Humiliation as motivation -- "Strip-Shootout" for the Bolts

I'll hand this to Rick Tocchet, it was more than just a funny idea -- it was motivation and a team building exercise all at once.

After the Lightning's two-hour practice at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon today, the team participated in a game of "Naked Shootout" which would be better titled "strip shootout".    Every time you miss a goal per round -- an article of equipment comes off.  

Tampa Tribune beat-writer Erik Erlendsson tweeted the event casually enough to give people a glimpse of what was going on -- well, not exactly...  But he gave people an idea of what was going on, generally...

 

# Lots of helmets and gloves littering the ice: out of 18, four survive first round

# Jerseys are now coming off; Vinny, Stamkos, Miller, Foster, Wright down to shoulder pads

# St. Louis and Miler last two, Marty down to removing shin pads 

# St. Louis last one, guys are banging sticks on the ice, he keeps missing,

# Marty now has both skates off, wearing sandals

# Marty stopped again, this is about to turn into a scene from Slap Shot

# Marty finally scores, only left with his hockey pants, under shirt and under garments intact!

Usually it's only Mike smith who has been faked out of his equipment during the shootout.  Thsi time it was a good portion of the team, sheesh...

No one was truly in fear of exposing themselves during this event -- these are hockey players, do you realize how much equipment they wear?  Still, it's fun and odd to hear about this going on in practice.  Something a little more colorful than the average repetitive stuff at most practices...

[Note by jpfdeuce, 10/20/09 6:26 PM EDT ]  Erik Erlendsson has a full article up on this, giving a more personal look (sorry, ladies, not that kind of look ) at how things went down.  Damian Cristodero at the St. Pete Times says Jeff Halpern and Ryan Malone were the ones who got the game together.