It comes down to tonight
I’m wagering that tonights game in Raleigh will be the make-or-break game of the Lightning’s 2006-07 season. With a loss, you can register John Tortorella’s guarantee as bullshit through and through (no offense to John. It won’t be your mistakes or miscues that result in a loss). The race in the east is too tight to figure the Lightning will slink into the playoffs someway, and somehow.
With a win, though…. With a win….?
On a personal note, I apologize once again for being MIA so much. There have been several stories that should have been blogged but my focus has been elsewhere.
On ANOTHER personal note, if Boltsmag suffers downtime — please do not mistake it for me shutting down this site. It’s only hosting/server issues.
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March 30th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Got have this one. Quickly down 1-0, same start as usual.
March 30th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Is just getting in the playoff’s really the goal? I think not, this team as almost no chance at the cup.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Vinny destroyed Kaberle along the boards.
Adam: I’d guess the goal is to win the Southeast Division, although with Atlanta’s OT win last night, there’s a lot of catching up to do, and not much time. I doubt that’ll happen.
But, if the Bolts do make the playoffs, goaltending is going to be their biggest problem.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
As the 3rd we could hope for some upset’s, maybe sweep our first round. But, as 7th or 8th seed not much chance of anything but a quick exit. I agree that goalie play will and has already sunk this team. Although not alone, our defense is swiss chesse at best. Though a great goalie can even make swiss chesse hold up.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Party Marty scores!
March 30th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Adam: Yeah, as the 3rd we’d definitely have a better chance in the playoffs. I wouldn’t want to see the Bolts take on the Buffaslugs in the first round. Hell, even the Pens would probably knock ‘em out in the first.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Marty’s one away from Bradley. Took long enough.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I think we could take down the youth of the Pens, but the slugs would out skate us, I fear.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Oh, BUffalo would own us. We could take the Penguins and we could take the Thrashers as well. But Ottawa, Buffalo, and even New Jersey are a different kind of bird.
You asked before if making the playoffs should be the goal and the reason they ARE the goal is that the Lightning NOT making the playoffs would be a substantial mark on their record as a franchise. After three consecutive playoff seasons (02-03. 03-04, 05-06) to miss the playoffs in general says something is very wrong here in Tampa.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Good point, JF.
Although… as I’m always playing the nay-sayer devil’s advocate when it comes to the Bolts… I don’t think we’d have the muscle between the pipes to keep the Pens at bay.
Now, if you put Olie Kolzig in a Bolts uniform…
March 30th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Now that was a nice redirect from Party Marty for his second.
March 31st, 2007 at 2:57 am
Holmy to the rescue, all the way to the cup! Richards, Craig, Ward line emerges as the missing link, Vin-Mart will put on a show for the ages.
Chins up Bolts fans.
a man can dream. Can’t he?
March 31st, 2007 at 9:18 am
If just making the playoff’s is the goal say hello to the St. Louis Blues. The goal is to win the CUP or at least reach a conf. final. Last year’s whipping in the playoff’s should be a clear lesson that just making the playoff’s is not good enough and that seeding is just as important. When almost half the league makes the playoffs, should have bigger goals. Good Day.
March 31st, 2007 at 10:17 am
Adam:
You can get to the Cup by making the playoffs. If you don’t make the playoffs to begin with, you have no shot at the Stanley Cup.
Why play a season worth of games at all if you aren’t going to be GUARANTEED a shot at the Cup? Oh yeah, that’s right — if you make the playoffs, you have an outside shot at it.
I’d much sooner have the Lightning compared to the St. Louis Blues — perennial contenders — as to the Tampa Bay Lightning of yore: 50 loss seasons over, and over, and over again.
March 31st, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Oh thaaaat’s right, Adam. We don’t want to go to the cup. We just want to get to the first round and lose.
March 31st, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I stand corrected. Not trying to be negative, just pointing out that when we did win the cup, making the playoffs was forgone. We were playing for seeding.
March 31st, 2007 at 9:32 pm
True.
I think the difference is that then it was not as expected and therefore we were all just happy to be in it, now we’re pissed if they blow a pass.
Also, never has the last playoff spot been so contested by so many.