Lightning

As we all are well aware of, it has been a rough year both mentally and physically for our Tampa Bay Lightning, from the repeated injuries to the appearance of a letdown after last year’s surprising success.  However I am not yet willing nor wanting to call this season a letdown, only when the Bolts stop striving and stop being relentless, is when I will call this season a letdown.  But that is beside the point, tonight the skaters, management and fans are all in a good mood.  Victor Hedman, Tom Pyatt, Ryan Shannon, and JT Wyman will return to [...]

Now that the NHL All Star weekend has shown us that Zedeno Chara might have to register his shot as a deadly weapon and that the Lightning’s own Steven “Elimination Shout Out King” Stamkos “just went with it” by giving fans and players alike a good reason for wearing a backwards baseball hat, we can enjoy one more night away from the 82-game regular season grind. Tomorrow, however, will be another day and the Bolts collective will gather together again getting back to work with a late afternoon practice in Brandon, FL. The next scheduled regular season game on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at [...]

Jan. 21 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos. Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE Daniel Alfredsson and Henrik Lundqvist spent yesterday picking which of their players will participate in which contests during tonight’s 2012 Molson Canadian All-Star Skills Competition. Alfredsson and Lundqvist together as captain and assistant captain respectively had the upper hand in making their selections. As a goaltender, Lundqvist knows well enough who will strive in a specific skill while Alfredsson shares this weekend with three of his Ottawa Senators teammates and personally knows their strengths and weaknesses. Steven Stamkos has been slated for the Canadian Tire [...]

This is the time of year when most NHLers get to relax, visit home, etc… and the fans are excited to see all of the super stars of the sport in one game, showcasing their talents together. This year the best talent in the league gather in Ottawa for the 2012 All-Star Weekend. However, not everyone will be taking this week to get away or relax. The Lightning has had some major injuries hit them hard, and some of them are looking forward to returning to the ice when they resume from the break. Victor Hedman, for one, said that [...]

The NHL All Star Weekend is upon us and already there have been events surrounding the games and skills competition trending mercilessly in the circles that build the picture of professional hockey. Surely, this news of an Ovechkin-less weekend and this news of “Couture Comes Last” have already been pile-driven into the fleeting zeitgeist of we who bow to the whims of the Hockey Gods more quickly than one NHLer can skate or send a puck to the net via stick. The All Star activities are, for the likes of me anyway, a chance to take a miniscule break from the [...]

Over the last few years there has been a few grumblings here and there amongst writers and talk-show hosts that there is no longer a need for an All Star Game, in any league.  Hockey’s All Star Game is brought up more and more as the best example why, as the type of game played is not quite the same as the game we all know and love.  How so?  There is no hitting or hard checking, which is completely understandable as this is supposed to be a fun game and exhibition of the skills of the best skaters and [...]

I recently published an opinion piece for my college newspaper, The Humber Et Cetera. I focused on the topic of non-concussion head injuries and how they seem to be overlooked by the NHLPA in a time where concussions are happening of a rate close to 100 per game (this is a rough estimate). As serious as concussions are, other head injuries are occuring just as much – potential career-ending injuries that could easily be avoided with the simple implementation of a rule that helmets and visors be mandatory at all times on the ice, especially when pucks are in play. [...]

In honor of All-Star Game week, I thought I would take a moment to honor past & present players of the Tampa Bay Lightning who have made the All-Star games in years past. This year, we only have one participant in the All-Star Game, and as we all know, that’s Steven Stamkos. Stamkos is the goal leader in the NHL right now with 32 goals. The first player in the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise to make it to the All-Star Game was Brian Bradley. Brian Bradley not only made the All-Star Game in 1993 (the Lightning’s first year of existence), [...]