The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that Jeff Vinik's press conference this afternoon at 12:30 PM EST will be streamed live by the team on Tampabaylightning.com.  It is also supposed to be airing on Bright House Sports Net (BHSN -- Channel 47 for Bright House Cable customers).

[Note by John Fontana, 03/05/10 12:14 PM EST ] For those who have trouble on TBLightning.com, you'll also be able to get the live stream through Fox Sports Florida.

More photos » Stew Milne - AP

The rise of Twitter and other social networks has led to identity exploitation of athletes and other celebrities who are not on the network (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

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Twitter has a lot of celebrities on it, basking in additional attention paid to them from the masses while reporting mundane things in their lives.  Fans hang on their words and their news about every minor or major happening, helped along by the link of said celebrity to the medium in which they work:  movies, politics, television, and sports.

Of course, with all of these real celebrities on Twitter, there are plenty of imposters as well, who try to accomplish one of several things:  To pay homage to the person, to satirize them/mock them, or to capitalize off of the famous name and promote themselves a little more. 

Members of the Tampa Bay Lightning are not exempt from this.  While team executives such as former owner Oren Koules,  Angelina Lawton, and former team captain Dave Andreychuk have official Twitter accounts, there are imposters that have popped up during the course of the season under different player and staff names.

This faking-it epidemic goes much further than just the Tampa Bay Lightning.  You can find fake player accounts devoted to members of any team in the league and with most any sport for that matter.  Even prospects that have yet to turn pro can be subjected to this.  John Tavares, last year's #1 overall draft selection, was victim of an imitator during the lead up to the 2009 NHL entry draft.  The fake Tavares kept reporting about the whirlwind leading up to the June 26^th draft event, including the false announcement he would nto be the #1 selection overall.

You have to wonder just how players combat this.  What can be done?  Who is going to protect them when something like this is going on?  They're busy enough with their own lives and seldom have little interest in actually using Twitter, or Facebook, or any other social application that is not direct contact with people.

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For those who missed it, here is video of the altercations (to say the least) between Steve Downie, Alex Ovechkin and Matt Bradley from tonights Tampa Bay Lightning / Washington Capitals matchup.

A solid hit turns into bad blood... And then bad blood boils over... That's all I can say about this.

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We've already posted platitudes about Steven Stamkos goal from Thursday night in Anaheim.  It felt, however, like we could do it better justice by putting it under the microscope and looking at what happened in context.

Instead of re-posting the goal in it's entirety here, we'll be posting stills (from TSN's clip that posted on YouTube almost immediately after it happened) and trying to highlight the goal in four movements:  The set up, the shot, the rebound, and the score.

The images are not the largest pictures you ever see, nor are they the highest quality.  In some of these images, you will see blue circles.  That's an attempt to highlight the puck and what it's doing.  Watching the replay, it's happening so fast that it's easy to lose it.  All this being said, lets begin breaking this down after the jump.

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Three of the four local news stations in the Tampa Bay market have online video reports about the charity game at Times Palace during Fan Fest yesterday. During festivities yesterday (Q and A's, autograph sessions and what not) a number of current and former players participated in a charity game to raise money for slain Tampa police officer Mike Roberts. After the jump, you'll be given the chance to view the three videos from local stations WFTS (28 Action News), WTSP (10 Connects), and WTVT (Fox 13):

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Give my regards to YouTube

That's the answer to everything.

Vincent Lecavalier ties Brian Bradley for the single season goal record for a Lightning player.

Any particular goals the Lightning have scored this season that you think should be immortalized for Lightning fans? Let me know as I'd be willing to add to the Multimedia archive on site..