Raw Charge - For Tampa Bay Lightning Fans

Tampa Bay Lightning Roster

	#	Pos.
Brandon Bochenski	27	RW
Steve Downie	9	RW
Todd Fedoruk	17	LW
Kurtis Foster	6	D
Victor Hedman	77	D
Zenon Konopka	28	C
Vincent Lecavalier	4	C
Mike Lundin	39	D
Ryan Malone	12	LW
Andrej Meszaros	14	D
Antero Niittymaki	30	G
Mattias Ohlund	5	D
Mark Parrish	37	RW
Teddy Purcell	16	RW
Matt Smaby	32	D
Mike Smith	41	G
Martin St. Louis	26	RW
Steven Stamkos	91	C
Paul Szczechura	38	C
Alex Tanguay	13	LW
Nate Thompson	44	C
Stephane Veilleux	19	LW
Matt Walker	8	D

For the Lightning, another coming off-season of change

by John Fontana on Mar 19, 2010 4:00 PM EDT in The Team Comment 0 comments

More photos » Mike Carlson - AP

Deensemen Mike Lundin and goaltender Antero Niittymaki are two upcoming members of the Lightning's 2010 Free Agent class (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)

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Some people are latching on to the fading dream of the season where the Bolts back their way into the playoffs. Yet others are moving on to other sports - spring training is in full swing, after all, and the NFL draft is inching closer by the minute. The Lightning's recent free fall of late has removed them from the local sports narrative.

While the Lightning's season-long inconsistency gives them the potential to surprise everyone and finish strongly, it's a reach to expect a comeback from a roster that's coming apart with injuries.

It's never too early to look at the off-season ahead with the Lightning roster... Even if the team was locked into a playoff seeding, the next several months will be a time of change at 401 Channelside Drive as Jeff Vinik formally starts remaking the franchise in his own image. Those changes, for now, remain to be seen.

Yet it will certainly have an effect on who stays and who goes for the Lightning. Let's take a quick look at the Bolt's current Restricted Free Agents (RFA) and Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA), and the likelihood of them being resigned.

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Tampa Bay Lightning Game 70: versus the Buffalo Sabres

by Cassie McClellan on Mar 19, 2010 9:00 AM EDT in Game recaps Comment 0 comments

More photos » Mike Carlson - AP

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The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Buffalo Sabres 5-2.

There weren’t a lot of redeeming qualities about this game. The Lightning played hard, and they weren’t as easily discouraged as they had been the previous couple of games, but it was penalties that did them in. They did come back in the third to make it 4-2 late in the third, which is great, but it was also too little too late.

In a surprising move, head coach Rick Tocchet pulled Antero Niittymaki during a third period power play for a two-man advantage. That was interesting for two reasons. One, Tocchet hasn’t pulled a desperation move like that before. He apparently has realized that it’s do or die time in regards to playoffs and was pulling out all of the stops – literally. Frankly, it would’ve been nicer to have seen this a few games ago, but at least he’s starting to figure it out.

The other reason that move was so surprising was that it indicated that Tocchet had more faith in his defense than perhaps they deserve – as was shown at the very end of the third period when Buffalo got their empty netter. Individually, the defensemen on the Lightning are good – some very good. But as a group playing together, they’ve got a long way to go.

The names that I kept hearing on the broadcast over and over were Vincent Lecavalier, Steven Stamkos, Steve Downie, and Niittymaki. Those seemed to be the guys that wanted the game the most.

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Lightning vs. Buffalo Sabres game thread

by John Fontana on Mar 18, 2010 7:00 PM EDT in Game Threads Comment 339 comments

Versus

Full game coverage on SB Nation

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Lightning playing the spoilers? Bolts versus Sabres preview

by John Fontana on Mar 18, 2010 2:27 PM EDT in Game previews Comment 0 comments

WHERE: St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida
WHEN: 7:30 PM EDT
MEDIA: Sun Sports TV (Cable), 620 WDAE (radio)
OPPONENT COVERAGE: Die By The Blade

The Buffalo Sabres come into Times Palace tonight, having a very middling 4-4-2 record in their past ten games. The infallible and dominant Ryan Miller has looked more and more mortal as the season has gone on... With both points in mind, teh Bolts could endanger the Sabres third-seeding in the Eastern Conference with a win tonight.

You see, the Montreal Canadiens have won their past six games in a row and the Ottawa Senators (who are on a dismal 3-6-1 stretch) are all of 3 points behind the Sabres for the northeast division lead and the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference.

While the Lightning's own playoff chances have gotten slimmer and slimmer in the past few days, it must be remembered that the Bolts do still have a chance to influence the Eastern Conference playoffs, even if they ultimately do not participate in them.

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Off Topic: SB nation launches South Florida Bulls blog

I don't quite understand the name Voodoo Five, but I can tell you I am damn happy to see the Bulls get represented on SB Nation.

Check out Voodoo Five

1 day ago John Fontana 6 comments 0 recs

Wes Walz to be special guest at NHL FanHouse chat this afternoon

Former NHL player and coach Wes Walz will be participating in an online chat this afternoon at 2 PM on AOL's NHL FanHouse. Discussion topics are going to vary from Steven Stamkos to his own playing days with the Minnesota Wild...

(h/t Eric McErlain)

2 days ago John Fontana 0 comments 0 recs

A year later (Raw Charge anniversary)

by John Fontana on Mar 17, 2010 11:15 AM EDT in The Site Comment 11 comments

Greetings and welcome to the Raw Charge. The Raw Charge is the newest SB Nation entry in its NHL coverage and is devoted to the Tampa Bay Lightning as well as general opinions and news pieces regarding the National Hockey League and occasionally postings about Tampa Bay sports in general.

-- John Fontana, March 17th, 2009

I am happy to report that "The Raw Charge" never caught on. And I am also happy to report Raw Charge and it's budding community is doing well at it's first anniversary. Thanks to readers and the rest of the Boltosphere for your support!

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Tampa Bay Lightning Game 69: versus the Phoenix Coyotes

by Cassie McClellan on Mar 17, 2010 9:00 AM EDT in Game recaps Comment 0 comments

Chris O'Meara - AP

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The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1.

The game wasn’t terribly good. It wasn’t completely awful, either, though. The Lightning played fairly well, but not remarkably so. Antero Niittymaki was very strong in net, only allowing two goals – which is a vast improvement over that stretch of games where the Lightning were allowing five goals or more.

The defense has been a lot better as well. I would consider Mike Lundin to be the top guy on defense, at this point. He takes care of the top forwards from opposing teams and shuts them down. He’s done a pretty good job of doing just that, too. And he’s fantastic at blocking shots.

Vincent Lecavalier has really stepped up his game. He’s been a touch inconsistent lately with his faceoffs, but he’s managed to make it into the top 10 in the NHL with his faceoff percentage. And having him in front of the net now, instead of on the perimeter, is definitely a good place for him. Yeah, he’ll take more abuse, but that abuse also gets him mentally into the game. Sometimes I think he thinks too much when he’s on the ice. He does best when he doesn’t think but just reacts to what’s going on, and putting him in the middle of the action in front of the net really helps him with that.

By the way, how underrated and overlooked is Nate Thompson? This guy comes to the team from the New York Islanders, and he’s a faceoff machine. He won 10 of 12 faceoffs against Phoenix – that’s an 83% winning percentage. And while he hasn’t been doing quite that well every game, he’s usually well up over the 50% mark, all the same. And yet, he’s rarely mentioned by anybody, even in that regard.

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