Watch Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Guy Boucher meet the Montreal media (and other morning updates)

Posted Oct 13, 2010 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Oct 13, 2010 at 02:08 PM

There are a couple of videos below - one in the conference room and the other in the locker room that hopefully show how much attention Tampa Bay receives when the team visits Montreal, and it’s been that way for some time, but now that head coach Guy Boucher is guiding the team and Simon Gagne has joined the team, it certainly appeared that there were more media members milling around the Lightning locker room than I remember seeing in any other regular season game. Perhaps that this is Montreal’s home opener adds some more to it, but keep in mind that Montreal doesn’t skate at the Bell Centre on morning game days, instead they work out at the team’s practice facility.

Some notes from this morning:
Mike Smith looks like he will be the starting goaltender tonight as he as the first one off the ice, which means that Dan Ellis will most likely get the nod in Philadelphia on Thursday as Tampa Bay plays their first set of back-to-back games this season.

Mattias Ritola and Matt Smaby will once again be the scratches tonight, as both players were on Saturday.

Defenseman Mattias Ohlund is still out with inflammation in his knee, but general manager Steve Yzerman said the timeline, for now, remains at the two week level. Ohlund has been held off the ice since Oct. 4 and was told to rest for two weeks before getting back into trying to get back into the lineup. His return, however, remains open-ended as the team waits to see how the knee reacts to the rest. Yzerman said Ohlund told him he had a similar situation with his other knee a couple of years ago while in Vancouver and rest was able to alleviate the situation.

Nate Thompson, who did not practice on Monday, was on the ice this morning and will be in the lineup, although he was icing down both groin muscles after he got off the ice today.

Did a quick count of the number of postgame passes on the team’s list (keeping in mind math is not my strong point, I leave that to my wife at home) and I counted 71 pass requests for family and friends of players and some members of the coaching staff. This pass list is a request to have those on the list able to come down after the game to the visiting area, it is not a request for tickets to the game.