Tampa Bay Sports Blog

The Bolts pulled out a tough win last night against the Canadiens, and with each victory like this the light shines through the ugliness that has darkened this franchise for over a year now. It was a doubly god victory considering all the “Vinny to Montreal” talk and Vinny definitely looked fired up for this one. Lecavalier fired off 8 shots on goal and had a goal and an assist in the win. Marty also had one of each and Mike Smith played very well in the net as the Lightning won at home 5-3.

The Bolts are now 7-3 in their last 10 games and look like they’re playing with a lot more confidence than at any point this season. The team is also 9-5-1 since Marty blasted his team and St. Louis is backing up his words in every possible way. Damian Cristodero pointed this out last week and he was right on the money with his words about Marty. The little big man has been a scoring machine over the last month and the rest of the team is feeding off of him. I go back to my statement of making him co-captain. Cristodero also wrote about the Lightning’s chances of making the playoffs this year, this one I’m not so sure about. I would love to see them get in, but it seems like a pipe dream at this point and shouldn’t be what this team gets judged on at seasons end. If these guys can continue to play above .500 and show improvement on both sides of the ice it would go a long way toward next season and they should be looking more at the continuity of the team right now. There still seems to be a lot of trying to find the right guys going on and that is what needs to settle down before we start talking playoffs.

All in all though, this team is improving and it is a beautiful thing to watch when Vinny and Marty are playing well together. Watch the video of Marty’s goal last night and see what I’m talking about.

Video courtesy of NHL TV.