Hockey Beat » Tampa Bay Lightning

Stamkos and Malone Injuries Not Too Serious

Jeanne Dupuis — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:47:49 +0000

I’m sure the Tampa Bay Lightning are breathing a collective sigh of relief. During their game earlier this week against the Edmonton Oilers, their two top scorers, Steven Stamkos and Ryan Malone, left the ice and didn’t return but it’s now being reported that the injuries don’t appear to be serious.

image: TSN

Stamkos is suffering from some sort of upper-body injury while Malone got hurt on his lower body. They are being listed as “day-to-day” but can I just take this opportunity to say that Vincent Lecavalier needs to wake the hell up. We’ve got Stamkos and Malone carrying this team while veterans like Vinny and Martin St. Louis (who has one goal in 10 games) fall by the wayside.

Rick Tocchet needs to get his team in check. He seems to realize it to. After the loss to the Oilers he said: “Teams go through injuries. It’s our turn and you’ve got to suck it up. The guys that haven’t played much, the guys that have been asking to play more, here’s your chance. It’s put up or shut up for some of those guys. They want ice time, they’re going to get it. Let’s see what they’ve got.”

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Tampa Bay Players Strip During Practice

Jeanne Dupuis — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:21:33 +0000

During practice, the Tampa Bay Lightning players decided to take one item of clothing off for every breakaway shot that they didn’t make. I’m not exactly sure whose idea this was but the video that is currently making the rounds is of Martin St. Louis. He ends up losing his skates and wearing flip-flops on the ice (kind of dangerous but whatever).

YouTube

Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune wrote: “After a near two-hour practice on Tuesday, and just after the coaches all vacated the ice, the players took a tongue-in-cheek approach in order to lighten the mood by playing a round of Naked Shootout — think strip hockey — to help shed a little fun in what has been a rather dismal week around the team. The rules were quite simple, 18 skaters took their turns taking shootout attempts on goaltenders Mike Smith and Antero Niittymaki. Every time one of the shooters failed to convert, they removed an article of their equipment.”

Yeah… here’s a video:

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Tanguay Heading to Tampa Bay Lightning

Jeanne Dupuis — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:47:15 +0000

The Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms to add Alex Tanguay to their roster and I’m really not happy about this one. First of all, I think the Montreal Canadiens are stupid for dealing this guy away (along with a lot of their talent) and secondly, I hate to see another great player get sucked into the Bolts organization.

I know he’s a little soft but he’s a solid playmaker. I think Tampa Bay got a good deal here but I don’t know how great it is for Tanguay. I’ll try to stay optimistic since he really could work well with Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos.

In 659 career games, Tanguay has 193 goals and 387 assists.

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Tampa Bay Tweets Artyukin Trade

Jeanne Dupuis — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 08:23:04 +0000

It seems like the whole world has gone Twitter crazy and the NHL is no exception. The Tampa Bay Lightning tweeted that they had traded forward, Evgeny Artyukin, to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Drew Milller and a third round draft pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

image: TSN

In case you’re not following them, you can keep up with the latest Bolts announcements @TBLIGHTNING since it looks like that’s the place to look for breaking news.

“In acquiring Drew Miller today, we were able to add a character individual, a versatile with good size and the ability to kill penalties,” said Lightning GM Brian Lawton. “Drew finished the season nicely in Anaheim a year ago, and he has played well for the Ducks in the postseason over his career.”

I hope it was a good trade since Tampa could use all the help they can get…

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Tampa Bay Gives Smaby Two-Year Deal

Jeanne Dupuis — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:24:11 +0000

In a move that allowed them to avoid arbitration, the Tampa Bay Lightning have offered defenceman, Matt Smaby, a two-year contract.

GM Brian Lawton said: “We are pleased to announce this agreement with Matt today. He is big, physical and really skates well for a man that stands 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds. He played well for us last season and I expect his personal development to continue in 2009-10.”

image: Zuma Press

The 24-year-old has only played with the Bolts and in his 57 NHL career games, he has recorded four assists and averaged 17:22 in ice time. His record in the AHL is a little more encouraging. In his 149 games with the Norfolk Admirals and Springfield Falcons, he’s posted five goals, 28 points and 139 penalty minutes.

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Tampa Bay Sign Hedman and Niittymaki

Jeanne Dupuis — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:32:23 +0000

You probably won’t be shocked to learn that the Tampa Bay Lightning have signed Victor Hedman to a standard three-year-rookie deal. The second overall pick was drafted by the team last month where he was rated as the top European player available.

General manager Brian Lawton said yesterday: “We are thrilled to be able to take this next step with Victor today. He has a bright future and we intend on him being a member of the Lightning for a long time. We are excited to get his signing behind us so he can solely focus on hockey and the continued development of his game.”

Let’s just hope he has a better year than the team’s last star rookie addition, Steven Stamkos.

Today, the Lightning also added Antero Niittymaki to their line up. The Finnish netminder (who I like to call titty smacky) posted a 15-8-6 record with a .912 save percentage and a 2.76 goals-against average with the Flyers last season. GM Lawton said: “we fully recognized the need to add an experienced back-up goaltender this summer and today we feel we’ve accomplished that goal.” said Lightning executive vice president and general manager Brian Lawton. “Not only is Antero already an established number two in the NHL who can steal games, but we feel he is very capable of working with Mike Smith to give us a formidable 1-2 punch in goal.”

I think that this was a really smart move on their part and I think that Niittymaki is a great backup goaltender. He certainly did well backstopping the Finnish National Team at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games where they won the silver medal. He posted an incredible 5-1-0 record (including three shutouts), 1.34 GAA and .951 save percentage at the Games and was named the Best Goalie and the Olympic Tournament MVP.

With some support and a good goaltending coach, I think Niittymaki could become a great starting goaltender.

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Lecavalier to Have Wrist Surgery

Jeanne Dupuis — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:09:12 +0000

Tampa Bay Lightning captain, Vincent Lecavalier, will undergo athroscopic surgery to repair damage to his right wrist this Friday. In 2007, Vinny had a similar surgery on his left wrist to repair damage to the triangular fibro cartilage.

I think it’s safe to assume that this is a good time since there is ZERO chance that the Bolts will make the playoffs but it would have been nice for him to play in the games that are left. "Obviously it is disappointing that Vinny will not be able to finish the season, but we feel that it is in both his and the team’s best interest to have the wrist operated on now," Executive Vice President and General Manager Brian Lawton said. "Vinny has been battling this injury all season and I really can’t say enough about his ability to play through the pain and discomfort."

I hope that the surgery repairs all the damage and he can rest up and come back better than ever next season.

image: TSN

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Bolts Offer Tocchet Three-Year Extension

Jeanne Dupuis — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:47:00 +0000

TSN is reporting that the Tampa Bay Lightning have offered a three-year contract extensino to head coach Rick Tocchet. This will be Tocchet’s first full-time coaching contract since he’s mostly been an assistant coach. He also spent 18 seasons in the NHL as a player with Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington and Phoenix. During that time, he won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992 and went to the Finals with Philadelphia in 1987. This is impressive but I think Wayne Gretzky has shown that you can be an amazing player and still be a sucky coach, so…

If you remember, Tocchet was called in as an interim head coach after they fired Barry Melrose back in November. This, of course, was after Melrose took over when John Tortorella was fired. If I were him, I wouldn’t get too comfortable. I’m willing to bet, given Tampa’s record, that he’ll be fired before the three years is up.

image: TSN

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Bolts Sends Eminger to Panthers for Welch and 3rd Round Draft Pick

Jeanne Dupuis — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:07:35 +0000

The Tampa Bay Lightning have sent blue liner Steve Eminger to the Florida Panthers in exchange for defenceman Noah Welch and a third round draft pick.

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Veteran Forward Mark Recchi Joins Bruins

Jeanne Dupuis — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:46:38 +0000

I’m sure Mark Recchi is thrilled to be leaving the Tampa Bay Lightning to join the Boston Bruins, of the best teams in the league. I was watching TSN just now and he seemed really excited in a telephone interview about the deal. The 41-year-old had signed a one-year, $1.25 million deal with Tampa Bay prior to this season and is having a decent year so far having posted 13 goals and 32 assists in 62 games. In the 8-6 win over the Calgary Flames on Sunday, he contributed five assists.

image: TSN

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