My poor Tampa Bay Lightning

[gxc999 7]

We've again dropped 6 games in a row. Our new starter is a rookie 19 yr. old.

John Tortorella is apparently on the hot seat and GM Jay Feaster said he absolutely will not trade any of the big three stars. I really think it's time to ship off Brad Richards (Richie) for some help in net. It's a pity with Vinny having such an awesome season that this team apparently can't hold a .500 record.

I know this team is really missing Dan Boyle, but he's going to return in 3 or 4 weeks. What will our excuse be then? Any opinions welcome...

[Chadd 916]

Tortorella doesn't manage his goalies well. Granted he might not have the most talent to work with, but his negative public commentary usually doesn't help. Once the ownership thing is settled, Torts and Jay are both gone.

[sjsharks11 0]

there is no way any team is going to want Richards with the kind of salary he has. A trade for emery possibly? That would solve Ottawa's problems and give them a pretty good goalie in return. Don't know if they want to take that risk, but it might be worth it considering their goaltending situation over the past few years.

[Chadd 916]

there is no way any team is going to want Richards with the kind of salary he has. A trade for emery possibly? That would solve Ottawa's problems and give them a pretty good goalie in return. Don't know if they want to take that risk, but it might be worth it considering their goaltending situation over the past few years.

That would put Ottawa over the cap.

[sjsharks11 0]

i meant for someone other than emery.

[mrusse01 0]

there is no way any team is going to want Richards with the kind of salary he has. A trade for emery possibly?

Emery isn't any better than the goalies they've already got.

[TBLfan 25]

Tortorella is an idiot. He has a nice system but when things start going wrong he panics and starts screwing things up. Homlqvist should never play another NHL game after the past 4-5 starts.

[Eazy_b97 1]

I expect them to beat a struggling Leafs team tonight. They should pick-up Raycroft on the way out of town, let him get out of the spotlight and see if he can perform well for them. He won't be worse than Holmqvist and won't cost TB anything. Low risk, high reward. They need more depth to win long term though. The big 3 are awesome, but 1 has to be moved for depth. It goes beyond goaltending.

[killthepoodle 0]

God, I was at Saturday's game........they played 2 good periods and then went to shit. It's hard watching a team with that much talent play like that. We stayed for the UMass Notre Dame game afterwords and enjoyed it more than the TBL game.

I agree, Richards should go. Problems I see:

A. Lack of available goaltending throughout the league

B. Richards' high salary from the playoff MVP renegotiation (noted earlier)

C. Richards' no trade clause. He is best friends with Lecavalier and does not want to leave.

I can see Richards wanting to go to only one team- Montreal, if they can afford him considering the potential for Ovechkin to end up there over the summer.

It's a catch-22. For the bolts to get reliable goaltending, they have to spend money, which is something we cant do unless we unload one of the big three. Right now we do not have a deep into the playoffs team. Getting Boyle back will help, but we still dont have the goaltending to survive a series against someone like Ottawa.

So, to me this means we need to write this season off and hope for a decent draft pick that we can deal away with one of our cap ticklers. Boyle needs to fully rehab and not rush back, no matter what Torts wants.

And then there is the sale- as noted previously, not a damn thing is going to happen until the team is sold.

On getting rid of Torts- I think he is a very good coach and I personally support him. That being said, Chadd is correct, goaltending is not his strong suit. Neither is "Official Relations". The refs hate him, and it shows on the ice. The bolts get banged with shitty calls and walked on by other teams infraction wise due to this. The game saturday was a perfect example, Philly could do whatever they wanted. They ended up with a 5 on 3 after a philly player laid down on our goaltender during play and we retaliated- were was the interference for philly? They finally gave a Flyer player a roughing to make it a 5 on 4 at the last minute, but it was a grudging call after vinny got in there. On 620am during the pre game they even discussed the ref who was in the game was not a friend of the TBL.

Anyhow, sucks this year for sure, but with Vinny, Prospal, St. Louis, and Richards we are still a stacked team, we just have to get our shit together.

[TBLfan 25]

Tortorella doesn't motivate the team to play, puts out inconsistent lines and shuffles goaltenders... At this point, he just needs to go. He's just digging the hole deeper.

[hockeysc23 0]

I can see Richards wanting to go to only one team- Montreal, if they can afford him considering the potential for Ovechkin to end up there over the summer.

Ovechkin isn't going to Montreal. He is a RFA and Caps have enough Cap room to match any offer given. He isn't going anywhere. It would be worse for teams to offer Ovi a huge contract because he would sign it the Caps would match and get him for longer in DC then the 5 years he probably wants at this time.

That being said Tampa Bay's problems is poor Defensive play from what I have seen when they have played the Caps. They score some goals but are generally underachieving to their talent level much like the Caps were at the beginning of the year. Maybe a coaching trade or as mentioned a trade to spice up the team or they better start looking to next year.

Scott

[TBLfan 25]

Defense is only part of the problem but look at who the defense is:

O'brien

Ranger

Kuba

Lundin

Lukawich

Janik

Lukawich has played more seasons than Janik, Lundin, Ranger and O'Brien combined. They're great young players but they're still young.

[gxc999 7]

Torts is part of the problem. He's good at a few things but he pisses off the officials and we always get screwed on calls. Also, his insane line juggling has to stop. I don't know how many times I've seen him start a game with one certain line and end the game with all 3 on different lines, even if all 3 together were playing fine.

There've been a LOT of injuries this season, so Torts isn't the only one to blame. Feaster has been terrible too. I'd personally get rid of them both in the offseason. We missed out on Bryzgalov and Auld, anyone could've seen how bad Holmqvist was.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Dear Tampa,

Keep on sucking please.

Sincerely

Desperate caps fan :)

[killthepoodle 0]

Ovy wants 10 Million or more.......the caps dont have the room under the cap as I understand it.

Yeah, our defense has been pretty rough at times, especially without Boyle. That being said, our goaltending still sucks harder than Jenna Jameson.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Ovy wants 10 Million or more.......the caps dont have the room under the cap as I understand it.

Yeah, our defense has been pretty rough at times, especially without Boyle. That being said, our goaltending still sucks harder than Jenna Jameson.

You are reading that from the garrioch article, which is like trusting mystic meg to give you winning lottery numbers.

Caps are currently at $39 mil, even if Ovey gets $10 mil (which he shouldn't) his cap hit is already $3.84, so that would only add $6 mil to the cap.

Putting them at $45 mil.

No way does kolzig make $5.6 mil after this year, closer to $2-$3 mil, so that brings down the cap again.

If anyone has room on the cap at the minute, its the caps

[gxc999 7]

The Bolts big problem is a total lack of cap room. We have about $44 committed already and a ton of unrestricted free agents(Boyle, Gratton, Prospoal, Roy etc) after this season, so even if a superstud goalie is out there, we won't be able to sign him. This is our worst problem by far. I've been a hardcore Bolt fan for 12 years, I can certainly endure 1 or 2 years of our sucking, but not 5 or 6.

Ramo is a nice thought and a smart kid with tons of potential, but isn't ready to start yet! BTW, Washington only has $41 M committed under the cap (their only good U.F.A. after this yr. is Kolzig), so they could definitely cough up $9+ million per year to Ovy.

[TBLfan 25]

The team is still like 5 million under the cap. Davidson imposed a cap of his own... The team sale NEEDS to go through.

Boyle is a fantastic player but he's not the answer to the defensive needs, he's part of the answer to the offensive struggles. Although he would rid us of Janik who is either really good or really bad, depending on the night.

[sjsharks11 0]

there is no way any team is going to want Richards with the kind of salary he has. A trade for emery possibly?

Emery isn't any better than the goalies they've already got.

Emery's gaa is 2.84 and save % is .890. Denis' is 4.05 and .859, Holmqvist's is 3.06 and .886, and Ramo has 1 win under his belt...solid. Oh yeah and Emery took Ottawa to the finals last year.

I'm not saying that Emery is a good goalie, but he is far better then anything Tampa Bay has right now.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Emery has Phillips, Volchenkov, Meszaros, Redden as his top 4. TB has Ranger, O'Brien, Boyle (who hasn't played much) and Kuba. I doubt any of TB's top 4 could crack Ottawa's top 4 (with the possible exception of Boyle). Tough to compare the stats when the situations are so completely different.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Potential destination for Curtis Joseph?

Ya gotta think he's going to land somewhere after a good showing in the Spengler.

[gxc999 7]

I completely agree. The Lightning could probably sign CuJo, and if they miss out on another free agent goalie I'm going to start a firejayfeaster.com website.

[killthepoodle 0]

Tampa Fans like goalies- Cujo would be adored down here. Remember how much the city got behind Puppa? This city goes gaga for goalies.

[TBLfan 25]

So for my birthday I would like to ask for a defense for my Lightning.

[gxc999 7]

Another terrible performance by Ramo and the whole defense. I'm sitting here in my lightning t-shirt and lightning hoodie/sweater. I hope it gets better soon. Please, sell the team, trade someone, do something before the all-star break.

EDIT: I just realized a great trade opportunity for the Bolts. The Avalanche are missing Sakic and Smyth, both of whom will be out atleast 7 or 8 weeks. Why not trade Richards for Jose Theodore and Jordan Leopold? Richards would make Svatos and Wolski better for Colorado and Budaj is their starter and Theodore is going to be a F.A. after this season anyway. Also, Leopold is a young, super-talented defenseman who has a propensity for injury, but it could work out very well for both teams.