Lightning Bring Back Sully and other Bolts of Info

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Lightning brought back one of the members of the old regime, Mike Sullivan, to return to the role of associate coach with the hockey club. Sullivan was head coach in Boston and was a key member of John Tortorella's staff last season. Sullivan was already being paid the balance of his contract by the Lightning, so it made natural sense to management to bring him back.

"He has the same philosophy," Tocchet told the St. Petersburg Times, "He wants to play a high-tempo game and practice at a really high tempo. He wants guys to be more aggressive on the puck."

"It's easier when you have established relationships," Sullivan explained to the Times, "I went through the process with Brian Lawton and Tocc, and wanted to make sure it was the right fit for both of them. It's important coaches share the same philosophy. It was a fairly smooth process, and here I am."

Sullivan is expected to work on the defense and share some power play coaching duties. Assistant Coach Cap Reader has been re-focused on goaltending and will also contribute in other unspecified capacities throughout the organization.

In other Lightning news, Tampa Bay appears to be getting healthy again. Karri Ramo was sent back to Norfolk, a clear indication that Mike Smith is ready to at least dress. The Times also reports that D Lukas Krajicek may be able to play tonight against the Rangers.

Finally, when watching tonight's game, keep an eye on the Bolts presence in front of the net. Head Coach Rick Tocchet will - in fact, he'll be grading the players on their time in front of the net. He calls it "net presence" and each player will get a rating on how often and how well they created chaos in front of the opposing goaltender. The prevailing belief is those who do well with Net Presence will get more time on the ice. Tocchet is a strong believer in that most goals in the National Hockey League are scored by players standing near, infront of, or by the goaltender.

VICTORY! Tampa Bay gets Tocchet His First Victory

By JC De La Torre

The Tampa Bay Lightning got two goals from Vincent Lecavalier, 3 assists from Ryan Malone, and 34 saves from Mike Smith as they pounded the Nashville Predators 4-1 to give interim Head Coach Rick Tocchet his first coaching victory.

The Lightning wasted little time jumping on Preds goalie Dan Ellis as at the 4:57 mark of the first, Lecavalier connected on an open net rebound for a power play goal. A couple minutes later, Lecavalier was back on the ice, found a loose puck and ripped a slapper past Ellis to stake Tampa Bay to a 2-0 advantage. Jordin Tootoo got the Preds on the board at the 10:40 mark of the first with his 3rd goal of the season, a seeing-eye blast from the glass. Two minutes later, Recchi would reestablish Tampa Bay's two goal lead with a tip in off a scrum, his 4th of the season. It was 3-1 Bolts after one period.

In the second period, Prospal found a rebound after a scrum, depositing it for his 4th of the season to stake Tampa Bay to a 4-1 advantage. The Lightning defense killed 7 Nashville power plays as Mike Smith continued his sensational play, especially in the second period where he made 15 of his 34 saves.

The Lightning improve to 6-7-6, 18 pts, snapping a 5 game winless streak. The Lightning move into third place in the Southeast division and 11th in the conference (3 points out of a playoff spot).

Bolts Goaltending Dramatically Improved

By JC De La Torre

From the Rink's James Mirtle wrote a very interesting article on comparing this year's goaltending to last. It seems, your Tampa Bay Lightning have made the largest improvement of any team in the league, despite suffering with one of the worst defenses in the league.

Tampa Bay's tandem of Mike Smith and Olaf Kolzig have made a 3.81% improvement in save percentage over the immortal trio of Holmqvist/Denis/Ramo good for best improvement in the NHL. This, despite allowing the most shot per game (35.4) than any other team in the NHL.

Here is the top 5 of From the Rink's List-
Source: From the Rink

It just goes to show you if the Lightning could get their offense and forecheck going, this team could be viable for a playoff spot THIS YEAR. With the high shot total, Tampa Bay is about middle-of-the-pack when it comes to goal against (2.72 GAA, good for 13th in the league). That, coupled with the surprising league worst goals for (2.11 GPG) and averaging nearly 14 penalty minutes a game (13.8) have put the Lightning at their current predicament of 5-7-6.

Sooner or later, the myriad of Tampa Bay superstar forwards of Lecavalier, St. Louis, Malone, Stamkos, and Vrbata are going to start lighting the lamp. The Lightning, under new Head Coach Rick Tocchet, are already showing that they are doing a better job at taking care of their end and applying pressure on the opponent.

Lightning fans can take heart in the fact that they appear to finally have the goaltending in place to be a contender again, now the offense and defense need to show up.

Lawton Tells Bolts to Grow a Pair...They Still Get Punked by NY

By JC De La Torre

Tampa Bay Lightning GM Brian Lawton dressed down his hockey team before Thursday night's game against the New York Rangers, telling the team they have been trying to live on skill alone and not enough "want-to". Tampa Bay returned with its fiestiest game of the season, racking up a ridiculous 38 penalty minutes that included two fights, one involving goaltender Mike Smith. While the message was sent and the Bolts put together a performance with a little more testicular fortitude, the team still got whipped by the Rangers 5-2, the Bolts first regulation loss in five games.

Lawton told the St. Pete Times, "At that stage, the process is really simple for me, you ask people if they want to be here, if they want to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning."

Ryan Malone showed his desire to be with the Bolts, dropping the gloves with Rangers agitator Aaron Voros midway through the first period. The game was scoreless until Evgeny Artyukhin went off on a 2 minute minor for hooking at the 14:47 mark of the 1st, with 0:38 left on the power play, Ryan Callahan scored on a beautiful feed from Nikolai Zherdev. The score would hold up until 14:23 of the 2nd period, when shorthanded New York's Chris Drury intercepted a Paul Ranger pass and deposited it behind Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith to give New York a 2-0 lead. Martin St. Louis, who appears to finally be heating up for the Bolts, scored his 2nd goal in as many nights to cut the Rangers advange to 2-1 before 2nd intermission.

0:35 into the third, Chris Drury would get number two on the night on the power play, getting a nice feed from Scott Gomez, staking New York to a 3-1 edge. Ryan Malone's power play laser shot at 7:58 of the third sliced the advantage back to 1, but thirty seconds later, Marc Staal would get his first goal of the season (and only his 3rd in 96 games at the NHL level), on a slapper while the Bolts goalie Mike Smith was screened, returning the two goal lead and a 4-2 advantage.

Things deteriorated from there, as the Lightning had a parade of players to the sin bin, with 4:25 left in the game, Marek Malik was called for tripping Nigel Dawes and Mark Recchi earned two more for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the Rangers a full 2 minute 5-on-3 advantage. As the Lightning killed the first 5-3, the Bolts were nailed again, as Goalie Mike Smith slashed Aaron Voros, then dropped his goalie gloves and went after Voros, the two exchanged a few blows before being separated by linesmen. Gary Roberts joined the penalty parade with 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10 minute misconduct penalty. Voros got 2 for unsportsmanlike and 5 for fighting. Smith got 2 for slashing, 2 for unsportsmanlike conduct, and 5 for fighting. Basically, it all spelled out to yet another 5-on-3 advantage for the Rangers. So the Rangers basically spent the last 4:25 of the game with a two man advantage. Eventually, they would cash in as Drury completed his hat trick with an open net rebound off of a Dmitri Kalinin shot.

So the Lighting answered the call for more grit by GM Brian Lawton, but it contributed to an ugly finish against the superior New York Rangers club. While Tampa Bay showed more passion, the Bolts still seemed to lack that extra something when battling for loose pucks in the corners. You have to wonder if the grit that Lawton was speaking of was on display against the Rangers, who seemed to just muscle Tampa Bay defensemen off the puck for scoring chances.

"It wasn't a downer," Lawton told the St. Pete Times after the game, "I feel better about the game than I did Wednesday (the shootout loss to New Jersey)."

Tampa Bay fell to 4-4-4 12 points on the season, they remain in 3rd place in the Southeast Division, 4 points behind division leader Carolina.