Bolt Prospects has touched on the rumors up north that the Lightning and Springfield Falcons may terminate their affiliation deal.

The Norfolk Admirals were named within the rumors as becoming the Lightning’s new AHL affiliate. Lets keep our ears open on this one.

Marc Denis is likely to start in goal again for the Lightning. I’m not expecting any major lineup changes from Saturday’s game versus the Leafs (no defensivemen will be rotated out so Shane-Oh can play).

The question really is, once again, which team we will see tonight? The Lightning from this western conference sojourn or the Dolts who got smacked around by the Kitties at the start of this trek?

Oh well, a game night open thread shouldn’t be all doom and gloom… I’ll let The Instigator send us off to comments:

As if I needed to show the masses another reason to rib the St. Pete Times and their (online, this time) coverage of the Lightning, check out the featured photo they used to summarize both Saturday night’s game and this morning’s story about Vincent Lecavalier:

(click on the image to view the full size)

Now, maybe I am being a little anal for making a thing about the Lightning using a stock photo from 2004, but with the Lightning fresh out of Calgary and Lecavalier fresh off his 46th goal of the season… Wasn’t it a little more relevant to have a recent photo (from this season) in place on the Lightning’s page at the Times?

Saturday nights game versus the Flames was highlighted by several factors. First meeting between the Flames and the Bolts since a little get together in June 2004 was the most notable one. Filip Kuba’s return to the lineup after his benching in Edmonton was second among them. Vincent Lecavalier scratching #46 of course was notable…

But what about the trade-deadline acquisition and NHL rookie Shane O’Brien getting ice time with the Dan Boyle (meaning as a member of the Lightning’s top 4 defensive corp)? O’Brien was all over the ice, logging almost 25 minutes of ice time and taking 30 shifts. Only Martin St. Louis, Boyle and Brad Richards logged more ice time and only Boyle took more shifts.

To see O’Brien be vaulted like that is exceptional — especially while his acquisition has left some puzzled. The problem is, it’s also risky. O’Brien is a competent player and a force to be renowned with but he is still a rookie. He is still new to the system. While pinching in and potentially chipping in on offense is said to appeal to him — he’s not fully assimilated into the system John Tortorella has in place. Though, it can and should be argued that Shane is more familiar with the Flames, having been on a western conference team, than most members of the Lightning roster. Jason Ward also seemed to benefit from this familiarity.

I personally think O’Brien will be a contributor on the Lightning defense for some years to come… It’s nice to see him being trusted enough to take on such a difficult role so early in his tenure here. I just hope to hell it doesn’t backfire…

Just when you thought the Penguins were destined to become a later day version of the Quebec Nordique/Colorado Avalanche…

This bird ain’t done in Pittsburgh after all.