olympic break pulls thsi (and other) teams to a standstill for two weeks.

Any Lightning fans hearing the hogwash rumors about José Theodore coming Tampa Bay’s way? Or the outlandishly stupid rumors that have Brad Richards going to Montreal for said goaltender?

José Theodore is a running joke around the league, who is not performing like he used to and isn’t worth his weight in poutine right now. That being said, it goes from bad to worse for Mr. Theodore as he has tested positive for a masking agent…

That being said, I think the absolute LAST thing a fan of Les Habitants should be looking for are trade rumors involving José Theodore being traded away — much less involved in a deal for Brad Richards. Theodore has effectively pissed his value down the tubes — quite literally — this season and anyone not delusional about Theodore’s value will realize a bag of pucks might be too much to ask for in exchange of José.

You had the lockout that threatened to destroy the National Hockey League entirely. Even after a dealw as reached, people thought it would take years for the league to get back to where they were in 2003-04, and that wasn’t so hot to begin with.

Revenues are up, attendence is up, the NHL is back with wunderkinds leading the charge.

And now? On the eve of The Twentieth Winter Olympiad and the Ice Hockey competition that puts focus on the NHL, whose players make up a good portion of several teams vying for the Gold Medal…

Scandal! With implications reaching as high as the leagues patron saint, the Great One himself, the leagues new bearings on life may come undone in haste.

…Cuz you gotta get used to it… You’ll be eating a lot of it while in Turin in the coming weeks

Congratulations, Mr. Boyle!!

No, no, no, not THAT Eklund… If it was THAT Eklund, we would have run him out of town already.

I’m talking about THIS Eklund who’s had THIS happen to him after being demoted to the ECHL.

One of the comments on the Lurker thread got me wondering about people’s current opinion of TBL.com… I know I made a case against the old design near the end of the lockout and the Lightning updated the design at the start of the season…. But design wise and more importantly content wise, are you happy with what you are getitng form TBL.com?