Flashes of brilliance, deft work at times and takign the Fans for a ride on a train that would never reacht he station. That’s Dmitry Afanasenkov in Tampa Bay. And now? He’s part of Moscow Dynamo after signing a deal with the Russian Elite League team. Let’s let Damian finish the summarization of the disappointment that Affy proved to be for this fan:

I always liked Affy but the guy just never could harness that incredible talent into a coherent package. I mean, he could stick handle and skate, but he just wasn’t a finisher. And when he got the chance to play with Brad Richards, he tanked. Having said that, Affy’s 11 goals last season and 21 points with Tampa Bay and the Flyers were career highs.

His nickname in latter years was Can’t-get-a-shot-off. Don’t know if that unseats Alexander Selivanov’s “Son-in-law-ov” nickname but it comes close.

Here’s wishing Dmitry the best and hoping that, one day, he shocks and awes all of us by coming together.

As was stated by Ken in comments, Evgeny Artyukhin signed a 1 year deal with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Russian Elite league.

It can be looked at as a leverage move by Artoo but you have to wonder if the Lightning will still persue him with their head so close to the cap? Why do it when Mitch Fritz is avalible? Of course, I’d love to see Artoo back in the lineup for 2006-07 but we retain his rights for next year. If he can’t be signed cheap this year, he’d likely be back for the following season (with the likes of Nikita Alexeev and Ruslan Fedotenko heading out of town).

Big thanks go out to reader Joshua Bernard who sent in this desktop wallpaper image to Boltsmag:

And of course, I’ve crafted a new wallpaper in homage to the Lightning’s sweet Swede:

Both images are also part of the Wallpaper Page.

He done won gold!

It would seem that
John Tortorella isn’t much for the Lightning’s presence in the Olympics:

“I don’t care what people think about it, whether it’s against your country or this, that and the other thing,” Tortorella said. “That’s not in my mind. My mind is with the Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s our job at hand here. If we get a player back early, I’m happy about it.

That was yesterday’s St. Pete Times… Today’s has Torts continuing his comments putting down the Olympic break:

“I don’t agree with the setup here as far as taking players from the National Hockey League season, in the middle of the year, and going over there,” Tortorella said. “I don’t care if it’s once every four years or once every six years or once every 10 years. This is our job. This is our domain and it shouldn’t be interrupted.”

I really side with Tortorella on this.

People have had it in their mind that professional players taking part in the Olympic Games is a must since the 1992 Olympics and the USA Men’s Basketball “Dream Team” took to the court. There was hype, there was hope and there was a financial windfall on a world scale for the NBA afterwards.

Yes the difference between The NBA Dream Team, the NHL’s participation in the Olympics and even Major League Baseball committing any personnel to games in the past (be they minor league players or coaches) was that the NHL and MLB are in the middle of their seasons when the games take place. THey are paid to be part of the NHL or MLB – not to take part in a tournament during the season.

They hype and the windfall haven’t been there for either league, MLB has been dropped from the Olympics and the NHL — which was already facing the uphill climb of winning back fans after a year long work stoppage — couldn’t have had the Olympics come up at a worse time.

Of course, some saw this as a great opportunity to win back fans and saw this as a must participation… But how is this a must if it further compromises the game both scheduling, injury risk and other factors that don’t jump to my mind immediately while writing this)? The NHL’s focus needed to be on the NHL this season and not on the global market — even if the NHLPA bitched and whined for Turin participation.

I’m not anti-Olympics… But I am questioning sending pros to the games. Argue about playing with heart if you want, argue about representing your country… Players on NHL squads are paid to take part in the NHL, not the Olympics. Their focus is on the NHL and that influences performance. Did anyone see Vaclav Prospal deliberately pass on a check of Vinny Lecavalier during the Czech Republic vs. Canada game? That shows you where Prospal’s priorities are…

John Romano’s got soem choice words for the US Hockey team:

What an embarrassment.

Oh, the team put on a show in the final minutes of its 4-3 quarterfinal loss to Finland. It looked gritty. It looked determined.

And when it was over, it looked beaten. Just as it had since it arrived in Italy.

26 years since the Miracle On Ice and the US team has no direction but blah.

…the REAL “Next One” has made the biggest statement of his young career sus far.

Alexander Ovechkin helped send Team Canada back to North America as Team Russia beat the defending Olympic Champions 2-0. This is a continuation of a bizzare year in hockey as Canada will not be playing in the semifinals for the first time since NHL players started to take part in the Olympics in 1998.

And my final thought on this is — what affect will thsi have on the NHL season when it resumes? Will we see more aggressiv eplay from stars with a chip on their shoulder? Or will we see bellyaching and sluggishness from players whose morale was hurt in this loss?

Oh my….

Draw your own conclusions on this one. I’m keeping my trap shut.

Word of warning to Boltsmag regulars that the site may be slow the next few weeks. I’m not a great source when it comes to International Hockey — so many games, so much to follow, so many storylines and what not — and will only post sparsely (most likely) on the topic.

I’ll revisit the Tampabaylightning.com poll again in the future…

The new poll that is up on site asks — Do you believe the impending Olympics have been a distraction to NHL players at all this season?

You had the lockout that threatened to destroy the National Hockey League entirely. Even after a dealw as reached, people thought it would take years for the league to get back to where they were in 2003-04, and that wasn’t so hot to begin with.

Revenues are up, attendence is up, the NHL is back with wunderkinds leading the charge.

And now? On the eve of The Twentieth Winter Olympiad and the Ice Hockey competition that puts focus on the NHL, whose players make up a good portion of several teams vying for the Gold Medal…

Scandal! With implications reaching as high as the leagues patron saint, the Great One himself, the leagues new bearings on life may come undone in haste.

…Cuz you gotta get used to it… You’ll be eating a lot of it while in Turin in the coming weeks

Congratulations, Mr. Boyle!!

As you may have already noticed, there is a new poll up asking who’s the favorite for the Gold in the WInter Olympiad in Turin, Italy. Cast your vote now.

It would seem Bryan Berard — the league’s posterboy for face shields along with overcoming adversity – has tested positive for a banned substance.

The real black-eye tot eh NHL on this disvovery comes from the fact the US Anti Doping Agency was the oen who discovered Berard’s positive test. The league only had it’s first substance abuse tests on Sunday…

In the meantime, Berard has been banned form IIHF and Olympic play.

Just a thought that went through my head during the loss to the Hurricanes the other night: Are the Olympics being detrimental at current because players are focusing on the wrong games?

The Lightning played like a different team after New Years 2004 and it was what helped them propell themselves to the playoffs and ultimately the Cup… If this team is going to start firing on all cylinders, it would help if they did it soon… but that likely would be after the Olympics, and fans should hope the Bolts don’t put themselves out of contention before then

That’s posted just to allude to the entire situation. You have the NHL coming back from a year off and a shorter-than-it-should-be training camp, you then have a few months of play with a plethora of new rules and new approaches all before grinding to a 2 week halt. Befor t hat, you have players wondering if they have a hsot at their respective countries Olympic teams, or players already thinking about the games… You got players adjusting to one set of rules and then that changing a bit for International play in the middle of February…

Everyone’s going to enjoy the Olympics like usual – not ratting on that – but it is making things additionally difficult from one degree to another – for this NHL season. You might not agree that it’s throwing players off at current, or has affected players on ice, but it will effect the league in one degree or another – that really is hard to argue against.

First off, congratulations are in order for several players on teh Lightning… Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Vaclav Prospal, Pavel Kubina, Freddie Modin and John Grahame have all been named over the last several days to their respective Olympic Teams (Team Canada, Team Czech Republic, Team Sweden and Team USA). They all will be journeying to Turin, Italy to take part in the Olympic Games this February. No word yet on Team Russia but that shoudl be announced soon.

There has been an ugly rumor circulating for the past few weeks about Brad Richards… The rumor has him heading out to Calgary and of couse: Flames fans are salivating at the idea. Yet if we learned anyting during the 2004 playoffs and this off season, it’s that these rumors have next to no merrit and that the fans get on them regardless… And seeing Brad is the marquee RFA of teh 2006 offseason, the rumors will continue to swell until he is signed – or traded.

Speaking of Brad Richards… Eric at Of Wing Joe Tasca at Off WIng Opinion decided to comment on today’s story in the St. Petersburg Times highlighting Brad’s charity work.

Too often, athletes get nailed to the cross unjustly. It’s one thing to pick on a guy for supposedly lacking leadership qualities, but to go to town on someone who has repeatedly dedicated his free time to disadvantaged young children is just tasteless. Kudos to Cristodero for penning a fine, and fair, profile of Brad Richards.

These comments were inspired by the Summerside Journal Pioneers Character Assasination attempt of Richards in 2004.

Tonight’s game pits the Bolts agaisnt the New York Rangers at MSG. Both teams are reeling… This is one where I hope Pavel Kubina can re-acquire his taste for physical play as he faces off against his foe and fellow countryman, Jaromir Jagr. Expect John Grahame in goal — but don’t expect things to be better just because John is starting again. Last time out Grahame was lit up by the Detroit Red Wings.

I’ll let Eric McErlain handle this one:

I would think that just as a native of the American Virgin Islands like Tim Duncan can play for the U.S. in Men’s Basketball, it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility for the big names like Brodeur, Theodore and Lecavalier to opt to play for Canada instead.

Sounds like a one-day story that will infuriate the people it was designed to infuriate, and cheer the voters it was designed to cheer — just like all sorts of planks that wind up in political platforms.

No Brad.

No Vinny.

No Marty…..

The WOrld needs to F34r Dan Boyle however… As Boyle was named part of Team Canada’s squad…. Congratulations, Dan!

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

On another note — Freddie Modin still leaders all World Cup players in scoring. Who is #2? Ile Bizzard’s native son…