The news from the Lightning yesterday was that Vincent Lecavalier had a successful hand surgery to fix the fractured big knuckle of his right index finger. His recover time has now been extended to 4-5 weeks. But before we go into 'woe is us' mode, let's take Cassie's advice and relax since this team still has a reasonable shot at making the playoffs. And in some positive news, Simon Gagne is skating with the team, albeit with the red jersey (usually meaning non-contact) which shows some progress. Now let's get on to the news.

Your Lightning links:

• In the Toronto Sun: Unfair expectations on a young player? Steven Stamkos knows what Nazem Kadri is going through
• There's an "ice-skating" rink coming to downtown Tampa starting November 19th and will run to January 2nd.
• Via Mike Corcoran, Cyberpresse says Tampa is getting updates on defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron's health
• On the day that Lecavalier get's his surgery, The Hopeful Chase receives a Lecavalier trading card in the mail. Timing is funny sometimes like that, no?
  

Your links from around the NHL are after the jump

Your links around the NHL:

• Houses of Hockey has a really good post on the long-term faith that teams are putting into core players and are in essence "paying for potential"
• In the National Post: a bit of science behind Shea Weber's slapshot
• Also in the National Post, Bruce Arthur asks if Colin Campbell can still be trusted?
• Globe and Mail roundtables: Will losing hurt the Oilers' young stars?
• Versus' new hockey show, NHL Overtime, debuted last night and Puck Daddy has six suggestions on how to improve it
• If you are an out of town fan like me and you subscribe to GameCenter LIVE, you already now how great it is. Now there is a GameCenter LIVE app for your PS3, Puck Daddy explains why this is great
• And for something funny, Down Goes Brown has the Do's and Dont's for new call ups