Tampa Bay Lightning BAGM Dynasty (NHL10)

[kingalexander]

St. Petersburg Times


Lightning have work to do


The Tampa Bay lightning want to add another Stanley Cup during the 09/10 season.


If fans were to come away with something from the weekend festivities, it could be that big changes are coming.

Expect big changes both in the front office and the locker room of the Tampa Bay Lightning. According to current team captain Vincent Lecavalier, no one in the organization is safe.

"Right now it's safe to say we are in a transition as a hockey club. We've won a Stanley Cup and since then we haven't done anything worth mentioning" said Lecavalier.

"The owners are going to do something about it, so it's safe to say that changes are very close. But it also means that any of us are on the chopping block."

This comes after Lecavalier was asked about the state of the Lighting during the first annual player meet and greet held on the grounds of the St. Pete Times Forum. Fans are able to meet the players surely to be on the team, despite the final rosters haven't been announced. This was the first time the Lighting hosted an event like this during the offseason, which included games and activities for both children and adults.

A sure thing to be on the final roster that will be announced on Thursday afternoon, winger Martin St. Louis also commented on the question Vincent Lecavalier was asked about and surprised many with his statement.

"Yeah, I heard about that whole change that they are wanting to make and I think it's a big possibility that I'm leaving and Vinny is leaving too."

Of course, he was only trying to get a reaction from fans around him as he let off a light chuckle afterwords, stating it was only a joke about the departure of the Lightning's top two forwards.

But only a few can assume what the Tampa Bay Lightning have in store for their fans, something that is sure however, is they don't want to have another season at the bottom of the standings.

[kingalexander]

Lighting release final roster




Victor Hedman highlights the final roster for Tampa Bay.


Tampa Bay, FL - Head coach Rick Tocchet has released the final roster for the Tampa Bay Lightning that will face the Atlanta Thrashers on opening day.

Captain Vincent Lecavalier and winger Martn St. Louis lead the team this season as the veteran members of the squad, and will look to help out rookie defenseman Victor Hedman and second year center Steven Stamkos.


Center
04 - Vincent Lecavalier "C"
91 - Steven Stamkos
11 - Jeff Halpern
38 - Paul Szczechura

Left Wing
13 - Alex Tanguay
12 - Ryan Malone
19 - Stephane Villeaux
17 - Todd Fedoruk

Right Wing
26 - Martin St. Louis "A"
09 - Steve Downie
27 - Brandon Bochenski
28 - Adam Hall

Defense
14 - Andrej Meszaros
05 - Mattias Ohlund "A"
77 - Victor Hedman
54 - Paul Ranger
06 - Kurtis Foster
21 - David Hale

Goaltender
41 - Mike Smith
30 - Antero Nittymaki

[hockeyplaya2724]

Nice start, good luck this season.

[kingalexander]

Lightning drop Thrashers in opener

October 3rd, 2009


Tampa Bay center Steven Stamkos goes up against Atlanta's Todd White.

(Atlanta, GA) -- Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the season as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Atlanta Thrashers 1-0.

Mike Smith earned the first shutout of the season after making 19 saves against the Thrashers who opened the 2009/10 season in front of a sold out crowd at the Philips Arena.

It only took about eight minutes into his first NHL game for defenseman Victor Hedman to earn his first career point and assist as he made the scoring pass for Stamkos' goal at 8:40 of the first period.

Paul Ranger also earned an assist on the game winning goal.

Head coach Rick Tocchet was pleased with the performance of his team tonight and only hopes this is one of many wins to come this season.

"I'm definitely happy about the way the guys played out there tonight. We were able to hold them back from scoring and when having a player like Kovalchuk on the opposing team it's about ten times tougher to keep them from scoring but we were able to do that and I'm really happy with the win."

Despite the loss, Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonen earned the third star of the game, making 16 saves during the game, including a few close calls against Tampa Bay winger Martin St. Louis in the second period.

"Kari did pretty well, they had a bunch of chances to score and he was the reason the score stayed pretty close for the rest of the game" said forward Colby Armstrong.

He also made an impact during the game as Armstrong was involved in a fight with Steven Stamkos late in the third period that managed to get some fire back in the Thrashers team but not enough to come up with a tying goal as the Lightning held Atlanta back for the 1-0 win.

[kingalexander]

Lightning top 'Canes in overtime



(Raleigh, NC) - In his first NHL game, defenseman Victor Hedman earned his first career assist on the game winning goal.

In his second NHL game, Hedman scored his first career goal as the Tampa Bay Lightning took a 2-1 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Hedman's goal was the overtime winner as he scored with only nine seconds left on the clock on a powerplay opportunity.

The scoring in the regulation time only started in the third period as Eric Staal scored with a minute on the clock for the 1-0 lead to Carolina.

But Tampa Bay came back at 2:48 with Steve Downie scoring his first goal of the year for the 1-1 draw.

Fellow defenseman Mattias Ohlund earned recognition at the end of the game for earning two assists during the game, while Victor Hedman earned the second star of the game.

Although being on the losing side, Carolina goaltender Cam Ward made 22 saves and earned himself a standing ovation from the home crowd as he was named the first star of the game for his hard work between the pipes.

On the other side of the ice, Mike Smith made 17 saves for his second win of the season, also allowing the first goal of the year against the Lightning.

Tampay Bay will return home on Thursday as they will play their first home game of the season against the New Jersey Devils.

[kingalexander]

Lightning shock Devils in home opener

October 8th, 2009




(Tampa, FL) - Martin Brodeur is given a pass every so often for a bad game, considering his tremendous career.

He needed a pass tonight as he led the New Jersey Devils against the Tampa Bay Lightning and suffered the biggest losst of the season so far.

Martin St. Louis and Andrej Meszaros led the Lightning to a 7-0 win over the Devils with a goal and two assists each.

Steve Downie added two goals, along with Vincent Lecavalier who earned a goal and an assist as well.

"We executed very well tonight on both sides of the puck and it showed by how we dominated the offense and held them back on the defense" said head coach Rich Tocchet.

Tampa Bay's defensive strategy during the game practically took out the usual hot Devils offense by only allowing nine shots on goal, making Mike Smith's third win and second shutout of the season an ease.

Martin St. Louis scored his first goal of the season at 15:46 of the first period with the only assist going to Alex Tanguay, who would later add his first of the year at 19:28 on a powerplay chance.

Tanguay's goal was assisted by rookie Victor Hedman for his third point of the year.

Tampa Bay took a 2-0 lead into the second period and doubled up with Victor Hedman earning his second assist of the game along with Mattias Ohlund as Steve Downie scored his second goal of the season at 7:30 on another powerplay advantage for the Bolts.

Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier teamed up late in the second period as they earned the assists on Andrej Meszaros' goal at 19:58 for a 4-0 lead in front of a sold out crowd at the St. Pete Times Forum.

As Tampa Bay celebrated their fourth goal of the night, Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur scooped the puck out of the net, followed by a short skate to the bench as his time on the ice was up.

Although the second period was just a few minutes away from ending, Devils head coach Jaques Lemaire had enough and decided to pull Brodeur and introduce Yann Danis to the game.

Brodeur allowed four goals on 20 shots during the first two periods.

With a new goalie in net, the Devils were hoping for a fresh start and the start of a very improbable comeback against the Lightning.

Unfortunately, no one told the Bolts they were supposed to stop scoring.

Steve Downie scored his second goal of the night 4:51 into the third period with rookie Victor Hedman earning his third assist of the night for a 5-0 lead.

Andrej Meszaros and Martin St. Louis teamed up this time around for VIncent Lecavalier's first goal of the season at 12:53 for the 6-0 advantage, which all but finished off the Devils.

"Honestly, I think right after the fourth goal we were out of the game" said captain Jamie Langenbrunner. "I hate to say that but it's true, we didn't come out with a strong attack and they were able to jump on us again and they deserve to win if that's how we are going to play."

But the scoring wasn't done after six goals, as the fourth line got some quality ice time towards the end of the game, enforcer Paul Szczechura got on the board with his first of the season at 19:50 for the 7-0 score.

Mattias Ohlund and Andrej Meszaros earned the assists on the late goal.

St. Louis, Meszaros, and Lecavalier earned the three stars of the game, respectively.

But during a post game interview, Martin St. Louis didn't feel his first star honors were earned properly compared to their rookie defenseman Victor Hedman.

"He was all over the ice tonight" said St. Louis with a small chuckle. "This kid is good and he really played his heart out tonight, he deserves to be the player of the game instead of me, he played really well out there and played like a veteran too."

But he wasn't the only one handing the young rookie high praise as captain Vincent Lecavalier and head coach Rick Tocchet also praised Hedman's performance.

The Lightning will hope to continue the perfect start to the season as they face off against the Carolina Hurricanes for the second time this week on Saturday night.

[kingalexander]

St. Louis leads Lightning past Hurricanes

October 10th, 2009



(Tampa, FL) -- For the second time this week, the Tampa Bay Lightning faced off against the Carolina Hurricanes, this time at the St. Pete Times Forum.

Their previous encounter ended with a 1-0 win for the Bolts for their second win of the season.

Now with a 3-0 start to the 09/10 season, the Lightning were hoping to make it four tonight against the 'Canes.

It worked out very well as Martin St. Louis scored two goals and led the Lighting to a 5-1 win over the Hurricanes.

St. Louis got the scoring run started as his second of the year gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 12:49 of the first period.

But five minutes into the second period, Eric Staal scored the tying goal for the 1-1 draw.

Brandon Bochenski regained the lead for the Lightning at 9:24 with an unassisted goal for the 2-1 score.

St. Louis added his second of the game at 13:34 for the 3-1 score with David Hale and Alex Tanguay earning the assists.

The next goal for Tampa Bay came during the third period after a poweprlay opportunity that saw Steven Stamkos leave the game after taking a high stick to his face.

Defenseman Tim Gleason was called on the penalty that set up Ryan Malone for his first goal of the season at 5:03 with Vincent Lecavalier and Paul Ranger earning the assists.

Jeff Halpern added goal number five at 15:49 for the 5-1 advantage to Tampa Bay, it was also the last moments Carolina goaltender Cam Ward would see the ice as he was pulled for the final five minutes of the game.

The Lightning went on to win the game with the 5-1 score and continue on their undefeated streak to start off the season, now at 4-0.