Lightning partake in a round of “Naked Shootout’’ after practice

Posted Oct 20, 2009 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Oct 20, 2009 at 03:51 PM

BRANDON – Since dropping a pair of games on a recent two-game road trip, the last of which resulted in a tongue-lashing from management, the Lightning have endured a few days of intense practice and workouts.

So after a near two-hour practice on Tuesday, and just after the coaches all vacated the ice, the players took a tongue-in-cheek approach in order to lighten the mood by playing a round of Naked Shootout – think strip hockey –  to help shed a little fun in what has been a rather dismal week around the team.

The rules were quite simple, 18 skaters took their turns taking shootout attempts on goaltenders Mike Smith and Antero Niittymaki. Every time one of the shooters failed to convert, they removed an article of their equipment. Four players converted on their first attempts, including Zenon Konopka, Jeff Halpern and David Hale, thereby keeping all their equipment intact while watching the “competition’’ unfold.

For everybody else, the equipment started to come off and it didn’t take long before for helmets, elbow pads, gloves and shirts littered the ice as shooter after shooter continued to come up empty. And nobody was allowed out until they scored, as Alex Tanguay found out. After missing on his first shot, Tanguay skated off the ice and was signing autographs for fans when he began to get heckled by his teammates. Konopka took it a step further, banging his stick on the glass relentlessly until Tanguay finally subsided and returned to the ice, tossing his helmet to the ice and stepping in for his next attempt. Fortunately, Tanguay finished scored on his next attempt, picked up his helmet and asked if he could now leave as he made his way toward the dressing room.

But for Marty St. Louis, his day quickly started to rival that of Ned Braden, from the famed movie Slap Shot, who did a striptease on ice during a game in one of the film’s classic scenes.

As the last player standing, St. Louis quickly started to run out of pieces of equipment to shed. While his helmet, elbow pad, gloves, jersey and shoulder pads were among the first articles to come off, St. Louis kept getting stone-walled by Smith and Niittymaki. So next off were his shin pads, after missing his next attempts. Then he went to his hockey socks – still no goal. Next off was his right skate, leaving St. Louis to “glide’’ down the ice on one foot – no goal. Then came the left skate (he was giving a pair of sandals to wear on the ice) leaving St. Louis to go street-hockey style up the ice.

At this point, the rest of the team would bang their sticks on the ice as St. Louis “rushed’’ his way on net. But two attempts in sandals failed to result in a goal, forcing St. Louis to take off his regular socks, leaving him with just his hockey pants, under shirt and other under garments still attached to his body.

Fortunately, after a dozen or so attempts, St. Louis finally put one back in the net high to the inside left post, ending his striptease act to thunderous applause before it could double for an act suitable only for late-night cable television.

“I think my next piece would have been my stick,’’ St. Louis said. “I would have tried to score with my feet.’’

It was a fun moment for many of the players, including sophomore center Steven Stamkos, who celebrated his successful attempt – minus his helmet, jersey and shoulder pads – by jumping for joy behind the net and sliding into the boards on his blue undershirt while flashing a broad smile.

“We’ve had two tougher practices, and obviously two tough losses, so we need to have serious practices, and then it’s nice to let loose and get some laughs in and feel relaxed,’’ Stamkos said. “So it was a pretty fun way to end practice.’’

Reporter Tony Fabrizio contributed to this report.