To Boltsmag readers, my friends and acquaintances on the Tampa Bay and Hockey blogosphers… I wish you all a safe and happy new year.

Got a busy day with various stuff on my palette… The news came out yesterday that Marc Denis went on waivers… He’s likely Norfolk bound…

All that being said, who decided to schedule this game versus the Flyers at one in the afternoon?!

Wasn’t aware of this but Jay Feaster is writing a series of articles blogging (at least they call it that) over at The Hockey News. He’s only had two articles blogs posted so far but it may be worth a look see for the Lightning fan out there.

I wrote off bringing in Jassen Cullimore in pre-season. Maybe that was a mistake. Or maybe circumstances would make it look like it was?

Jassen’s not putting up big numbers for the Panthers — that’s no shock — but he’s stable. Though he’s only played in 21 games this season, he’s averaging 14:38 of ice time and is a solid plus 7 at this juncture. If Cullimore was back on the Bolts, however, the situation he would be playing in would be different from where he is now…

Here’s the Lightning defense numbers for you to look at:

Look at Brad Lukowich’s numbers. He was supposed to be 3rd pair this season (with Boyle, Ranger, Kuba and O’Brien playing in front of him). With Dan Boyle’s injury, Brad’s been asked to do much more and he’s averaging almost 18 minutes of ice time… And weighing down the D with a minus 16. I’m not putting blame on Brad as so much pointing at the numbers.

If Cullimore were here, it’d likely be the same case — more games, more ice time, more asked of him and lower numbers.

However, those numbers would likely be better than Doug Janik’s. The other drag on the defense in his non versatility on ice, Janik’s TOI average of 11 minutes or so puts more pressure on the kids (2nd year player Shane O’Brien and rookie Mike Lundin) to cover. Of course, others have had the opportunity to step in and beat Doug for a roster spot — but that didn’t happen. So Doug is playing where and as he should — as a #6 defensiveman… All while I was expecting the rookies (be it Lundin, Smaby or others) to serve the role and be brought along slowly.

Dan Boyle’s return can’t come soon enough… But then again, getting the ownership situation squared away couldn’t come soon enough either — having a de-facto roster freeze doesn’t help remedy the ills of the franchise.

My frustration from last night (and recently) is chronicled. We’ll leave it at that. I’m not a sell out though. I’m a Lightning fan. I’ve endured the Lightning through expansion mediocrity, to first-time-playoff mediocrity, to sub-abysmal status during the late 1990’s… I’ve seen the lows, I’ve blogged the highs. Accepting the 2007-08 team as a bitter pill to swallow isn’t something I am proud of, yet it’s something that has to be done.

The being said, this is just pathetic:

…If you’re like me you probably have no desire to see this mess of a team in person anymore. I’m headed back home for New Years and I was planning to go to a Lightning game and catch the Bucs finale. Now? Neither. And if you are a season-ticket holder, my condolences. Sell your tickets if you can, but I would stop going all together if I were you.

…I’ve had it with this team. They are getting what they deserve – and that’s being among the worst teams in the NHL. Who’s to blame? Everyone but the fans, as far as I can tell. The players appear to be quitting on the coach. The coach can’t get even halfway decent productivity with the players he’s got. The GM is responsible for this roster that has his coach so hamstrung, but his hands are tied by lame-duck, apathetic ownership. Wheee!

Everybody but the fans until the fans make declarations like this. The post is titled “Stop going to games, stop showing up”…

You can agree about Torts (and it’s a renown fact the hockey world doesn’t seem to care for John Tortorella’s style), and know the Jay Feaster situation is a truism… Ownership isn’t so much apathetic (this charge always comes out when a team doesn’t spend the cap on players – be they garbage or good) as dealing with a business transaction that has frozen what it can pay for the on-ice product. Yeah, it’s a shit sandwich and we all have to take a bite…

But taking your ball and going home…?

There’s a name for someone who throws his/her hands up in disgust when his or her team lose or go through a rough patch. Bandwagon Fan. Yeah, there are plenty of reasons to be disgusted with the Lightning. Yes, the ownership-in-limbo status doesn’t give much hope for the future or the current. That being said, do you put the team you hold dear to your heart in a bind by trying to syndicate apathy to the rest of the fanbase, inspired by your own despair? Have the Lightning fans, those enveloped in their disgust, forgotten about the poor times this team has gone through in the past that we suffered and triumphed through? Or have we just grown so soft that we’re going to throw a fit and walk away in a knee-jerk reaction because the team isn’t playing like it’s 2004 again?

That was four year ago. Get over it.

October 5th, 2005 was when you were supposed to stop living on the coattails of a championship (I told you as much on opening night that year). The bad times go with the good times — it’s what endears us to our pro sport teams. We may not like them, but that’s what engraves our teams into our souls.

And for the record, anyone who wants to give up on this team and dump off their tickets — I’ll take them, and I’m sure there are plenty of others who would too.

I watched parts of the Lightning game last night… Parts. Oddly it was always the parts where the Lightning stood around and couldn’t move the puck up ice. They played a poor mans dump-and-chase and had no desire to do much more than give the Capitals what amounted to even-strength power play opportunities.

John Tortorella is pissed and wants “no excuses” for the loss. Of course, he wouldn’t flat out call his team pathetic or inept… But that’s exactly how they are playing. There’s a lack of passion once you get below Lecavalier, St. Louis, Richards and Prospal. Jan Hlavac is doing so poorly he’s been demoted to the fourth line (note to my friend Jes Golbez — it appears you were right when you scorned the addition of Hlavac this summer).

I feel flat out sorry for Karri Ramo who has played his ass off the last few games. Here’s a 21 year old goaltender standing toe-to-toe with one of the NHL’s elite netminders in Olaf Kolzig and what’s happening? His team gives up in front of him.

Read that again: his team gives up in front of him.

That’s the only way to term last night. They flat out gave up. I won’t say that everyone on ice didn’t try or put an effort out there. They did, however, fail to look like they were competing in the end. And the lame duck season will continue unless the ownership situation solidifies soon (meaning don’t expect cavalry to swoop in via a trade or management change any time soon).

Meanwhile, Caps land is rejoicing a new found glory in their new coach… Oh, and the win. RJ can find two positives — and only two and that’s not surprising. Ramo, Lecavalier, and then suckage… that was last night.

Holiday Greetings to everyone out there! The NHLFA just sent out this press release that probably won’t get much attention until Wednesday:

We are pleased to announced an opportunity for two fans to bid and win opportunities to be public relations assistants at the 2008 NHL All Star Game weekend in Atlanta held January 25-27. Two fans will help the NHL’s public relations department and assist the game’s best players as they fulfill media availability. The two fans will also spend some quality, private time with the Stanley Cup.

Half of the proceeds from the auction will be given to the charity Hockey Fights Cancer. The other half of the proceeds will go to the NHLFA.

The NHL has stepped up and presented us with a wonderful opportunity for two fans to get up close to the game’s best players. It will be a very memorable weekend for two lucky fans.

The online auction begins on December 25, 2007 and concludes January 12, 2008 at 21:00 hrs (ET). Please (join us on) www.nhlfa.com to bid on these opportunities.

A merry opportunity for two merry causes.

Merry Christmas everyone.

One night, just one night…

But I will say this, if the team didn’t rally around Karri Ramo near the end — when they couldn’t rally any other way — this game was a lost cause. Likewise, if Ramo hadn’t played above what we in Tampa had been seeing the last few games, this would have easily been a Toronto win with a 3+ goal advantage in the end for the Leafs.

Vincent Lecavalier scores with 41 seconds left in regulation to lift the Bolts to a 2-1 win. Karri Ramo stops 31 shots in his season debut.

It was announced yesterday that Oren Koules and Co. at OK Hockey have entered into exclusivity with Palace Sports and Entertainment to purchase the Tampa Bay Lightning, the lease to the St. Pete Times Forum and 5 and 1/2 acres of land:

“I am excited we were able to take such a positive first step today,” Koules said in his statement. “Most importantly, we established a clear and direct path so we can work together towards a definitive agreement as quickly as possible.”

I could get into other little factoids from the sale article (hoping for a January finalization of a deal, etc) but it was Tampa Lawyer (and representative of another interested group) Tom Scarritt’s quote that irked me:

“We’re disappointed,” Scarritt said. “But we wish them luck, the city of Tampa luck, and we’ll stand by.”

Seems pretty innocent, right? Disappointment, wishing luck all around… yet the City of Tampa being wished luck? Why would the city need luck on things?

It’s a continuing seed of doubt being laid – consciously or subconsciously (and seeing he’s a lawyer, you bet your ass he’s consciously doing it) – about OK Hockey and the “risks” involved (and when I say risks, I mean relocation) in having an out-of-town group buy a local sports team. You may recall that I touched on this being inserted in the Times story about the Lightning’s suitors. What I didn’t bring up, or print, was local lawyer Steve Burton pulling out the fear-monger card:

“The way I see it,” Burton said, “this is a bulldozer moving under its own inertia with a number of local people interested in stepping up and stopping some of this foolishness.”

Burton was referring to Koules’ attempt to buy the team.

lifted from Saturday’s St. Pete Times article about the competing ownership groups)

Even if, four months later, local would-be suitors would like you to believe that’s what’s being negotiated.

Karri Ramo (whose name I mispeeled in the previous story) and Jay Leach have been called up by the Bolts.

This doesn’t get me excited whatsoever. Ramo needs time. Leach? Career AHL’er.

Oh, it gets better:

Ramo said at practice that he’d been told he would play Thursday night against Toronto.

So the Bolts are prepared to potentially toss Karri Ramo to the wolves, eh? Fantastic. I’m not doubting Karri Ramo entirely – except he has no numbers to justify some of the hoopla I’ve seen about this move… The chips are also down and this isn’t the type of situation anyone would want a young goalie to be used under.

The good news? Tampa Bay is only 8 points removed from the division lead.

The bad news? Where to begin… We’re only 2 points out of the division cellar. That’s a good starting point. The team is playing as if they belong there, that’s another. Many Many goals from the M-V-P line won’t get us out of this mess — that’s not surprising. Holmqvist can’t play to his strength and win shootouts because he can’t last long enough for us to get there? Marc Denis is a seive? Kari Ramo isn’t ready? Jay Feaster won’t trade off D prospects in Norfolk for help in Tampa Bay? “Safe is Death” has been replaced by Wreckless Abandon? Dan Boyle’s injury, Chris Gratton’s injury woes this season?

It goes on and on… I’m just touching the surface here.

Where is Rock Bottom? 6-2 loss to the Thrashers? Or will it take a drubbing by the Capitals? Another wreckless-abandon 9-6 loss to (insert team here)?

Note to Jay Feaster: You already gave the players an ultimatum: Get better or else. Now you have to make good on your threat. Yes, from the fan perspective — all around the Internet where Lightning fans spout off — we need to be careful what we wish for with a trade because we might just get it…

But one thing is for certain — the status-quo can’t stand much longer. Something has to change.

Another site note here at Boltsmag: You’ll notice a (ugly, misaligned) calendar on the left hand sidebar where the Poll usually is located. This is due to be an all-purpose calendar for the site — not only will it display days where I posted, but also show upcoming events in red. I want to get the calendar to look right before programming in every event (game days, deadlines, etc).

The St. Pete Times found it more relevant to update the fans about the Lightning suitor situation this morning — putting it on the non-Bucs cover of the Sports section. Within the article, you’re reminded of the fallout between Jeff Sherrin and Oren Koules, re-introduced to the fact Koules has formed OK Hockey (sidenote: It honestly took me a while to realize what OK stood for. True story) and not we learn that Sherrin as well as another potential group are ramping up bids for the Lightning.

This doesn’t ease my mind.

Damian goes on to write a post on his blog about local ownership — and plays down the local-versus-non-local ownership situation. In fact, I was going to take a jab at the print article — seemingly writing off Koules as an out-of-towner businessman and forgot the tidbit from this summer where Koules, MacLean and Sherrin all said they planned to move to Tampa.

Yet here’s the thing that Absolutely (pun intended) worries me about any and all potential ownership groups: Only one is involved in the entertainment industry and the rest are in real estate or lawyers. Sure, you need to start somewhere to get into this business but it bothers me that any new owner won’t have professional experience running an arena and running a pro sports team (for those of you who will argue about Jeff Sherrin having Doug MacLean — I submit to you the Columbus Blue Jackets as evidence on the contrary).

Bolts at the Thrash (game thread? I’m testing out an events calendar)

It’s a rather simple equation, repeated nightly by the Lightning… It’s what’s kept me silent for so long – because I thought there would be change as the season progressed…

What seems apparent is the team is flying, on ice, by the seat of it’s pants. With deadly offensive weapons and then a sharp fall off in offensive contributions and with a younger defense that is learning on the go.

I don’t mind the team actually playing with younger talent on the blue line, what bothers me is the lack of veteran leadership there. There is a stability void on defense with Dan Boyle being down and out after his accident earlier this season. A stability void that hasn’t been remedied by players growing up or the older guys covering the younger guys slip ups.

And then we get to the backstops — where the term “stability” isn’t applicable. Between Johan Holmqvist and Marc Denis, you have two goaltenders that have proven they are not #1’s. Two #2’s doesn’t equal a #1.

It’s just one large math problem that leads to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s also-ran status right now: top gun offense playing a go-go-go system + a younger, less experienced defense x unstable goaltending = a fine mess of mediocrity.

I knock Holmer and Denis but I need to be honest that their style of play (cynics, please don’t quip at that :p ) is more adequate for this team — it’s not a chicken-with-it’s-head-cut-off overcommitment and hyperactivity that we saw with John Grahame in the pipes (who was either brilliant or a monstrosity) during 2005-06. But what is lacking, clearly, is the ability to make routine saves that they must. That leads to more weight on a young defense and more errors with thanks to the go-go-go offense…

My long time Lightning-on-the-Internet friend, Sharon Loe, once got into a discussion on the Usenet Lightning group (referenced here through Google Groups) with a younger fan about the Lightning needing to simply score more to win. Thus, Sharon mocked (in a playful fashion) that the Bolts only needed to score “many MANY goals” in order to win.

The recent failing against the Flames brought that discussion back to my mind. Tonight’s loss to the Capitals — where seat-of-your pants play ruled, furthered it along.

Where is the stability? It’s Jay Feaster’s job to deal with that… And yet call-ups from Norfolk just won’t cut it.

Dan Boyle’s returning will not solidify things alone… There needs to be some solidarity brought onto the team…. Some clutch defense to go along with the offensive storm the Bolts can invoke. Between the pipes could do it, on the blue line would be nice too.

That, or the math of the current roster will continue to foil the team.
many MANY goals

Believe it or not, I’m not dead, maimed, brainwashed or any other malignant thing…. well, that’s subjective (lazy can be termed as malignant, can’t it?).

At any rate, I’m currently working behind the scenes here at Boltsmag after upgrading it to the latest version of Wordpress. Those who actually are on the site (hi Tiny) may run into a few problems or speed bumps or what not. Pleas let me know if you do run into a conflict (note — a conflict with me not keeping the site up to date during the season doesn’t count :-p ).

Thanks

Update: Mind the error codes, will you?

And I’m now aware the Lightning Wallpaper page isn’t quite working. Why doesn’t anyone kvetch to me when these things break?

Update #2: I’d like to announce an official Archives page has been added to the site. I need to make some changes around here so that the Archive page shows up in the title menu…