The Bolts have been the cellar dwellers of Tampa Bay for over a year now and things weren’t looking too good going forward. Starting the month of December the Lightning were 4-10-7 and things were looking as ugly as ever throughout the organization. The USF Bulls were 7-5 and were possibly the most disappointing team in Tampa as much bigger things were expected for them. The Bucs were 9-3 and seemingly on their way to a division title, much less a playoff birth. Fast forward to today and the Bulls capped off the month with a 41-14 win over Memphis in the St. Pete Bowl to help take the sting out of a hugely disappointing season. The Bucs pulled the ultimate choke job by going 0-4 and missing the playoffs after losing to a dismal Oakland Raider team.
The Bolts have gone 4-6-2 to this point, not great I know, but after stringing off three straight wins, look much better than they did a month ago. Now don’t get me wrong, the Lightning still are holding the crown of worst in Tampa, but after a home and away sweep of Florida and a 2-0 shutout win on the road against a very good Pittsburg Penguin team, there is a glimmer of hope for the first time in a long time for this team. The defense is still allowing too many shots on goal, but is getting better. The offense has come alive as Vinny and Marty have begun to light up the nets a little and look much more fluid on the ice than they have all season.
As stated already, they are still the worst in Tampa, but they may not hold that title for too much longer if they keep up with these strange winning ways. They finish off the month of December at home against the Montreal Canadiens and could be starting the new year off on the right foot as the season rolls on. If the Lightning can pull themselves out of the bottom of the heap and even raise themselves into playoff contention, the argument could leave the Bulls and Bucs battling it out for worst in show here. It would be nice to see that happen.
The Bolts lost again tonight to the Panthers 4-3. If we can take anything out of this loss tonight, at home by the way, it’s the fact that the Bolts got 52 shots on goal tonight. I’m not going to make too much of it but they were way more aggressive tonight than in any other game this year. The Lecavavlier, St. Louis and Stamkos line got off 20 shots on goal and looked pretty good together. The defense is still awful and Mike Smith isn’t going to hold up too well all year being beaten up every night. I guess the only other good thing is the fact that they lost in a shootout, again. At least it’s taking them a while to lose instead of losing within the first three periods like most other teams do. They got the great overtime loss point also and that’s why I’m such a big fan of the NHL scoring system. Does anyone else relate this to ALL kids getting trophy’s for participation now? It seems so stupid to me. Next up is Nashville on Friday at home. Let’s do more than just participate there, huh fellas?
The Lightning came out fired up and ready to prove something under new coach Rick Tocchet. They looked better but couldn’t pull out a win on the road, losing 3-2. It’s a tough go in Carolina as it is, and under a new coachthey did about as good as expected. The defense only allowed 30 shots on goal, of which Mike Smith stopped 28, in regulation and overtime. They dropped it in the shootout that Carolina took when Rod Brind’Amour slipped one past Smith and Jussi Jokinen couldn’t answer. I think Tocchet is the type of coach that can get the best out of this team and he should have the rest of this season to prove it. Vinny and Marty had a goal a piece which is a great sign, especially against a tough goalie like Cam Ward. There was also talk yesterday that Steven Stamkos could be moved to the front line along side Vinny and Marty which would move Vinny Prospal to the second line with Radim Vrbata. I would like that move a lot. Stamkos said the pressure would then be on him but I disagree. I think it would take pressure off of him and give Vrbata a more experienced player to help get his offense going. There only needs to be some minor tweaking offensively to get things going and I think this move would help dramatically. The Bolts play at home tonight against the Florida Panthers and we’ll see how they do in the Forum. I’ll get to the Barry Melrose situation later today.
I’m gonna sum up the Wednesday and Thursday games in one post because, well, why write two negative posts. The Lightning lost to the Panthers on the road 4-0 and there wasn’t much good to take out of the game. Mike Smith let four goals slip through, the defense allowed 30+ shots again and the offense only got 24 shots on goal toward Craig Anderson. It was every bit as ugly as it sounds. The Panthers found some false motivation to lean on before the game as some of Barry Melrose’s comments were used to fuel the fire. It was quite stupid and seemed pathetic, but it worked, so how can we complain.
Thursdays loss was a little more painful as the Bolts went into the third period with a 2-1 lead at home. They couldn’t hold on to it as they gave up 3 goals and ended up losing 4-3. The Red Wings came out in the third and scored twice on power play goals thanks to the late penalties in the second by Paul Ranger, Chris Gratton and Adam Hall. It was an awful display when you look at it as the Lightning defense allowed 39 shots on goal and only had 18 for themselves. I know I keep harping on this but it’s getting ridiculous seeing it happen over and over. How do you get outshot 39-18 at home? What really pisses me off is that they scored 3 goals on 18 shots against Chris Osgood. With that type of production rate at home the Bolts should be smashing other teams. They’ve got to control the puck more, get more shots and keep the damn puck out of their zone. We see where I’m heading with this and after the “day off” for the Mullet the other day, we know there’s a Barry Melrose post coming.
The Bolts headed out on the road this week looking to improve on their problematic play away from the Forum. So far, not so good. They dropped the first game in New Jersey 3-2 in overtime. Thanks to the NHL’s idiotic system, the get a point for an overtime loss. Does anyone else think this is as retarded as I do? Why should a team get a point if they LOSE?! Anyway, that game wasn’t all bad. Road game in Jersey and they were in the game all night. Last night was ugly. After getting lit up by the Rangers, the game ended 5-2, goalie Mike Smith lost it on Aaron Voros. Voros is one of those guys that plays in the crease and isn’t afraid to mix it up inside, goalie or not. Now I’m not sure if he did something dirty to Smith that I didn’t see but Smith was pretty upset with him. I’ve put the video in below for you to see if you missed it. You’ll see that Voros is playing inside as normal and Smith hits him with his stick and, everytime he got a shot, pushed and punched Voros in the back. After the play died Smith goes after Voros, pretty weakly I must say, and the fight ensues. I’m all for Smith defending his zone if Voros was playing dirty inside, but I didn’t see anything to make me think that so it appears that Smith just let his poor performance frustrate him to the point of the incident. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I would like to see more mental toughness from our top net keeper. The Bolts sit at 4-4-4 now and need to gather themselves quickly as they still have three more road games ahead of them (Philadelphia, Washington and Florida). I do think the defense has been better but the lack of offense is killing everyone. They need to control the puck longer and be more aggressive in the zone. With Vinny, Marty and company we shouldn’t be in these close games or getting blown out this often.
Thanks to Puck Daddy for the heads up on the video (he rips the Rangers by the way).
