Martin St. Louis is heading to Montreal for the All Star Game as a replacement for Sidney Crosby. The former HART Trophy winner and current leading scorer for the Lightning joins Vincent Lecavalier as Lightning representation in the game (Steven Stamkos will be playing in the Young Stars game).

If I had to find a word for the Lightning under Barry Melrose’s tenure as coach, I think the word would be disjointed.

The lack of cohesion was apparent, the lack of passion on the ice… and drive to actually play the game. To enjoy the game. It felt like, from a fan perspective, a much hyped package that just could not deliver anywhere close to the promise that was proposed to the fanbase.

The stigma of the roster anarchy will continue to haunt ownership and Brian Lawton for the rest of the season (if not beyond that) unless a clear sense of direction of what the Lightning franchise wants in players is found.

But what a difference a few games make.

It started with Colorado, and I noted that it was the start of a new season for the Lightning where Rick Tocchet had worked with players during their scheduled time off. The Colorado game results and the lack-of-effort in Atlanta didn’t do as much harm as once was thought… Through the negatives and adversity, it looks like the Lightning have found… well, the Lightning.

Maybe I am speaking too soon on this, but the teamt hat I have watched versus the Penguins and Panthers the past week has not been the same club I’ve watched otehr times this season. There is a drive again, there is a cohesion… There’s emotion and passion…

And there’s a clear desire to win.

Things are not all gravy, don’t get me wrong. Thsi team is not suddenly a bunch of world beaters… But as I watch the closing minutes of this Lightning vs. Panthers matchup at Times Palace, the Lightning are playing like sharks when there is blood in the water. A far cry from the comparisons to the days of Steve Ludzik.

Tocchet’s talks, the return of Jeff Halpern, Jussi Jokinen’s “wakeup call”, Evgeny Artyukhin actually playing like he’s on the North American continent once again… Mike Smith being stellar between the pipes, the return of Ryan Malone… It’s all had a profound effect on this club.

Now will it last?

6-4 the final at Times Palace, the Lightning beat the Panthers for the 2nd straight day. Vincent Lecavalier had two goals, Martin St. Louis, Ryan Malone, Steven Stamkos and “Artoo” Artyukhin also contributed to scoring. An outstanding effort for a 2nd-game-in-24-hours matchup.

I seriously doubt that Martin St. Louis is gunning for Vincent Lecavalier’s captainship with his recent outbursts about the team, but I have to say that this is something I think has been long overdue to come out publicly: veterans of the Lightning calling bullshit on the efforts of some of those also on the team.

I don’t know if this public venting can be portrayed as a level of leadership but this fan takes it as such — someone who loves this town and loves this team knows that others aren’t pulling their weight, and regardless of what has been done – they just aren’t playing with their heart and it’s hurting things.

Sadly, in pro sports, a venting like this doesn’t usually lead to the trouble being shipped out of town. It usually leads to the outspoken player being shipped away while the franchise gets rebuilt with problem children as the core.

Mike Chen can’t look away at the train wreck here in Tampa, and who can blame him? Ooh, blame… Good subject for an article Mike! Have at it!

The real culprit? I can see why people can point fingers at one guy or another (though Stamkos is absolved of everything other than simply being an 18-year-old rookie learning the ways of the NHL) but when it comes down to it, everyone is at fault here from the wacky ownership duo of Len Barrie and Oren Koules to Melrose and his then-assistants to veteran leaders like team captain Vincent Lecavalier.

Yep, you’re all guilty and you should feel bad because the fan base that slowly built up from the early 2000s is now disintegrating as the team becomes one of the biggest sideshows in professional sports.

Mike goes on to break down the X’s and D’oh’s of the Lightning, post-Palace Sports, like an ESPN analyst without a bone to pick with a former employer. Blame lies from the top down, and from the bottom up. As a fan, I’ve focused on the top-down side instead of looking at the players, the lock room and the atmosphere generated by team leaders…

Just to tickle my fancy on the blame heirachy, lemme highlight the one paragraph that stands out for me:

The thing that I don’t get is that even though moviemaking (Koules) and real estate (Barrie) are completely separate businesses than running a pro-sports franchise, the basic tenants of “get good people/have a plan/work hard” are still in place. Here’s how any organization, pro sports or otherwise, should work: leadership at the top has a vision and a plan. They bring in supervisors (coaches) to create strategy for that plan, then the supervisors motivate the workers (players) to properly execute the plan with a good attitude and strong work ethic while providing feedback about what’s working and what’s not. I don’t see any of this here.

Some people really hated Palace Sports ownership… I mean, seriously despised “Dollar” Bill Davidson and outside-the-area ownership. They didn’t care for Rick Dudley or the types of players he brought in at the get-go of Palace Sports tenure of ownership.

But — this is inarguable — Davidson, Tom Wilson, Bill Campbell and the rest of Palace Sports had a plan and a vision of all facets of the operation. On ice, the venue, the administrative organization… They assigned a well-versed individual into a role and let them work.

With OK Hockey? It’s been anarchy without a general MO of the moves, without a definition of the how or why.

Mike goes on to dissect coaching and then throwing some blame the players ways… Not everyone, just the C and A’s of the team. The article is certainly worth a read and a thought or three.

In essence, it comes back to the volatility of the off season as a foreshadowing of the season so far. A new administration does indeed have a right to put who they want in positions of power… But these people need to know what the plan is, spread the plan down the chain of command and get everyone on message and in sync on that.

Right now, we’re still devoid of that vision / message from any level of command.

…which has contributed to the Bolts being run straight into the ground.

A freak deal. Wrong place at the wrong time. Lightning winger Marty St. Louis was cut on the forehead and nose by the skate of linesman Derek Arnel. An inadvertant occurrence that sent St. Louis rushing to the bench, and later received around 10 stiches to close the gash.

Marty is fine. The Lightning are hoping he will be available for Thursday’s home against Colorado. Best news for this team in some time.

–Tom Korun — ABC 28 Action News

I’m no professional sportswriter, nor a long standing, tenured TV personality in the Tampa Bay area… But jeez… “10 stitches… hope he is available for Thursday’s game versus Colorado”???

Tom? It’s routine for guys to get stitches between periods for wounds suffered on ice and play later in the game. Bad cuts, bad locations… The game matters more than the wound. Maybe it’s more obvious that players are playing while banged up during the Stanley Cup playoffs, but 10 stitches wouldn’t keep Martin St. Louis from playing unless it severed tendons somewhere…

Two periods are in the books and the Lightning have looked more like… well, like the Tampa Bay Lightning that I’ve seen in the past — finesse and deftness.

Sadly, the question that stands out in my mind is “How are they going to screw it up this time?”

3-1 as it stands at the 2nd intermission. St. Louis with 2 goals (and having just missed the hat trick), Vincent Lecavalier with the other goal.

EDIT: Oh. My. God… It’s a final. The Lightning actually… They actually… Oh, lemme try to get the words out, forgive me for being challenged in this…

They actually won.

The streak ends at nine. Rick Tocchet gets win number two… The question now is, when and where will win #3 come?

Well, I had an early afternoon appointment with a doctor and I have been out of the loop for the last few hours… As of this morning, reported in the St. Petersburg Times, the Lightning hadn’t even begun negotiations with #26 post-Lecavalier signing and what do I find the moment I walk in the door and check up on the NHL and the news of the day?

Martin St. Louis: SIGNED, SEALED, and DELIVERED.

Six Years and 31.5 Million dollars is what it took… That’s a quick change from the pouting we saw post-Lecavalier signing from Marty last week. This will likely mean Marty will end his career in a Bolts uniform (and if all goes well, #26 would be the first number retired by this franchise). It’s a dynamic Lightning fans have got to be enthralled about – Marty is back.

But enough of the positive hoopla for a moment because this puts the hurt on the Lightning.

Fredrik Modin is a Free Agent after this season, Brad Richards is an RFA. I believe Pavel Kubina is a Free Agent after the season and Cory Sarich also is an RFA. That’s a lot of talent to ink and not a lot of money to do it with.

Having Brad Richards resigned is imperative. I don’t care how much Lecavalier is the franchise in the eyes of executives and fans alike. It’s Richards play that has been that of a franchise player over the course of his career. Having him sign a one year deal and then explore free agency in 2007 would be painful at best.

Kubina is another story – the oft maligned Czech has come into his own on the blue line and having a failure to resign him would be another blow to a defensive corps that is already lacking two consistent bodies (Jassen Cullimore and Brad Lukowich). Of course, this blow could be softened by defensive prospects Mike Egener or Andy Rogers stepping in – but that would likely turn into a trial-by-fire.

It’s great to have Martin signed, as it sets things up for this season (as there is only one other unsigned vet this team needs to ink – Dave Andreychuk)… but in the long term, you gotta see it as a bit too much over a long, long time… And unfortunately, visions of Darren Puppa’s post 1995-96 contract dance in my head – and his injuries that followed him.

Enough with the bi-polar post. When does Training Camp start??

Lately a lot of people have been jumping to this site from Google’s Image Search, trying to find Lightning Championship wallpaper…

Of course, I am letting them down because I only have a large image of the Southeastern Division Championship desktop wallpaper on the site.

So let me see what I can do? I can give you guys links to other sites or perchance design an image of my own? We’ll see if I can do the latter in the future but in the meantime — I’m scanning the web trying to find Lightning wallpaper from the championship:

The St. Petersburg Times offers in-game photos as Wallpaper for your desktop

Tampa Bay LIghtning Entertainment hosts two Desktop images of the Lightning Ice Girls

Mccanner.com offers several different wallpapers for you.

I found the following two wallpapers online at one point or another:

Here’s the 2003-04 playoffs from the CBC for you to love as your own:

For all the Vincent Lecavalier fans, here’s another one I found on the web:

Bolted Down provides the following Wallpaper for users:

And Boltsmag offers you these wallpaper images:

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

Just click on either image to get a bigger size version, then right click and select SET AS WALLPAPER or SAVE AS…

If you have a lead to Lightning desktop wallpaper — post a link on the comments or email me

Update: December 20th, 2007: Everything SEEMS to be working now. I would appreciate it if anyone experiencing problems (ie not seeing all the graphics) would email me or post a comment and let me know

There are rumblings in the media that started yesterday and continue currently about Martin St. Louis and the League MVP award – the Hart Trophy.

Not only did the St. Peterburg Times Damian Cristordero add a piece on the possibility in his daily team news column, but other sources around the league are alluding to Martin’s plausible MVP nomination.

Start with ESPN.com’s summary about the Lightning not being satisfied with having the Southeast Division virtually locked up. Follow it up with USA Today’s Midterm Report that named St. Louis an MVP candidate and you have two very credible insitutions in US sports making mention of Mighty Marty.

Martin St. Louis and Dmitry Afanasenkov have little in common when it comes to size. St. Louis is 5′ 8″ while Afanasenkov is 6′ 2″. St. Louis is playing on the top line while Afansenkov is playing on the forth line…

And that’s where it’s easy to find similarities.

Martin St. Louis was stuck playing 3rd and 4th line wing with the Calgary Flames early in his career before being released. He came to the Lightning in 2000-2001 with defensive ability acquired while grinding and fighting on those lower Calgary lines. Meanwhile his scoring touch — well known by University of Maine alumnus — was snake bit. “If only he could finish,” was a common phrase that I can recall being muttered over and over again early in the 2000-01 season.

And by the end of the season, Martin had regained his scoring touch, and has since blossomed into one of the games most complete forwards.

And I can see this in Afansenkov.

Dmitry has been heralded as a scoring wing since he made his debut in North American hockey. He scored 56 goals and notched 43 assists in 1999-2000 with Sherbrooke of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), then followed it up with 15 goals and 22 assists for the Detroit Vipers of the IHL the following season — with an abysmal -30 plus/minus rating. It’s difficult for me to find his plus-minus over the last few years, spent with the Springfield Falcons, but with injuries and inconsistent play, it looked like Dmitry’s future with the Bolts wasn’t going to amount to anything.

Yet late this summer, when the Lightning reported to camp, Afansenkov clicked with Vincent Lecavalier on the top line during training camp. He has since been shuffled from top-line wing to 4th line grinder, and even with limited opportunities on the 4th line – you can see something in Afansenkov when he is on ice that makes you believe there is hope in the near future for Dmitry. He has had several oh-so-close break aways that leave you wondering, “If this kid could finish his break-aways, how many goals would he have?”

Sorta like Martin St. Louis during his first year with the Lightning.