As per Elliotte Friedman's twitter, Vincent Lecavalier is skating with the team in a red non-contact jersey today. His leadership on the ice has clearly been missed, and so his progress back to the ice is a welcome one. If we think back to mid November when Lecavalier had his surgery, progress seems to be on schedule with the 4-5 week projection that was given originally of his return.

Your Lightning links:

• In Elliotte Friedman's 30 thoughts this week: Datsyuk the Great can score beautiful goals and whether Boucher was really upset at Omark's shootout goal or whether what he said was said to motivate the team
• In the St. Petersburg Times, the Lightning are looking for new ways to snap the shootout slump and Victor Hedman sounds like he's pining for a chance at it
• Over at KK, Jon Jordan says that the Lightning have gone through 14 goalies since Khabibulin and are still looking for a new 'wall'
• Cristodero asks "would Tampa Bay be interested in Evgeni Nabokov?"

More Lightning links and links from around the NHL after the jump...

• The Vancouver Sun compared the careers of Steven Stamkos and Cody Hodgson so far, and how far they've diverged
• Also in the Vancouver Sun, Ian Walker has another edition of Gross Misconduct with Mike Smith. He shares tanning secrets, the last time he built a sand castle and why he's not a fan of twitter. As always with the Gross Misconduct series so far, it's a good read.
• In the Toronto Sun, Stamkos plays a game of pick-up basketball against another Lightning team mate. When aksed who won the game, he answers "I did...of course"

Links from around the NHL:

• Pierre LeBrun's weekend wrap at ESPN on Tomas Kaberle, Brad Richards rumors, Flyers' goaltending and the Caps' struggles of late
• In Puck Daddy, it seems pending a physical the Marco Sturm to Kings deal is finally complete
• In the Denver Post, Terry Frei says "Don't howl about the Coyotes' sale"
• Puck Daddy asks: Is this really the end to the Phoenix Coyotes' ownership saga?
• In the Sport Business Journal, Gary Bettman is considered #11 on the 50 most influential list
• In Counter Punch (who call themselves America's Best Political newsletter): The Untold Story of Discrimination in Professional Hockey against French-Speaking Players