NHL

The Tampa Bay Lightning had their five game winning streak snapped by The Winnipeg Jets. Tonight they look to take on our in-state rivals The Florida Panthers. The cats come out of the litter box and in to Bolt Nation territory. Here’s a quick recap of the last game and a preview of tonight’s. Why do we do these previews? A good strategy is to know your enemy! The Panthers are a dangerous threat this year, and The Lightning have got to focus on playing a full sixty minutes of hockey. Even though it’s on home ice for The Bolts, [...]

Happy Friday Bolts Nation! We are now five days removed from the NHL All Star Break and have gladly welcomed back our Bolts in Blue to the ice of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, and what a exciting week of Tampa Hockey it has been.  The Lightning played two games this week against divisional foes, the Washington Capitals and the Winnipeg Jets, during which we saw both games go to overtime with different results.  On Tuesday’s game against the Capitals we watched as Steven Stamkos potted yet another OT winner, notching his 33rd league-leading goal of the season (For more [...]

Every NHL season brings with it discussions from a variety of sources, inside and outside the league, about rules and regulations. If any one were to mention the “trapezoid” or “shoot outs” to me, the result would be the addition of the word “heated” to any such discussion. One topic arises often in today’s NHL that confounds enough people often enough to prompt this post today. Many of the hockey loving variety are vocal in their discontentment with the notion that both a “diving” (or embellishment) penalty and a “tripping” (or similar, check out “slew footing” and others listed here just for [...]

Coming off a hard-earned overtime win against the Southeast Division-leading Washington Capitals, the Tampa Bay Lightning look to extend their season-high five game winning streak to six games as they host one of the teams they are trailing in the division–the Winnipeg Jets. Winnipeg comes into Tampa flying high also after recording a shootout win, 2-1, in Philadelphia Tuesday night. For the Lightning, Mathieu Garon will be back in net following his nice performance in the Bolts overtime win over the Caps Tuesday night. It’s expected that the Jets will start Ondrej Pavelec. The last time these two teams met [...]

Daughter of Lightning founder and NHL Hall Of Famer Phil Esposito, Carrie Esposito Selivanov, passed away on Monday, January 30, 2012 from an unknown illness. She passed away in Germany where she was residing with her family. She leaves behind her husband, former NHLer and  Tampa Bay Lightning player Alex Selivanov, and  three children, Dylan (18), Nikko (13) and Rocco (10). Phil Esposito released a statement this evening regarding his daughter’s passing: “On behalf of Alex Selivanov, Carrie’s sisters Laurie and Cherise, and my wife Bridget, I’d like to thank everyone in the Tampa Bay community and in the hockey fraternity [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]