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.