Third One Done & Lost

My Tampa Bay Lightning saw their season come to a disappointing end Thursday night, in large part because they failed to capitalize on the fact that Pittsburgh was down to just one good defenseman in Games Six and Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Penguins are good, maybe the best team in the league given their depth of skill at forward, and they played extremely well and deserved to win. The Lightning did not just "hand it to them."

Nonetheless, Tampa Bay had a 3-2 series lead, after which Pittsburgh found themselves down to one strong defenseman because of Trevor Daley's broken ankle. With the Bolts' much vaunted speed and skill at forward (and with their often-quarterbacking defenseman Victor Hedman) this was a golden, gift-wrapped opportunity for them to exploit to close out the series... But instead, they performed obviously worse than in the two games prior and they got badly outplayed, dropping Games Six and Seven to blow the opportunity that was before them.

In other words, they proved they do not -- at least not yet -- have what it takes to be a champion, despite being built specifically to win the Cup and acting like that was their lone raison d'etre this season. That led me to post a Facebook rant which generated some thumbs-up and some vociferous thumbs-down.

My rant was harsh and critical and I will not hide from my words. I said that ending the season the way they did made it a failure, and that it would have been better to miss the playoffs than go out like they did.

What I was getting at, but may not have been clear about, is that these Bolts are so talented and determined that merely having a good season is beneath them. Having a good season but only winning half of the possible playoff rounds -- and getting horribly outplayed to end the third round, even though they had a clear lane to win it and were talented enough to win it -- means they did not maximize their potential.

It was too negative of me to say it would have been better to not make the playoffs. But as anyone who has ever been around me when I am playing a sport or doing something I care about can attest, I am fiercely competitive, and witheringly critical of my own performance, and would rather finish last than second. In my brain, last place means you just weren't good enough, while second place means you were good enough but didn't get it done. The former suggests no fault of your own, the latter does.

Call that a psychological defect or character flaw if you want. You are probably right to a certain extent.

But do not, as some have done, suggest that me ranting means I am not a true or worthy fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I have watched and rooted for this team since Day One, which was in the autumn of 1992 when I was still matriculating at Auburn University. I remember being up in my college town, sitting at a table in Touchdowns Pub & Eatery, the night the Lightning won their inaugural game 7-3 over the Chicago Blackhawks.

I remember the date of the first game I attended in person: January 26, 1994. They outplayed and outchanced the stinkin' Florida Panthers, but John Vanbiesbrouck turned almost everything away and the game ended in a 1-1 tie (there were no shootouts back then, kiddos).

In 1998, sitting in Florida, I wrote a page and a half letter to the editor of the Edmonton Sun because one of its sportswriters had, in my opinion, slandered Tampa Bay hockey fans. I remember the writer's name (Robert Tychkowski) and his exact words that most set me off (he said we "wouldn't know snow unless it was shipped in from Colombia").

16 years ago, when the Lightning were floundering in their darkest days, I sat at a table in Port Angeles, Washington -- within sight of Victoria, British Columbia -- and defended the team's history and fan base while talking to a Canadian couple (a perfectly delightful couple, I hasten to add).

This little blog o' mine is a pure labor of love on which I make not a penny. But for years now I have spent many late night and early morning hours writing posts about the Lightning after Erika and the kids have gone to bed. Some of the posts have been glowing, some have been critical, and some have been "down the middle," but they have all been an honest and objective appraisal of what my eyes and brain tell me. I would not have carved such time out of my life and sacrificed so much sleep (sometimes at the expense of my liver) if I did not love this team.

Being a fan does not mean oblige a person to refrain from criticizing his team when criticism is warranted. In my view, withholding criticism simply makes you a yes man.

I complimented the Bolts after they lost in last year's Stanley Cup Finals, and was generally positive about them after they got swept in the first round the year before that. I did not flip out when they lost the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals in a Game Seven.

In each of those years, with their experience level taken into account, the Bolts made the most of their ability and maxed out their potential. This season was different, and was also the last year of this roster's window of opportunity before looming salary cap issues (and the specter of having to leave players exposed in a possible expansion draft) start to impose gut-wrenching personnel losses. This was their shot, and they may not have won the Cup regardless, but the way they went down in Games Six and Seven was beneath them -- and if I am going to opine, I am going to be true to my opinion.

I challenge anyone to read not just the above posts, but the one I wrote when Martin St. Louis retired, or my one about the Lightning's first playoff team (which lost in the first round after having a series lead, by the way), or my one acknowledging the tenth anniversary of their Stanley Cup, and tell me they weren't written by a true and worthy fan.

I do have good memories of this season. I do appreciate Victor Hedman taking up the slack by playing seemingly infinite minutes when Anton Stralman was out. I enjoyed the clutch scoring of Nikita Kucherov, the dazzling emergence of Jonathan Drouin, the elimination game shutouts by Ben Bishop, and the determined goaltending of Andrei Vasilevskiy after Bishop got injured.

But none of that changes the fact that the season was a failure by the team's own criteria. The team had one goal; and not only did it not attain that goal, it finished farther away from it than it did the year before. That is a fact, and a significant one. I am not going to refrain from saying it.

And I am not going to refrain from being a fan of this team. There is not a player on our roster I would swap for any player on another team's roster. There is a not a coach in the NHL who I would rather have behind our bench than Jon Cooper. There is not a GM in the world I would rather have in our front office than Steve Yzerman, and not an owner in the world I would rather have than Jeffrey Vinik.

Forever shall I say Go Bolts!


PS: In the interest of full disclosure, below is that Facebook rant I was talking about. I took the liberty of underlining the words that I think some people might not have paid attention to when they read it that night:

I could say well you had a good season Ligthtning, thanks for some good memories... But that would be a lie about the way I feel, and would be the kind of thing that is said by losers like the Dallas Stars... The Bolts had a 3-2 series lead, with the Penguins down to one good defenseman, and they failed to close out the series... Last year they made it to the finals and this year they returned the entire roster except for their worst player, yet they went backwards instead of forwards... Their backup goalie played his ass off and his teammates gave him no support, while Pittsburgh's backup played his ass off and his teammates did give him support... It would have been better to not make the playoffs than go out like this. This team failed. It is extremely unfair for me to say that from my couch, but it is true. Gotta call it like I see it.

Second One Won & Done

By disposing of Detroit on April 21st, the Tampa Bay Lightning became the first team to advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

And now, having disposed of the NY Islanders yesterday afternoon, they are also the first team to advance past the second round.

They won both series 4-1, which means they are 8-2 so far this post-season. And they have accomplished that despite being depleted by injuries, as Steven Stamkos has missed the entire post-season due to blood clots; and indispensable top-pairing defenseman Anton Stralman has missed it all with a broken fibula; and J.T. Brown, a hard-grinding character guy who makes things happen by doing the dirty work, has missed most of it after sustaining an undisclosed lower body injury  in Game Two against Detroit.

The Bolts are 2-0 in overtime and notched shutouts in both series-clinching games. Although they have played fewer games than all the other other teams that are still alive, Nikita Kucherov has more goals these playoffs (nine) than anyone else in the league while he and Tyler Johnson rank third and second in total points production, with 12 and 13, respectively. And they are both +11, which makes them tied for first in plus/minus followed immediately by Alex Killorn at +10.

In other words, this Lightning squad's playoff performance is starting to seem spookily strong.

However, the playoffs are only halfway over and a sickeningly strong opponent awaits them in the Eastern Conference Final, regardless of whether that opponent is the Pens or Caps.

Before the ECF begins, here are some thoughts about the round that just ended and what lies ahead.


Bish
Goaltender Ben Bishop missed the 2014 playoffs because of injuries, so last year's run to the Stanley Cup Final marked his first ever playoff appearance.

Combining that run with this year's, he has won five of the six series in which he has played, and has clinched four of those five with shutouts: 2-0 over Detroit in Game Seven of the first round in 2015; 2-0 over the NY Rangers in Game Seven of the 2015 ECF; 1-0 over Detroit in Game Five of the first round this year; and 4-0 over the Islanders in Game Five of the second round this year.

Plus, he is 5-0 in overtime.

So far this post-season he has racked up a .938 save percentage and 1.89 goals-against average.

In the recently ended series against the Isles, Bishop kept the Bolts alive in Games Three and Four by withstanding Blitzkrieg-style first-period assaults in which they were outshot 17-9 and 15-6. In both instances, they came back to force OT and then won in OT.

That, mes amies, is championship caliber goaltending.


Kuch
Nikita Kucherov is an elite sniper with one of the quickest releases I've ever seen. But whereas most snipers are streaky, he is every bit as reliable as Old Faithful, that famed Yellowstone geyser that erupts every 35 to 120 minutes, day-in, day-out.

In the Lightning's ten playoff games, Kucherov's goal output has been as follows: two, one, zero, two, zero, one, zero, one, one, and one. In four of those games he scored the team's first goal. In two of them (Games Three and Four versus the Isles) he scored in the third period to force OT in games the team ultimately won.

And heres's the thing: Despite being a sniper who is known almost exclusively for his scoring, and despite being scratched for most of the 2014 playoffs because his defensive play was lacking, Nikita Kucherov has developed into an all-around player who digs pucks out of the corners and battles like a gladiator at the top of the crease.

That, mes amies, is superstar material.


Thor
With the first pick of the 2009 NHL draft, the Islanders opted for John Tavares, an uber talented centerman from Mississauga, Ontario.

With the second pick of that same draft, the Lightning opted for Victor Hedman, an uber talented defenseman from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. With a home town like that and visage like this, surely you'll understand why some people call him Thor.

In any event, this year's second round matched Tavares and Thor head to head and Thor vanquished Tavares as though wielding Mjolnir tself.

Tavares dazzled the hockey world in the Isles' first round win over Florida. He accounted for nine points in six games capped by an exquisite, series-clinching, wrap-around goal in overtime in Game Six. His performance caused some to anoint him the present king of New York hockey, above King Henrik Lundqvist Himself.

But against the Lightning, forced to face Thor shift after shift, Tavares was defanged and dethroned and registered neither a goal nor an assist after the 8:59 mark of the second period of Game One. Across the course of five games, he managed to get off only ten shots on net.

Thor, on the the other hand, accounted for eight points in the series (four goals and four assists), including the series-winning goal, despite being a defenseman. I don't think I need to say more.


Signs they can go deep
Bishop. See above.

Also as noted above, they have made it this far, in so few games, despite being plagued by the injury bug.

They have won eight of ten playoff games despite having played only one complete game, and that game happens to have been the most recent, which shows they are going in the right direction.

Resilience and outstanding coaching. No matter how hard against the wall their backs may be, the Bolts keep an even keel and remain cool as a cucumber. They rise to and above the moment, rather than allowing the moment to overwhelm them. In this, they take the lead from Coach Jon Cooper and crash the net with it. There is no one else I would rather have leading my team.

Like I already said back on April 22nd, their penalty kill is to penalty killing what Prince was to music.


Signs they can't go deep
They have played ten playoff games and managed only one, perhaps two, complete games. That ain't gonna cut it if grasping the Holy Grail is your goal.

They always start slow.

They are always in the penalty box multiple times in the first period.

Their passes are seldom crisp until the third period rolls around.


But...
...we are in the ECF for the second year in a row and third in the past six; and while there are many logical reasons that either the Pens or Caps will be favored over us in the ECF, there are a few logical reasons to tab us the favorite.

Bring it on. I am temporarily satisfied.

Go Bolts!

First One Won & Done

My last two very late nights -- or maybe I should say my last two very early mornings -- have been spent writing a post about my thoughts concerning the Trump terror phenomenon (it's bad) and Harriet Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson on the twenty (it's good). Right now I should probably be finishing it.

But I just got done watching my Tampa Bay Lightning chuck aside the Detroit Red Wings and become the first NHL team to advance past the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. So I am going to write about them instead, even though I won't finish writing this tonight (at least not to my anal retentive standards for hitting the "publish" button).

In any event, while typing away I am going to be listening to some "Little Red Corvette" and "Raspberry Beret." And, of course, "When Doves Cry." How dare Prince Rogers Nelson, aka Prince, die an untimely death this morning? I remember girls singing "Purple Rain" outside the walls of the late, great Riviera Middle School in '84 and '85, and I remember half the bus on the way to our eighth grade field trip to Disney World doing the same. The flesh-and-blood that created a big chunk of the soundtrack of my youth just got ripped away from the world, and I am not ok with that.

But before I get sidetracked, let me get back to hockey...

Bish

I've already written why Lightning goalie Ben Bishop deserves the Vezina. Tonight he proved it even more.

One of the things needed for a team to win the Stanley Cup is for its goalie to steal a game or two that it really shouldn't win. Until tonight the Bolts hadn't gotten that this post-season, but now they have.

The Wings dominated each of the first two periods but especially the second, when they notched six breakaways by my count, yet Bishop stopped 'em all. At the end of two, Detroit had 16 scoring chances to the Lightning's six, yet the score was tied at zero all because of Bishop. Not only did he turn shots away, he also played the puck like a forward, situationally stickhandling it away from the net and passing to teammates to keep it away from the Wings.

One round into the playoffs, he has a 1.61 GAA and .950 save percentage... This is only his second trip to the post-season, yet for his career he already has four post-season shutouts and three of them have been series-enders... He has given up two or fewer goals in 10 of his last 11 post-season games... Money. That's what he is.

Kuch

Nikita Kucherov did not score last night (I told you I wouldn't finish this the same night I started) but so what?

In the five games the Bolts have played these playoffs, he's tallied eight points and had two multi-goal games. Even though his career is still nascent (he's 22 and this is only his third season) he has rung up 31 points (16, 15) in 33 playoff games. And let's not forget that his first NHL goal came on his first shot, in his first shift, against none other than Henrik Lundqvist.

Kucherov has one of the quickest releases I've ever seen. Hell, Phil Esposito says it's one of the quickest he has ever seen. Four of his five goals in Round One came from the right circle on lasers that moved so fast they looked rapid even in slow motion. Being a lefty with a shot like that makes the right circle Kucherov's province, and he was so dominant from there against Detroit that from now on I might stop calling it the right circle and instead call it "The Kucherov."


Drouin
It's impossible to opine about the Detroit series without opining about the stellar job Jonathan Drouin has done in redeeming himself after the debacle which was the last half of his regular season.

In case you don't know, that debacle involved him demanding to be traded despite his youth and relative lack of production, then being demoted to Syracuse, then failing to report to Syracuse, then being suspended indefinitely until he finally ate crow and reported after a phone call to GM Steve Yzerman.

I'm trying to keep this post from becoming too long, so I will limit my Drouin comments to two things:

First, as impressive as his four-assist production has been -- and three of those four assists were highlight-reel creme de la creme set-ups -- I am most impressed by the way he is hitting people and showing the kind of piss and vinegar that is required for playoff success. He has made mistakes, including a few bad turnovers, but he is also proving he is more than willing to work hard and that he is worthy of people believing he can be a cornerstone.

Second, because the Lightning's skaters were so awful in Game Five, I have to point out that Drouin was not. He was one of only two skaters (the other being fourth-liner Valdislav Namestnikov) who showed jump and oomph throughout the whole game. (Apparently there was some flu going around the locker room that affected several players last night, but still...)


Signs they can go deep
For starters, see the above. Bishop is an elite goaltender and Kucherov is an elite sniper.

Also, Tyler Johnson again proved he is clutch and that his eye-popping performance in last year's playoffs was no fluke. He did that by scoring two third period goals to win Game Two.

The Bolts as a whole, and especially Ryan Callahan, are willing to sacrifice their bodies by blocking shots before they get to Bishop.

Valtteri Filppula is superb at the little things that make all the difference without ever appearing on the stat sheet.

The Bolts' penalty kill is to penalty killing what Prince was to music.

Their deep run last year gave them all the playoff experience they need.

Jon Cooper is one of the best coaches walking Planet Earth. There is literally nobody else I would rather have coaching my team.


Signs they can't go deep
Although they put the Wings away in five, which is good, the Bolts were outplayed in two of the five games.

Their defensive depth is shaky. Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman are one of the best top-pairing defense combos in the game, but Stralman remains sidelined by the fractured fibula he suffered three weeks ago; and when you get below them on the depth chart, Jason Garrison is the only D'man whose defensive acumen strikes genuine fear in the hearts of opponents.

Ten of their twelve goals against Detroit were scored by guys who play on their top playoff line. You definitely can't win the Cup (and probably can't make a deep run) if you don't get points "down-roster" from lower lines. Stars often cancel each other out, causing a situation in which the unsung guys are the ones who make the difference in a series; and so far, where points are concerned, the Lightning's unsung guys have not shown any reason to remove them from the ranks of the unsung (and the same is true even for their second line).

As good as it felt to eliminate the Wings for the second year in a row, there is a very legit question concerning how big an accomplishment that is. The Wings' roster is talented but aging, and they have now failed to get past the first round in four of the last five seasons.

And, finally, the Bolts are frustratingly inconsistent.


But...
...I am temporarily satisfied.

Advancing in the playoffs is always good and I am going to enjoy this until the next round starts. Go Bolts!

The Bolts

The Stanley Cup Playoffs start this week, so I am tempted to opine about the most rigorous and passionate and glorious-slash-devastating postseason in all of sports...but I have done that before, and to do it again would probably descend into a trotting-out of cliches and a recycling of the adjectives used earlier in this sentence.

On the other hand, this year marks the 10th anniversary of my Tampa Bay Lightning winning their first Stanley Cup, and it also marks their return to the playoffs after a two-year absence...so my fingers are itching to opine about this year's squad while looking back to the champions that took the NHL by storm a decade ago.

From the perspective of a Tampa Bay hockey fan, what better way is there to herald the arrival of the playoffs?

And from a continental perspective, what more unique way is there to herald the arrival? (Don't say "national perspective," because as you certainly know, NHL teams come from two countries, not one!)

*     *     *     *     *

The 2003-04 Lightning were no flash in the pan. Nor were they one of those teams that pulls off an improbable run by getting carried on the back of a hot goalie while being outclassed everywhere else on the ice.

Team captain Dave Andreychuk holds the NHL record for most power play goals in a career, and is almost certain to make the Hall of Fame. He was 40 years old when the Bolts won it all and he accounted for 14 points during those playoffs.

Three other forwards from that team (Martin St. Louis, Vinny Lecavalier, and Brad Richards) will receive serious consideration for Hall of Fame induction because of their stellar and lengthy careers.

St. Louis won that season's Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player...and the Lester B. Pearson Award as the league's most outstanding player...and the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in points (a feat he also accomplished last year at the age of 38).

Meanwhile, Nikolai Khabibulin is one of the greatest Russian-born goaltenders in history, widely considered to be second only to the legendary Vladislav Tretiak.

Dan Boyle has been one of the league's most dependable defensemen for more than a decade now, and Pavel Kubina is "in the conversation" about which player is the best Czech-born defenseman to ever play the game.

And John Tortorella became the first American to win the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year.

*     *     *     *     *

Of course, no team can win a championship if it does not have selfless players who fill their roles without getting headline publicity, and the 2003-04 Bolts had plenty of them.

With a lumberjack's work ethic and an uncanny nose for the puck, Fredrik Modin was the prototypical Swede. It was he who scored the winning goal in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals, and it is worth noting that two years later he helped lead Team Sweden to its first gold medal of the Olympics' "NHL Era."

Although Ruslan Fedotenko wound up with just one 20-goal season during his 12-year career, he had a knack for putting the puck in the net when it mattered most. It was he who scored both goals in the the ring-clinching, 2-1 victory in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, and he is the only player from Ukraine ever to get his name engraved on the Cup.

Then there was Tim Taylor, a gritty third-liner who was in the twilight of his career and already had a Cup to his name from his days in Detroit. He provided valuable locker room leadership by playing through pain and imparting wisdom from his prior experiences.

And there was Chris Dingman, who enjoyed doing the dirty work and didn't care who got the "front-page bold-type." Dingman is now an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster who co-hosts the best sports radio show in the Tampa Bay market and contributes commentary and interviews to Lightning telecasts on Sun Sports Network.

Plus, there was defenseman Darryl Sydor, who had won a Cup five years earlier with Dallas and was acquired at the trade deadline for the specific purpose of adding championship experience to Tampa Bay's blue line. Needless to say, he proved to be the shrewdest late-season acquisition in franchise history.

*     *     *     *     *

The Bolts' playoff run was a mix of everything that goes into championships, as they dominated the first two rounds against the Islanders and Canadiens, then went all the way to seventh games in the final two rounds against the Flyers and Flames. The fact that they played both Game Sevens on home ice proved how significant it was that they finished the regular season with the league's best record.

There were both blowouts and nail-biters along the way, but as is usually the case at hockey's summit, nail-biters were far more common. The fine line between victory and defeat was evident even during the Lightning's second-round sweep of Montreal, for with 17 seconds remaining in Game Three it looked like Montreal was going to win and pull within 2-1 in the series.

Then Vinny Lecavalier tied it up with the best goal I have ever seen, lifting his stick backwards between his legs and tipping Andreychuk's shot past Jose Theodore to force overtime. Then, a mere 1:05 into the extra session, Brad Richards circled behind Montreal's goal and ended the game by intentionally banking a shot off of Theodore's skate and into the net. Just like that, what was about to be a close series became transformed into a rout. (And on an interesting side note, it is one of only two times in history that the sport's most storied franchise has been swept out of the playoffs at home.)

Moving forward, the Lightning had to survive an elimination game in the Cup Finals, when, trailing the series 3-2, they traveled to Calgary for Game Six before an eardrum-piercing crowd in the Saddledome. It went deep into double overtime before Martin St. Louis scored on a breakaway to send the series back to Tampa for the decisive Game Seven.

*     *     *     *     *

When it comes to this year's Lightning, I am under no illusions that they have more than a slugger's chance of repeating the glories of that squad from a decade ago.

The 2003-04 Bolts had the best record in the NHL; a perfect blend of young guns and graybeards; a proven clutch goaltender; and a head coach who was not a newbie to the NHL.

On the other hand, the 2013-14 Bolts are extremely young; led by a rookie coach; and have shown an alarming tendency to turn the puck over in their own zone...not to mention the fact that the Boston Bruins, who eliminated Tampa Bay during its last playoff appearance, look damn near invincible.

Still, there is something very special about this team and I know they have what it takes to be a major factor in the playoffs. These Bolts have shown a ton of character in the way they have overcome adversity, some of which was self-inflicted and some of which was not (for example, I have never seen a team so continuously rise above the untimely goals-against that result from the turnovers I mentioned above).

It has been a treat to watch such a young roster keep its nose to the grindstone and find ways to win despite the departures of franchise cornerstones Lecavalier and St. Louis -- and despite the recent injury to starting goalie Ben Bishop, who is in the running for the Vezina Trophy after setting the franchise record for wins in a season.

The way the Lightning's rookies and veterans alike have embraced the guidance of first-year NHL Coach Jon Cooper shows they are focused on winning and not prone to whining.

Perhaps most importantly, going back to the matter of Bishop's recent and apparently significant "upper body injury," it is worth noting how the Lightning's goaltending is suddenly a strength after having been a glaring weakness for most of the years since Khabibulin departed.

Backup Anders Lindback was a victim of bad luck and poor defensive support in many of his appearances earlier this season, but in his three games since Bishop's injury he has given up just two goals -- and just as important, the team has rallied in front of him.

To occupy the roster spot behind Lindback, the Lightning called up Kristers Gudlevskis, a 21-year-old from Latvia who made waves in the recent Olympics when he stopped 55 of 57 shots against Team Canada -- a performance that almost resulted in a Latvia-over-Canada outcome that might have been the biggest upset in Olympic history.

When brought across the ocean this week by the Lightning, Gudlevskis responded by stopping 36 of 38 shots and defeating playoff-bound Columbus in his first-ever NHL game.

*     *     *     *     *

In short, not only do I think that the Lightning's goaltending corps has what it takes to make an impact in the playoffs -- I actually expect it to make an impact.

As much as I love Bishop and the fact he is an American, a certain part of me believes it is Gudlevskis who is destined for greatness. Can he become our Brodeur, or Roy, or Plante? It is way too early to know, but I have an inexplicable kind of faith that he will become something special for us.

Of course, not everything is hunky dory in Boltsville. Ryan Malone was arrested for DUI early Saturday morning and cops found a bag of cocaine in his pocket.

Yet as disturbing as that is, and as distracting as it could be, I think the rest of the team will use the incident as another opportunity to prove its "rise above" character.

My first thought when I heard of Malone's arrest was: How the hell could you fuck up like that, now of all times!

But my second thought was: Well, maybe that explains why he's been kind of a no-show this year.

And it was followed by the thought that the team will be even better because a problem has been identified so it can be dealt with.

I do hope that Malone overcomes whatever demons put him in a jail cell, and I would be happy if he overcomes them while playing and producing during this postseason. But when it comes to this team, when I think about the resolve its players have collectively shown, I just believe in my soul that Malone's issues will not make a difference.

Go Bolts!

Lightning Notes

I am not superstitious, but there is something about the NHL playoffs that toys with a man's head.

I wanted to wait until the first round was over to write anything about the Tampa Bay Lightning's performance. That's exactly what I did, and it seemed to work out as they beat Pittsburgh in seven games.

Then in the second round, I wrote about it as it was unfolding and the Lightning did even better -- not merely beating the Washington Capitals but sweeping them.

Now we are four games into the third round, which is the Eastern Conference Final, and I had not written a word until a minute ago. The series has been one of dramatic ups and downs with Tampa Bay and Boston tied at two games apiece -- which is obviously not bad for the Lightning, especially after their impressive comeback yesterday, but they simply have not played as good as they did against Washington.

I found myself wondering if I should mention them in the middle of this series, to get some of that round two mojo going again...or if I should wait until it is over, just in case the secret is to alternate the rounds in which I say something mid-series with the rounds in which I say something post-series.

Obviously, I decided to go ahead and throw caution to the wind. I figured, since I am supposedly not superstitious anyway and am definitely not going to be on the ice, why worry? So here a few general notes on my team.

For starters, I can't allow the retirement of Fredrik "Freddy" Modin to pass without being noticed. The strong, fast Swede with a blistering shot played for Toronto before he played for Tampa Bay, and for other teams afterward, but those of us from the Bay area will always think of him as one of ours. During his six years here he tallied 155 goals and 152 assists, including the winning goal in Game Seven of the 2004 Eastern Conference Final. He played a huge role in the Lightning's Stanley Cup championship that year. Back problems forced him to hang up his skates a few days ago at the age of 37.

Since the Bolts are playing the Bruins this round, I have gotten to thinking about how cool it would be if they won the Cup and once again had Phil Esposito's name etched onto it as the team founder. If that were to happen, it would mean that Esposito's name is on the Cup as a Bolt just as many times as it is on it as a Bruin. That, combined with eliminating the Bruins from the race, would be good to throw back at those Boston fans who fall into the "obnoxious" category.

I have no analysis for how the Eastern Conference Final has gone so far. None of the games have had any resemblance to the others, and even the periods seem to be very different from one to the next. There has been amazingly good play and also amazingly sloppy play. After looking like Conn Smythe material through the first two rounds, Lightning G Dwayne Roloson has been pulled from the net twice. But on the other hand, Bruins G Tim Thomas hasn't exactly been stellar either, since the Bolts have scored five goals in three of the four games. The only thing I'm sure of is that this is the most helter skelter playoff series I have seen in many years, and if it keeps going like this it will be the most helter skelter one I have ever seen.

And in case you didn't hear about it, a bunch of fans did something cool today when the Lightning's plane left Tampa International Airport bound for Boston: They gathered and stood in the shape of a lightning bolt that the players could see while taking off. For a picture of it, go here.

And lastly: Go Bolts!