While I was complaining about Todd Kalas being part of the Sun Sports TV crew for a short duration during the last few weeks (and while I had others wondering why I had problems with Todd to begin with), I had all but forgotten about who was sideline reporter for the Bolts during the lean-years (and I am not talking Pierce Michaels)…

Tommy over at Sticks of Fire reminds us with his post about Erin Andrews and her local ties. Thinking of how Erin was the only reason to turn in to watch the 50+ loss Lightning isn’t exactly the best memory to have, but Erin certainly has come a long ways since those humble hockey days when Bobby Taylor and Rick Peckham would get all goofy every time they dealt with her on air.

I was reading comments on Eric Erlendsson’s Bolt Report blog pertaining to the roster moves from Friday (Affy and Karlsson put on waivers). While some of the comments focused on defense entirely, Boltsmag regular (well, before I was too lazy to post and give her a reason to visit :p) Marsha chimed in to close out the comments on said post:

Well I’ll continue to be hard on Jay Feaster because he gave away Fredrik Modin for an unproven goalie on a lousy team. IMHO, Richie’s slump has as much to do with missing Modo as with the extra pressure of his big bucks. Modin gave the Bolts needed spark on the forecheck. Prospal and Feds have been trying to make up the difference, and that is likely the reason they’re not in position to score as much as they did last season.

While I don’t necessarily agree Denis was “unproven”, what struck a cord in me was bringing up Fredrik Modin’s departure from the team and some of the things that it has effected.

It was one thing that Marsha didn’t mention that resonates with me though, one thing Freddie helped cover for the Lightning that should be the absolute first noticeable folly of the current Tampa Bay Lightning:

Modin was as much a two-way forward for the Lightning as he was a power forward with a booming slapshot and an affinity to drive to the net.

Modin contributed to the Lightning’s power play and penalty kill units, stabilizing them. Modin’s seasonal plus-minus was only twice ended up negative during his six seasons with the Lightning — during the 1999-00 campaign (-26) and the 2000-01 season (-1). Note that Modin was playing for what was playing for a perennial 50-loss team at the time he came into Tampa Bay, surrounded by cast offs, has beens and potential-unrealized players.

I know Tampa Bay’s defense is the focus of what is wrong with the Bolts right now, but is the answer bringing in another veteran defensiveman or bringing in a defensive forward and allowing the Lightning defensive prospects a chance to earn a job? A defense learning on the go might hurt the Lightning this season, but long term it prepares them to fill voids left by departing members of the defensive core.

The Lightning need more help than just on D — another winger that contributes both ways would be optimal. It’ll take more than one high priced defensivemen on the market to clear up problems behind the blue line.

The Montreal Canadiens came into Florida on their post-Christmas road swing. Hopefully along the way they enjoyed the weather, had a grouper sandwich and maybe got in a round at a golf course somewhere along the way. Those would have been the highlights of their trip to Florida, because as they leave, they’re leaving with nary a point and their first back-to-back losses of the season at the hands of the Panthers in Miami and the Lightning in Hockeybay.

Going into the game, the Bolts were stirred a bit — if not shaken — by Dmitry Afanasenkov being waived and his departure from the franchise. Add to the rumors coming from all directions that John Tortorella, Jay Feaster or both were imminently going to be handed their walking papers and you have a team not only hoping to rebound from a humiliating loss, but a team that needs to show their stuff. Their real stuff.

And for one night, they did just that.

41 shots, 3 goals, 2 points and 1 game below .500. Is this new life for the Lightning or a fluke in a season that has drudged along in frustrating fashion?

Vaclav Prospal snapped a 21 game goal drought. Andreas Karlsson, the other player waived on Friday, participated in Saturday night’s game. The Lightning, with some of the worst special teams records in the NHL, looked formidable against the Habs who have some of the best special teams in the league. Dan Boyle and Brad Richards both had 2 points a piece and Martin St. Louis also had an assist.

And while the Lightning didn’t face many shots, I gotta hand it to Johan Holmqvist for holding down the fort in the Lightning zone. He made the saves that had to be made and could have likely gotten away from another netminder on any given day.

3-1 the final at Times Palace tonight. The Lightning start a road trip to ring in the new year and one has to wonder if anything else “new” will be coming the Lightning’s way before the final horn sounds for 2006?

After being waived yesterday, Dmitry Afanasenkov has been picked up by the Philadelphia Flyers off the waiver wire. Here’s wishing Dmitry newfound success in the city of brotherly hate love.

So the Canadiens are coming off a loss against the Panthers in South Florida last night. The Lightning are coming off a pathetic disappointing loss to the Flyers on Thursday night.

David Aebicher will be in net for the Habs tonight — who’ve generally have owned the Lightning since the NHL returned from the lockout last season… The Habs are also trying not to lose back-to-back games for the first time this season.
EDIT Well, TSN.ca was absolutely wrong. Huet started again tonight.

I used to have a very strong opinion of Dmitry Afanasenkov’s potential. I figured he just had to shoot more and learn how to finish and he would become as potent a weapon as Martin St. Louis.

Well, he may just be finished period. He and off season pickup Andreas Karlsson have been waived by the Lightning. If no team picks them up, they will be re-assigned to Springfield of the AHL.

Watching the game last night (and several games as of late) I though Affy might be more of a problem than part of the solution and it would appear that the powers-that-be have come to the same conclusion. Good luck Dmitry.

Further from the story:

Though Feaster indicated the move was made as a backup plan after defensemen Filip Kuba and Paul Ranger suffered minor injuries Thursday night, the GM also said he was close to making a trade last week before the holiday roster freeze went into effect.

The roster freeze has been lifted, more than a million dollars cleared under the cap… Just what is Jay planning here?

With his niche fanbase, Vaclav Prospal continues to have his loyal supporters in the Tampa Bay area despite only 21 points in 37 games. Yet Bruce Garrioch wrote in the Ottawa Sun that Vinny P may be on his way out of Tampa and is being actively shopped… The Chicago Blackhawks were listed as a likely destination. (hat tip to Lyle Richardson and Spectors Hockey).

What else goes and what comes back has me curious and is up for speculation… As is how this will effect my for-charity prediction of Vaclav’s point total this season.

Act fast! Sticks of Fire is holding a little contest for tickets to tomorrow night’s Lightning/Canadiens game… I’ll just tell you the question is about Tampa history and the seats are pretty good. Good luck.

Just a Boltsmag comment —

Most of you who use Boltsmag as a quick-reference for Lightning stats over the years (via the pop up menu near the site logo) may have noticed things are just a wee bit screwed up. I apologize for that and will be trying to remedy the situation.

Well, the Richmeister notched his 400th career point tonight and Vinny Lecavalier notched #450 of his career. You can label both those as accomplishments for the night…

But watching this game and watching the Lightning’s streak of victories against the Flyers come to a close, I couldn’t do much more than recall Tiny’s comment he posted last night:

BTW, you left defense off the list on your recent poll. One Boyle does not a defense make.

That was the great equalizer… Versus the last place team in the NHL, the Lightning defense allowed four goals… Poor line changes, poor coverage, lack of grit… If you want to know what’s wrong with this team (while Vinny, Marty and others are contributing enough offense), look no further than the Lightning defense.

For a long while I’ve been laying off the Lightning in various ways — haven’t been overly critical of what’s (not) been accomplished on ice, or how the team has been put together, etc. I know I pissed some people off last season with my rants against John Grahame and the goalie situation (but it was justified in the end — he had his fans, but he didn’t have his consistency).

But there’s been one thing that’s been haunting me all season — and that’s the team’s decline and blame. Blame for poor performance, blame for the cap situation, blame for lack of foresight, etc.

First things first — I think we can all say the Lightning are not performing as well as they should be. Yes, Marty is back. Vincent Lecavalier is scoring and contributing… Paul Ranger, Eric Perrin and Ryan Craig have fire’s within them that drive them on ice. Nikita Alexeev is contributing unlike he ever did before at the NHL level…

But there is only so much you can laud in player performance before you see the teams record and them sitting in a sub-.500 position in the Southeast. The Lightning should be better than this, why aren’t they?

The Rory Fitzpatrick movement has taken on a new dynamic…

Campaign ads…

This is THE funniest stuff I’ve seen involving the NHL in years. Take note, NHL executives… The All-Star system might be imminently changed to prevent this in the future, but the fan-generated marketing has been nothing short of genius.

The Off Wing Opinion crowd has been covering the Caps extra intently this season with “Hockey Night In Washington” and has a thread dedicated to tonights game up.

It’s not exactly a Boltsmag Game Day Thread but… heck, it’s Off Wing Opinion, which beats the crap out of Boltsmag

(Hat tip to Paul for wrestling me out of my laziness)

I’ve turned off the last few Lightning games early on not because of the team losing, not because of the officials… But because of the broadcast turning into a Fox Sports-ification. That includes Todd Kalas (yuck) appearing in place of Paul Kennedy.

Sad and pathetic on my part, but true.

From TSN:

The Edmonton Journal insists that the Lightning might like to move Marc Denis, who is losing his spot to Johan Holmqvist, but his contract (which still has two years and $5.8-million remaining) makes it unlikely. The paper names Vaclav Prospal, Ruslan Fedotenko and Cory Sarich as more likely cost-savings trade candidates. Lightning GM Jay Feaster has already made it known that the club’s payroll is too high to be playing .500 hockey, so either moves are made to cut those costs, or the Lightning need to have more wins.

Sarich and Fedotenko are both in their contract year and while Jay Feaster publicly stated he wants to keep Fedotenko, it’s understandable if Rusty moves on.

Vaclav Prospal has been nothing special in his second stint with the Bolts. In fact, this season’s 15 points in 26 games (3 g, 12 a, -9 +/-) puts him on a pace for 47 points for the season. The only good thing about that? I predicted he’d end up with 46 points in a charity contest on SunSportsTV’s message board before the season.

Money for charity while Vinny P. under-performs. Something for nothing, I guess.

People are noting that attendance is down across the league. The Lightning’s 58-game sellout streak at the St. Pete Times Forum is over.

Meanwhile, TV ratings are stagnant at best in both countries. David over at the Ice Block ponders what it will take to get the league’s attention they have a problem?

What will happen when Canadian attendance drops? The answer to that one is easy, of course: move the team to a “stronger, larger” US market.

This is where the bile directed towards Gary Bettman should be pointed in full. The paradox of selling out Canada for a game that has failed to catch on in the US is routine that seems accepted by Gary and his “friends” in control of the league. The league is quick to move into new markets but fails at marketing to the masses.