With a 6-1 walloping of the Fin’s yesterday in semifinal play, the US moves to the gold medal round on Sunday @ 3pm EST.
This was a completely one sided affair almost from the start.  The US looked hungry, and the Fins made some early mistakes coupled with some awful goaltending and the game was a wrap at that point.
Early in the game, Ryan Malone, cleared a puck out of the defensive zone down the ice.  Due to the hustle of Phil Kessell, Finnish goalie Miika Kiprusoff was forced to come out and play the puck, and instead of passing it [...]

There have been a few monikers already labeled on most of the days of hockey thusfar in the Olympics, Super Sunday, Wonderful Wednesday, etc.  I’m not sure what to exactly call yesterday, but I must say that I was pretty excited to sit down and watch 4 hockey games between the top 8 teams in the World, and I was not let down.
US 2 Swiss 0
The US were clearly the better team in a game that they just had trouble had scoring in.   Jonas Hiller for the Swiss was phenomenal, stopping 42 of 43 shots.  The Americans looked like [...]

I had never been more excited for a Winter Olympics than this year.  It wasn’t for the chance to win the overall medal count, or to see Bode Miller or Shaun White wreak havoc, it was for one thing, and one thing only, the United States Olympic Hockey Team.  I thought Brian Burke did a fantastic job of putting together an American team with heart, grit, size and enough talented playmakers to make up for the fact that we don’t have as many elite level All Stars as the Canadiens or even the Russians for that matter.
The lines for the [...]

As everyone knows by now, the Bolts have 4 players representing their team in Vancouver.  God knows why Steven Stamkos isn’t among those players, but representing our team and their respective countries are Andrej Meszaros, Mattias Ohlund, Ryan Malone and Antero Niittymaki.
In the USA’s first game a 3 to 1 victory for the good guys, Ryan Malone put home the US’s 3rd goal in typical Malone fashion, grinding in front of the net.  He put home a power play goal that he hit at least 3 seperate times before it finally went in the net.   His line of Joe [...]

With GM Brian Lawton telling the St Pete Times yesterday that he would be aggressive in looking for deals to improve the club, and new owner Jeff Vinik saying that payroll could be increased if the right deal came along, BBTB will take a look at some potential Unrestricted Free Agents who could be dealt for that would help improve our club. With our payroll restrictions, more than likely a UFA will be the target for Lawton and team, as the Lightning could gain a rental at a prorated salary for the rest of the season, more than likely [...]

Steven Stamkos was named the Hockey News NHL Player of the Week yesterday.
Stammers who tied a Lightning record with a 13 game consecutive point streak, tallied 9 points last week.  He had 3 goals and 6 assists.
He is tied for 4th in the NHL with 35 goals.  Stammer who just recently celebrated his 20th bday, is also 7th in the league with 71 points.
He is on pace for a 97 point, 47 goal season.  My brother and I coined Stammer “40″ before the season started because we thought he would nail the 40 goal mark in his first full season, [...]

Coming off of a 4 game win streak, and a streak that saw the Bolts get points in 9 out of 11 games, the Bolts have proceeded to lose 2 straight games.
Thursday’s nights game vs the Boston Bruins was a real doozy.  The Bolts came out very flat, went down 4 to 0 in the first period.  Antero Niittymaki was then pulled for Mike Smith who hadn’t played in 14 games.  Smith let in another goal to put the count at 5 to 0.  At that point me and my brother left the Forum.  I rarely leave games early, but [...]

With a 3-1 home victory last night vs the Vancouver Canucks, the Bolts extended their win streak to 4 games, have picked up points in 8 of their last 9 games, and are 7-1-1 in their past 9. Antero Niitymaki has been the goaltender for 8 of those games, and he has been nothing short of spectacular, culminating in last nights 39 save effort vs the Canucks.
In his past 8 games, during the Lightning streak, he has seen 254 shots and stopped 245 of them, for a .964 save percentage and a 1.125 GAA.  I said it a few posts [...]