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Bolts Face Emotional Homecoming Task with the Return of Marty St. Louis

By Angelo Resciniti

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The Tampa Bay Lightning open the doors to the Amalie Arena to take on former Lightning captain Martin St. Louis and the New York Rangers.

Perhaps poet Robert Frost put it best.

“Home is the place where,
when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.”
— THE DEATH OF THE HIRED MAN

Marty St. Louis is coming home tonight, and Tampa Bay Lightning fans will have to take him in, regardless of how he left this home, because of all the mighty things he has done for the Bolts. And that includes winning a little prize known as the Stanley Cup. Marty is coming home.

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Emotions will run loud and long in the Amalie Arena this evening when the Tampa Bay Lightning hosts the New York Rangers and their prodigal (but not sorrowful) son, “Louie, Louie” himself, in this pre-Thanksgiving clash of two of the NHL’s better teams a quarter of the way through the 2014-15 season.

First puck slams to the ice just after 7:30 p.m. in what is expected to be a cacophonous house, maybe even a house divided against itself. All because of the little winger who could, and did. Sun Sports will carry the TV cablecast. WFLA/970 will carry the radiocast. The Lightning will try to carry the night.

And with no disrespect to the guest of honor (or dishonor, depending on one’s perspective), it is just a hockey game being played tonight. Albeit an important match-up of two highly-talented teams who have hit some potholes on the road to expected playoff glory.

The Bolts and the Rangers met just nine days ago in New York, with the Lightning playing perhaps its best all-around game of the campaign in taking a dominating 5-1 win over the erstwhile Rags.

Since that ignominious defeat the Blueshirts have gone on a tear, shutting down and out both the Philadelphia Flyers and the NHL’s #1 team, the Montreal Canadiens, by scores of 2-0 and 5-0, respectively. The Bolts, on the other hand, went into a short slump after the big win in the Big Apple, losing badly to the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs by identical 5-2 scores before returning to form and making a defensive statement in a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

The Bolts and Rangers are both well-rested and relatively healthy (Victor Hedman still out for Tampa Bay and Ryan McDonagh out for the Rangers) coming into the game. The question, of course, is which version of each team will show up tonight. Will it be the stingy defensive-first squads both teams displayed in their previous outing or the porous and undisciplined units that have dismayed fans and fed the critics?

Mar 5, 2014; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers right wing Martin St. Louis (26) warms up before taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs at Madison Square Garden. St. Louis was traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

The answer, my friends, is in the blowing wind of emotions surrounding the return of Marty St. Louis. The players who block out the emotions — or feed on them big-time (as opposed to being distracted) — will carry the game on their focused sticks. And Marty St. Louis will be at the center of the storm. He enters the game with 998 career points, most of them earned during his distinguished 14 years with the Bolts. Picking up a couple of points to hit the storied 1,000-point mark and leading the Rangers to a 2-1 win on Tampa Bay ice might be the script he has written for himself. It is up to the Lightning, of course, to rewrite the story to a more desirable and less “Louie, Louie” outcome.

Tampa Bay enters the game with a 14-6-2 record, the 30 points tying the Bolts for fourth best in the NHL behind Montreal, Anaheim, and Vancouver.

The Lightning’s 77 goals scored is still #1 in the league and the +17 goal differential is third best. Steven Stamkos leads the Bolts in goals with 14 (tied for 2nd in the NHL) and in points with 24 (5th in the NHL), but it is center Alex Killorn who holds the hottest Lightning rod with goals in four straight games and points in five straight.

Goalie Ben Bishop has been a Rangers-killer throughout his career (6-0, .967 save percentage, 0.93 GAA, according to my neighbor Erik Erlendsson), so expect him to be in net against the Blueshirts. Bishop’s 12 wins in goal this season is 4th best in the league.

And while the return of Marty St. Louis and fellow former Bolts Dan Boyle and Dominic Moore might be getting the headlines, keep in mind that former Rangers Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle, and Anton Stralman will have some extra juice as they skate against their old pals.

New York comes in with a 9-7-4 record, the 22 points third best in the Metropolitan Division. The Rangers have scored but 57 goals this season, so trying to outgun the Bolts is probably not in tonight’s game plan.

Goaltenders Henrik Lundqvist and Cam Talbot authored the back-to-back shutouts and Lundqvist will try to thwart the many Lightning gunners tonight. Rick Nash, however, has been scoring regularly; his 14 goals ties Stammer for 2nd most in the league. Oh, and Marty St. Louis has been on a bit of a tear lately, with points in four straight games.

In speaking of Marty we go back to New Englander Robert Frost, no stranger to the ice (as in “Fire and Ice” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”).

“It all depends on what you mean by home.
Of course he’s nothing to us, any more
Than was the hound that came a stranger to us
Out of the woods, worn out upon the trail.”
— THE DEATH OF THE HIRED MAN

Some Lightning fans will say that Marty St. Louis can’t go home again (that’s an allusion for another road), but here he comes anyway. And no one can say “he’s nothing to us,” no way. Tonight, when he comes here, we’ll just have to take him in. And we’ll just have to take out his Rangers; out, out to the buzz saw in the woodshed.

This should be fun.

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