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.