Forum: Talk Lightning

Just some quick thoughts…

Johan Holmqvist has played well, with 19 stops through two periods. Looks in control and patient. He stopped Brian Gionta on a 2-on-1.

We were talking up here about where the Tampa Bay offense was, and about 3 seconds after that, Vinny scored his third-career opening night goal. He’s still two behind Paul Statsny for the league-lead.

And so much for that aggressive puck pursuit forecheck by the Devils, where did it go? Did Lou come down from the press box, fire Brent Sutter and take over behind the bench? Wouldn’t surprise me, but then I guess we are too early in the season for Lou to take over. Maybe that’s something he’ll do on April 2

Not a bad period, they held together and got the equalizer and have put some pressure on the Devils in their own end.

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Let me start off by saying that the save Johan Holmqvist made on Nicklas Bergfors at the end of the first period was ginormous. Holmqvist was square to the rookie and just flat our robbed him with about one second left on the clock. Last year, with the luck Holmqvist had at the end of periods, that probably goes in. A good omen? We’ll see.

Some thoughts on the first period
Tampa Bay had some good jump to start, had good scoring chances on each of their first two shifts and drew a power play less than two minutes in. But, and stop me if you have heard this before, they didn’t capitalize on the man advantage. New Jersey, meanwhile, didn’t have its first shot on goal until 8:03 of the period. But then Paul Ranger got called for an interference penalty, which by the letter of the rule, probably is interference. I, however, think it was merely a puck battle (by the way, the same situation happened at center ice with Nick Tarnasky and there was no call, but that’s the way it goes).... And, of course, New Jersey was able to capitalize when a fumbling puck squirted to the slot where Zach Parise whacked a backhand from his knees that Brian Gionta deflected over Holmqvist at 9:06.

By the way, could somebody please go check the front offices of the Devils to see if Lou Lamariello is still running the show for the Devils. I know I saw him in the stands, but what is going on with his hockey team. I heard new coach Brent Sutter was going to instill a puck-pursuit forecheck, but I didn’t believe it. But let me tell you, it’s working. It seemed like Tampa Bay couldn’t get the puck out of its own zone because they weren’t used to an aggressive Devils forecheck. This definitely is not your Uncle’s Devils. These guys are getting in deep and pressuring the defense.

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Nothing earth-shattering coming out of this morning…
The only healthy scratch is Doug Janik, which isn’t a great surprise as we were told Mike Lundin was going to play. So that means two rookies will be suiting up on the blue line with Matt Smaby and Lundin. But don’t expect to see them paired together at anytime as the plan is to spot them in with the vets at time. Look for the top four guys to log 22-25 minutes each and I would be that Smaby and Lundin would end up around 12 minutes or so, maybe less depending on how they play. And as expected, Johan Holmqvist will indeed get the start.

So your line combinations should be, to start the game:
Vinny Prospal-Vinny Lecavalier-Marty St. Louis
Jan Hlavac-Brad Richards-Michel Ouellet
Mathieu Darche-Chris Gratton-Jason Ward
Nick Tarnasky-Craig MacDonald-Andre Roy
Shane O’Brien-Filip Kuba
Brad Lukowich-Paul Ranger
Mike Lundin-Matt Smaby

Johan Holmqvist
Marc Denis

All of Tampa Bay’s injured players skated this morning, Ryan Craig, Andreas Karlsson and Dan Boyle.
Karlsson looks like he’s walking around more comfortably than he was a couple of days ago. Tortorella said he expects Karlsson to play by Wednesday against Florida.

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Thought I would pass along this read. In case you missed it, The Hockey News took a poll of its writers/correspondents and John Tortorella was voted the coach most likely to be fired first this season. I think it’s at least the second time Tortorella has been voted to that claim, if not the third.

But I thought Sportsnet’s Jim Kelley has some very valid points, and Kelley was with the Buffalo News for years and knows Tortorella from his time with the Sabres organization. I whole heartedly agree with Kelley’s rationale here, having worked closely with Tortorella for the better part of the past seven years. He can be a grump and sometimes you wonder if he lives outside his world, but deep down the players respect him and he and GM Jay Feaster are on the same page.

Deep down, Torts is a good man who is driven to do things the way he best sees fit and it can rub some people the wrong way (especially the Canadian media who characterize him as the ugly American sometimes). But you have to appreciate and respect his ability to not let any outside influences affect what he thinks is best. Does it always work? No (as the whole John Grahame experiment shows), but it works out more often than not. Do the players always like it? No, these are adults after all and sometimes they must feel like they are still adolescents living at home, but one thing Tortorella is is fair. That point can’t be argued.

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I’ve wavered on this decision for the better part of the last week. If you would have asked me five days ago who was going to start opening night against New Jersey I would have said Marc Denis, who was solid in scrimmage games and very good in his period of action against Detroit. Then if you would have asked me a couple of days later I would have said Johan Holmqvist because of his play against Dallas. I guess that’s probably what is going to take place throughout the early course of the season....

Having said that, Lightning coach John Tortorella announced to us that Johan Holmqvist will be in net when the Lightning open play against New Jersey on Thursday night. I don’t think I would have been surprised no matter the decision....

One quick note from practice, Ryan Craig skated on his own for about five minutes. He was skating cautiously and doesn’t look like he’s anywhere near ready to return, but it’s a vast improvement from a week ago. . . . Also, Andreas Karlsson did not skate and it sounds as if he won’t be able to play on Thursday, meaning Mathieu Darche will likely start at left wing on the third line with Chris Gratton and Jason Ward.

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SUN SPORTS TO OFFER 25 TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING GAMES IN
HIGH DEFINITION BEGINNING WITH SEASON OPENER THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4
- UP FROM 10 LAST SEASON -

TAMPA – Sun Sports is more than doubling its high definition coverage of the Tampa Bay Lightning this season with 25 of the network’s 70 games scheduled to be distributed in HD.  That’s up from 10 last season.

The first Sun Sports-produced HD telecast is scheduled for Thursday, October 4, as the Lightning host the New Jersey Devils in the team’s home opener from the St. Pete Times Forum.  HD coverage begins that night at 7pm with the LIGHTNING ICE TIME pre-game show, hosted by Paul Kennedy.  Live post-game coverage will also be available in HD.

Fans in Northern and Central Florida with HD service from participating cable and satellite providers will have access to these 25 HD NHL Tampa Bay Lightning games this season.  Viewers should check with their cable/satellite provider for HD channel number and availability in their area or check the “Check HD Listings” link on Sun Sports’ website (www.sunsportstv.com).

Over the course of the 2007-08 seasons, the 19 Fox-owned and operated regional sports networks are planning to produce more than 1,400 live events, featuring more than 3,500 hours, in high definition, making them one of the nation’s most significant producers of local HD sports programming.

These cable and satellite providers offer this enhanced package of high-def games to their HD customers at no additional charge, subject to availability. Sun Sports and these providers also continue to offer standard definition telecasts of each of these games as part of the core Sun Sports regional service distributed throughout the region.

SUN SPORTS 2007-08 TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING HD GAMES SCHEDULE

Pre- and post-game coverage will also be offered in HD

Thu Oct 4 7:30pm NEW JERSEY

Wed Oct 10 7:30pm FLORIDA

Sat Oct 13 7:00pm @ Florida

Sat Oct 20 7:30pm ATLANTA

Sat Oct 27 7:30pm BUFFALO

Mon Nov 5 7:30pm @ Florida

Wed Nov 21 7:30pm NY RANGERS

Thu Nov 29 7:30pm @ Detroit

Thu Dec 20 7:30pm TORONTO

Sat Dec 29 1:00pm PHILADELPHIA

Tue Jan 10 7:30pm PITTSBURGH

Sat Jan 12 7:00pm @ Florida

Fri Jan 18 7:30pm @ Pittsburgh

Thu Jan 24 7:30pm OTTAWA

Thu Jan 31 7:30pm VANCOUVER

Sat Feb 2 7:30pm FLORIDA

Tue Feb 5 8:30pm @ St. Louis

Sat Feb 16 7:30pm WASHINGTON

Fri Feb 29 8:00pm TORONTO

Tue Mar 4 7:30pm PITTSBURGH

Tue Mar 11 7:30pm NY ISLANDERS

Sat Mar 15 7:30pm NY RANGERS

Sat Mar 22 7:00pm @ Florida

Tue Mar 25 7:30pm FLORIDA

Sat Mar 29 7:30pm CAROLINA

Schedule subject to change.

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The roster for Thursday’s season opener against New Jersey has been set, although the lineup remains up in the air.

Here’s the deal.....
Kyle Wanvig, Bryce Lampman, Mathieu Darche and Mike Egener have all cleared waivers (Egener had to be assigned and clear waivers because he is on the 50-man roster even though he didn’t come to Lightning camp).
But because of an abdominal strain suffered by Andreas Karlsson at practice on Monday, the team is keeping Mathieu Darche around in case Karlsson can’t play (and it sounds iffy at best right now).

That leaves Tampa with 22 players to open the season, and two others on the injured list (Dan Boyle and Ryan Craig)
It also means that both Matt Smaby and Mike Lundin will indeed stay with the big club for the time being, but it remains to be seen how they will handle playing against regular NHL players each shift before any long term decisions are made.

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Tampa Bay has reportedly been contacted by the league about starting next season with a two-game set against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Prague, Czech Republic? Not a big surprise that the Lightning would be asked considering their star power with Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis (remember, Dan Boyle is not guaranteed to be here with his contract up after the season).

With the NHL pushing tapping into the European market, no great shock they would want to get right back to Europe after this past weekend’s two-game set in London between the Ducks and Kings.

But what do you guys think about this idea? It would mean Tampa Bay loses a home game against one of the top teams in the league with arguably its biggest star? It also means that the game would likely start around 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Tampa time? Are you willing to give up that home game and willing to get up early in the morning on a weeked to catch the start of the season?

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Saw the lastest insider report on the team web site and it shows that Bryce Lampman, Kyle Wanvig and Mathieu Darche have all been placed on waivers with the intent of sending them to Norfolk of the AHL. So what’s that mean? Well, it appears that the team will keep 21 players, and according to the web site, Doug Janik is the extra defenseman meaning that Matt Smaby and Mike Lundin are in the top six on the blue line. Interesting developments to be sure. Guess we’ll find out after we get to the rink for the morning skate.....

Here’s the 21
Vinny Prospal-Vinny Lecavalier-Marty St. Louis
Jan Hlavac-Brad Richards-Michel Ouellet
Andreas Karlsson-Chris Gratton-Jason Ward
Andre Roy-Craig MacDonald-Nick Tarnasky
Shane O’Brien-Filip Kuba
Brad Lukowich-Paul Ranger
Mike Lundin-Matt Smaby
Doug Janik
Johan Holmqvist
Marc Denis

Not convinced the D pairings will stay the same as above as I can’t think that Lundin and Smaby will be a paring, but we’ll have to see!

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The goaltending decision has been made after the team announced Karri Ramo was assigned to Norfolk of the AHL on Friday. He, along with forward Justin Keller, will fly to Philadelphia on Saturday to join the Admirals for their preseason game Sunday afternoon against the Phantoms.

Ramo did well for himself here and I still expect him to get a crack at it in Tampa at the first sign of a falter should either Johan Holmqvist or Marc Denis slip up.

John Tortorella said he full expects to field his opening night lineup Saturday night in Dallas. If that’s the case, here’s what things looked like in practice Friday....

Blue line was Vinny Prospal-Vinny Lecavalier-Marty St. Louis
Red line was Jan Hlavac-Brad Richards-Michel Ouellet
Green line was Andreas Karlsson-Chris Gratton-Jason Ward
Yellow line was Andre Roy-Craig MacDonald-Nick Tarnasky
And the white line, which might as well be the Norfolk line, was Justin Keller with Mathieu Darche and Kyle Wanvig. My guess is that these two guys either have already been placed on waivers or will soon be in order to assign them to Norfolk. That final decision will be announced on Sunday.

The defense pairings were:
Shane O’Brien and Filip Kuba
Brad Lukowich and Paul Ranger
Doug Janik and Mike Lundin
Matt Smaby and Bryce Lampman

Trying to read between the lines there - assuming Janik has already earned his spot as the No. 5 defenseman (not counting the injured Dan Boyle) then it would seem that Mike Lundin as earned the No. 6 spot as he was paired with Janik for practice. Not a revelation if you read this blog after Thursday night’s game. But still a surprise that Lundin would make it ahead of Smaby and Lampman at this point, even with Lundin being a year older than Smaby, Smaby has one year of pro experience under his belt and Lampman has been through his share of full seasons. Guess it’s another verson of meritocracy at work, something you can read about in Saturday’s paper.

One other note, Tortorella expressed some displeasure with some of his veteran defensemen, and I believe that might be Filip Kuba. Torts mentioned how he wasn’t happy with how some have carried themself on and off the ice. Not to mention that Tortorella made Kuba and his partner, O’Brien, do laps after not doing a drill right as their teammates watched.

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With a slimmed down lineup, 10 forwards (including Justin Keller) and eight defenseman and minus the big three of Marty St. Louis, Vinny Lecavalier and Brad Richards, I do have to say it was a good effort by Tampa Bay tonight. With only three lines rolling - hey, ya think Andreas Karlsson is feeling it right now after logging a Marty St. Louis-like 26 minutes, 21 seconds? - some guys looked gassed toward the end. Despite the shootout loss, I thought it was a good game.

Couple of observations:

*Andre Roy has to be more disciplined than he was on Thursday. He took a bad penalty when he took his hand off his stick and drove a Detroit defenseman into the boards. It was an obvious holding penalty, and of course the Wings scored. Roy was whisted for tripping in the second period, and of course the Wings scored again. Have to think that Roy would have seen less ice time than 9:36 he played (Justin Keller was over 10 minutes) had there been enough forwards.

*Marc Denis I thought was sharp - he was helped by one crossbar early in the third - in his period plus overtime worth of action. He stopped all 11 shots he saw in a game he came in that was tied. He was coming way out of his crease, way more than I ever saw him last season, and one would have to think he is working on something. Don’t know what kind of style he played in Columbus in terms of being high in his crease, but you can see that he is working on something.

*Matt Smaby made a statement tonight. He had a goal and assist and had a couple of solid hits, including shoving 6-foot-5 Johan Ryno down to the ice. Smaby finished with 15:47 of ice time and, personally, I think it would be a difficult thing to keep him off this roster for next week.

*But having said that, watch out for Mike Lundin, the first-year pro out of Maine. He came in a virtual unknown but he has really made a solid impression in training camp and, more importantly, in the preseason games. On Thursday, with guys basically having their last chance to make an impression to earn a spot on this team - especially in the light of Dan Boyle’s injury - and Ludin played 17:15 of ice time. That’s more playing time than Doug Janik (15:23), Smaby, Bryce Lampman (9:12), Paul Ranger (17:14) and nearly as much as Brad Lukowich (17:24). That’s an impressive statement for Lundin, especially considering this comment from Coach John Tortorella “He’s ahead of the schedule as far as understanding positioning, and that’s such an important concept for a defenseman to have as far as letting plays come to you, just protecting areas that are most dangerous.’’

Was having a discussion in the morning and my rationale was that Lundin would go down and just get the chance to play tons of minutes in Norfolk because the guy is just coming out of college and is not used to the rigors of an NHL season, particularly the 82-game grind. But the schedule to start the season is light early and Ludin could potentially be weened into the flow as the sixth defenseman while others on the blue line log the heavy minutes. In having some talks with some in the know, it sounds as if Lundin will start the season here. How long he stays here??????

* Thought Brad Lukowich struggled a bit, couple of turnovers, missed a hip check on a penalty kill, but he did register seven hits and blocked a couple of shots. When asked about him the other day, Tortorella described Lukowich’s play in the preseason and training camp was “fair’’

* Sounds as if 20 is the magic number, as in the number of active players that will on the team when camp breaks after Saturday’s game, which is expected to be as close to the opening night lineup as possible, barring injuries. Oct. 1 is the last day a player can clear waivers and rostes have to be submitted to the league by Oct. 2. With Dan Boyle and Ryan Craig both injured (Craig’s back is not clearing up to this point), then technically the team has 22 players because even injured players have to be paid and with the self-imposed $44 million salary cap, the move to keep just 20 going into opening night would be for some financial reasons as well.

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Couple of notes from Thursday’s morning skate in Detroit.

Guys are still banged up. Brad Richards, Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis will all be held out tonight, none are really classified as injured (although Lecavalier has a banged up “upper body’’ but it’s not expected to hold him out of any meaningful games). Also, Chris Gratton will not play. He tried to be fitted with a contact lens to help the healing but they couldn’t get the lens in his eye. He’s never worn lenses and as somebody who does wear contacts, I can understand the difficulties of getting them in your eye if you have never worn them, especially with the eye being sensitve after he got hit last week.

John Tortorella said he is dressing eight defenseman tonight and 10 forwards so it will be interesting to see how the defense is rotated. To take up one of the forward spots in the lineup, Justin Keller was recalled from Norfolk and will play tonight. Johan Holmqvist gets the start in net but will split time with Marc Denis.

Tortorella said that he hopes to have basically his opening night lineup on the ice for Saturday’s final preseason game in Dallas.

And one final note, Dan Boyle was back on the ice today in full gear and holding a stick in his right hand. He said he had to fight the temptation to keep his left hand off the stick a couple of times. He is also finding it a bit difficult to do normal activity, such as unscrewing the lid off the toothpaste. He even admitted he needed some help from Andre Roy to get some of his gear on today. There was a good note, when the players were done with practice, Boyle came out and Tortorella had Boyle lead the team through stretches, which gave the team a good chuckle, especially Tortorella.

And if anybody is reading this and knows a good spot in Dallas to catch the USF-West Virginia game tomorrow night, pass it along. I don’t want to be stuck in my room by myself watching the action

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Don’t want to get too in depth on things because this is still the preseason and the games count for squat, but wanted to touch on the goaltenders a little bit here after three games into the preseason.

I don’t think anybody has done anything yet to warrant being called the No. 1 goaltender. But I also don’t think any of the three - Marc Denis, Johan Holmqvist and Karri Ramo - has played so poorly that they have played themself out of a job. As I asked John Tortorella after the game, things are still muddled in that area.

Marc Denis was strong in the scrimmage games, and solid, in his preseason start against Dallas last week. Karri Ramo was strong in the scrimmage games, and solid in his performance Monday night rebounding after getting scored on twice on the first three shots he faced. Johan Holmqvist was so-so during scrimmages but was solid in a 2-1 loss to Washington on Saturday.

The more things change, the more they stay the same as nobody has solifified the postion to this point.

Here’s how I believe the scenario plays out with just over a week and two more preseason games left before the regular season opens at home on Oct. 4. Karri Ramo has made a statement in camp that he is going to be an NHL goaltender, possibly this season. But I think he starts the season in Norfolk for two reasons: First, if he’s not the starter here then he may benefit from playing two out of every three games in Norfolk for the time being to make sure he is getting playing time. Second, they send him down and see how he handles the situation, whether he sulks about the demotion (though given his makeup, I don’t see this) or if he goes about things the right way and plays at the high level that should be expected of him in the AHL after the year he had last year.

Then you let Denis and Holmqvist battle each other for playing time. Not necessarily in the “you play well, you play the next game’’ type scenario. But rather they each get the chance to take charge, similar in some ways to last season around the December-January time when Holmqvist did take charge of things. If neither of them show the ability to force the issue, then you still have Ramo champing at the bit to get his shot.

Note notes from Monday’s game: Given the team Detroit had on the ice, I’m not sure falling behind 2-0 and rallying for four goals before holding on for a 4-3 win is a huge victory. The Wings dressed virtually no known names - Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Chelios, Hasek, Draper, et al - were all left back in Detroit. I know, it’s just the preseason and Tampa Bay has its own issues with injuries and such, but I guess I just expected a more dominant performance on Tampa’s part.

On Marty St. Louis’ first power play goal, Tortorella put five forwards on the ice with St. Louis filling the right point opposite Brad Richards with Jason Ward filling the spot on the left post normally taken by Dan Boyle. It’s something we might see in the regular season on a two-man advantage with Boyle out of the lineup.

“We’re not going to have Danny for a bit here so we may try five forwards,’’ Tortorella said. “I thought Ward made a good play [on the pass to St. Louis]. We may try it, we’ll see. Richy has played the point on the power play and you’re up two men, we’ll take a chance at it maybe along the way. I don’t have a problem playing five forwards there.’’

- Andre Roy was voted the third star of the game and when he came out to acknowledge the selection he put on a little show as he came all the way out to center ice and skated on his heels a little bit. He told me after the game he didn’t want to be like everybody else and since he doesn’t get that chance too often he wasn’t going to just go out and skate in a circle.

- Ryan Craig’s injury is not a good situation, although the good news is that no talk of surgery has surfaced at this point. About the only thing they can do at this point is give him treatment and rest to see how the herniated disk in his back reacts. If it doesn’t unlock then that might create a different scenario. Either way, this is likely to be an issue for some time.

- If anybody was at the game and heard Mix 100.7 radio personalities Nancy Alexander and Christie Knight serve as guest PA announcers on Extreme Hockey N’ Heels night, I’m sorry. It was a bit painful to have to hear them belt out names like Valtteri Flippula and Igor Grigorenko over the loud speakers.

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Apparently the MRI results on Ryan Craig were not good. We just received word that Craig will be out of the lineup indefinitely with a herniated disk in his lower back. Don’t have any of the details just yet, but after Saturday’s game, in which he was scratched with what was called back spasms, Craig said the back was stiff for at least a couple of days but on Saturday treatment didn’t loosen it up. He was walking in obvious discomfort Saturday night, but was looking a little bit better this morning as he walked through the hallway with a MRI X-ray in his hand.

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Here is the lineup for tonight’s home preseason finale against Detroit.

Vinny Prospal-Brad Richards-Marty St. Louis
Jan Hlavac-Andreas Karlsson-Jason Ward
Nick Tarnasky-Craig MacDonald-Andre Roy
Mathieu Darche-Kyle Wanvig

Filip Kuba-Shane O’Brien
Paul Ranger-Brad Lukowich
Bryce Lampman-Doug Janik
Mike Lundin

Karri Ramo
Johan Holmqvist

Chris Gratton still out with his eye injury. Saw him walking around the locker room area and his eye looks better, but not sure about how much his vision has cleared up.

Vinny Lecavalier skated today, but is being held out for precautionary reasons.
Ryan Craig did not skate and arrived at the rink holding an MRI exam folder in his hand. No further update was given and he is still listed as day-to-day with back spams.
Michel Ouellet took part in practice today but will not play. John Tortorella hopes to have him in the lineup in one of the two final games either at Detroit Thursday or at Dallas Friday.
Dan Boyle was not at the rink, although he is expected to be on the ice in the next two days (minus a stick, of course). Tortorella said he fully believes Boyle will be back and ready to play by four weeks at the latest. He mentioned that the issue with Boyle is one certain motion when rotating the stick. He is able to hold a stick, but he won’t for the time being.

Tortorella also expressed to the media today that he won’t be talking about injuries to us any more after today (assuming no more pop up) because he doesn’t want the players using them as an excuse. He spoke at length at the opportunities other players will have to step up and fill some of the void left with Boyle’s absence - both the established players such as Shane O’Brien, Filip Kuba and Brad Lukowich, but also the Bryce Lampmans, Doug Janiks and Matt Smabys (even Mike Lundin).

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