Winning Streak Comes To An End, Time To Start A New One

huladoll — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:44:34 +0000

February 2, 2012; Tampa FL, USA; Winnipeg Jets center Bryan Little (18) and Tampa Bay Lightning right wing J.T. Wyman (34) go after the puck during the first period at Tampa Bay Times Forum.

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, this will be a tough, must win game. The Panthers always seem to be a team that they struggle against. When the pressure of the, according to the stats, better teams is on, The Lightning seem to do great and play hard. As I’ve said before, it’s a good thing that the team doesn’t look at the stats. They live for THIS game in the HERE AND NOW. Focus on tonight. Not the past. On yesterday’s loss Coach Boucher told the media when asked if he was disappointed:

“No, it’s not disappointing. I found it encouraging that we played so well. We have two more opportunities at home and we don’t want to change our focus. I tell our guys that everything is in front of us. There’s nothing left behind. Everything is front of us, and the more you think about yesterday, the less prepared you are for today.”

Last night the guys played really hard and extremely well for most of the game. Most of it. Not a full 60 minutes.

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Winning Streak Comes To An End, Time To Start A New One - Bolts by the Bay - Bolts by the Bay - A Tampa Bay Lightning Blog

FanSided Friday: Bolts By The Bay Edition

Black Sheep Jim — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:14:43 +0000

Photo Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

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 on Stammer check out BBTB Lora Andrews’ recent piece on him). On Thursday, we watched Kyle Wellwood score the OT winner for the Jets. The Bolts snagged three points out of a possible four in those two games, which is never really a bad thing, but considering our current position in the standings,we cannot afford to give up a single point to divisional opponents, let alone conference opponents. Except for some work to be done on passing and preventing turnovers, they were two very well played games. There is still a long road ahead of the team in vying for a playoff spot, but if they can continue to improve on their fundamentals and the details of the game, making a spot no longer seems as much of a long shot as it did prior to the break.

Now that this week in Tampa Bay has been quickly recapped I would like to share some notable posts from around the FanSided-NHL Network. … [visit site to read more]

FanSided Friday: Bolts By The Bay Edition - Bolts by the Bay - Bolts by the Bay - A Tampa Bay Lightning Blog

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Winning Streak Comes To An End, Time To Start A New One

FanSided Friday: Bolts By The Bay Edition