For the second season in a row, the Lightning has trumped it’s eastern conference rival for the duration of the NHL season… Completing a 4 game sweep of Philadelphia and keeping itself alive in the face of adversity and playing itself out of contention since the Olympic break.

Of course, the game had it’s moments.

The Lightning dominated on the power play which gave fans in the arena and watching at home memories for the 2004 Eastern Conference Final where the Lightning could do no wrong with the man advantage, scoring 3 power play goals to ultimately win their 8th straight game versus the Flyers.

Peter Forsberg opened scoring… Or should I say Pavel Kubina? Forsberg shot on Grahame rebounded off Kubina’s skate and went right behind Grahame — who continued his knack for committing for far too long on a save. Grahame can also ultimately be blamed for over-aggressiveness which led to Niko Dimitrakos unassisted goal late in the 3rd period .

But I think what stood out was the ridiculousness of penalties tonight. Derian Hatcher was given a five minute major for boarding Brad Richards 59 seconds into the 3rd period. He was also given a game misconduct for chasing Pavel Kubina after officials had settled down a melee after his hit on Richards. The hit was not a five minute major — though a damn good, rough knock on Richards and a penalty all the same.

Of course, that gets trumped by Referee Incompetence later in the period. Vincent Lecavalier scores a rap-around goal on Robert Esche and then ggets drilled by a vicious cross check from Dennis Gauthier after the goal was scored… Vinny retaliates, attacking Gauthier and what happens?

2-5-10-10 assessed to Lecavalier. Instigator, Fighting, Misconduct and Game Misconduct.
Dennis Gauthier gets off without a single minute in penalties.

But I guess the sheer stupidity of the bumbling by goalies and by officials can be overlooked. The Lightning looked good on ice tonight and played well, which I can’t say they have been doing much of lately. Ryan Craig has his first multi-goal game of his career, Brad Richards breaks the 20 goal plateau for the 4th time in his career.

The Bolts are alive, kicking… and have swept the Flyers under the rug for the 2005-06 season.

I know I probably missed the official announcement Jorge Cantu — Tampa Bay Devil Rays second base sensation — was going to blog this season… But I just found his blog on MLBlogs. Quite a happy find indeed with how much I admire the guy.

Cantu is another reason I think the Rays on-field team has a bright future, but he’s also the epitome of what was wrong with the past regime. Not Jorge personally — it was the franchises treatment of him after his rookie season in 2004 that put me off.

It’s easy to forget Roberto Alomar being signed by the Rays last spring before his retirement and being given the 2nd base job by default from manager Lou Pinella and General Manager/Fourth Stooge Chuck LaMar. After Alomar’s retirement during spring training, LaMar would trade pitcher Jorge Sosa to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Nick Green… Sosa would go on to be a wunderkind under pitching-coach-supreme Leo Mazzone while Green would prove to be a good utility man but Cantu’s production would prove him the starter at 2nd.

With a .289 average over his first two seasons in the majors and 28 home runs to his credit last year, Cantu’s been overshadowed by names like Crawford, Baldelli, even prospects that aren’t on the Rays yet seem to get more press than Jorge… But then again, who’s the guy that eliminated Team USA from the World Baseball Classic?