Philadelphia, PA (My Sportsbook) - They have had a tradition of ineptitude during their 11-year history. They had many wondering if the National Hockey League's expansion into the Sun Belt was the best of ideas. And as recently as last summer, they were a laughing stock at the NHL Entry Draft.
Well, they could very well be your Southeast Division champions in a few weeks.
Our topic today is the Tampa Bay Lightning. After years of enigmatic ownership, substandard playing facilities and just plain losing, it appears the folks on the Gulf Coast have finally got it right.
Under the guidance of rookie general manager Jay Feaster and head coach John Tortorella, the Bolts are in a surprising dogfight for the Southeast Division title with the Washington Capitals, whose payroll is roughly $20 million to the north.
But how has this been made possible? The New York Islanders went from one of the league's worst clubs in 2000-01 to a mid-level seed a season ago, but that turnaround was ignited by the key acquisitions of Alexei Yashin and Mike Peca. The Minnesota Wild are gearing up for the postseason in just their third campaign, but that is a result of simply sticking to a plan and letting a team evolve within itself.
The Lightning don't fit into either category. They're hardly an expansion team anymore and last summer didn't see the club land any marquee names like Yashin or Peca.
But it was one significant acquisition two seasons ago, surrounded by several seemingly harmless pickups that have gotten the Bolts to where they are today. That acquisition, of course, was All-Star goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, who had been holding out from the Phoenix Coyotes at the time. The backbone of the team was in place and it was just a matter of getting the rest of the body to fill out.
The components of that body are rich in variety, consisting of late-bloomers, hand-me-downs and a supposed has-been who might be the most crucial ingredient of all.
MARTIN ST. LOUIS - St. Louis arrived in Tampa almost a year before the Bulin Wall made his way there, and it was with much less fanfare. The University of Vermont product, who was never drafted, spent two years shuttling between Calgary and Saint John of the AHL before being released by the Flames after the 1999-2000 season. The Lightning decided to take a shot at the undersized winger, who primarily as a third-liner, had managed a mere four goals in 69 NHL games.
The hope was that with increased ice time in a more suitable role the three- time All-American would flourish and rediscover the touch that led him to ownership of the Vermont record books. Three seasons, 66 goals and a broken leg later St. Louis is an All-Star who ranks among the top 15 goal scorers in the NHL. Boy, couldn't the impotent Flames use that type of punch these days.
VACLAV PROSPAL - While St. Louis paces Tampa in the goal-scoring department, the team's leading point man is another hand-me-down in Prospal. The Czech native was a solid prospect for the Philadelphia Flyers in the mid-1990s, but was expendable enough to be included in a 1998 deal to Ottawa for the infamous Alexandre Daigle, who was cementing his status as a bust at the time. With the Senators, Prospal erupted for 22 goals and 33 assists in 1999-2000, but was moved to Florida in the middle of the following season for a draft pick after his production dipped once again. His stay with the Panthers was even shorter, as they dealt him to the Bolts in the offseason for fourth-liner Ryan Johnson.
At the age of 26, Prospal, with his fourth team, was building a nice resume as a journeyman rather than as the accomplished playmaker he was expected to be. However, injuries to the Lightning forward corps afforded him a chance to play regularly and the result was 18 goals and 17 assists last season. That showing earned him a spot on the team's second line this campaign and the result of that has been placement among the league's top-five assist men.
DAN BOYLE - Keeping with the theme of the unwanted player, Boyle was obtained from Florida in the middle of the 2001-02 season merely for a fifth-round pick. Viewed to be a purely offensive defenseman who was a liability in his own end, Boyle was a question mark entering this year. Well, he has shed that stigma and emerged as a regular in the top four, while landing in the top five in scoring among NHL blueliners. In addition to his 13 goals and 37 assists -- 8g, 17a on the power play -- Boyle is in the black (+9) for the first time in his career and leads the team in ice time many nights.
VINCENT LECAVALIER - Much of the talk in Tampa during the 2001-02 season involved speculation that Lecavalier, the top pick in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, would be traded elsewhere due to his spat with Tortorella and failure to live up to projections. That deal never happened and Lecavalier came into this season with a fresh outlook, sparking a resurgence in his output and attitude. Considering he is only 22-years-old, one has to wonder if the player of three years ago wasn't quite ready to be named team captain and anointed the franchise. Maybe he just needed to mature into those roles.
DAVE ANDREYCHUK - The Bolts' captain, Andreychuk pondered retirement after last season but decided to give it at least one more go-around. Tortorella needs to thank his lucky stars for that. Not only has the 39-year-old, who has made a living down in the trenches, been the polished rock in the middle of a youthful dressing room, but his goal production has stayed on par, including 13 scores with the man-advantage. Despite his age and lack of speed, Andreychuk still plays in all situations of a match, and remains among the elite faceoff specialists around. His presence will prove even more invaluable when the second season rolls around.
ONWARD AND UPWARD - With the exception of Andreychuk and, to a much lesser extent, Prospal, the above players aren't quite sure what they're in for in a few weeks when that final game is completed and the chips on the table increase. It will be a dissimilar animal to what the team is going through now, but then again the games down the stretch have been much different than those prior to the All-Star break, and Tampa is 11-4-6-1 since that point.
The Bolts, whose core group of players also includes set-up specialist Brad Richards and Fredrik Modin and his rifle of a shot, are certainly a club to be feared. Is a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals likely? Probably not, but who thought that Carolina would advance a year ago?
And Tampa Bay, while it plays a team-first style like the Hurricanes, has much more weaponry at its disposal that its Southeast Division brother did. While Khabibulin and an improved defense will give the Lightning the ability to simply stay in those close games so common in the spring, their firepower, specifically on the power play, will give them a chance at victory.
Traditional thinking is that goaltending and power-play performance wins in the playoffs, and the Lightning shine in both areas. Khabibulin has the ability to play at a world-class level, and the likes of Andreychuk and Boyle have helped the Bolts to the point where they are just a notch below the elite man-advantage units of the NHL.
Of course, Tortorella's troops still have to address the issue of their playoff positioning before going anywhere. A slip from the top of the Southeast Division would plunge them from the third seed to what could theoretically be as low as eighth. That scenario may mean a first-round date with Ottawa, New Jersey or Philadelphia, a trio also known as the cream of the crop in the East.
But a quarterfinal matchup with a club like Washington, Boston or the New York Islanders would give them a very good chance at advancement. If an upset or two were to occur above them, the Lightning could then find themselves in a favorable clash in round two as well. And once a team gets on a roll and believes in itself anything can happen, as the Canes proved in '02.
Basically, a two-month supply of lightning in a bottle is all it might take.
