Yahoo Sports and SI.com have published a Season Preview for the Lightning that really seems to lack content or a true preview… It just talks about who plays for the Bolts and who’s moved on…
I was concerned about Gerard Dicaire and it turns out he has a disease I can’t even phonetically try to spell out:
He has been diagnosed with neurocardiogenic syncope.”Basically what it means is after … he finishes working out, the heart rate drops and continues to drop and doesn’t stabilize,” general manager Jay Feaster said. “And the blood pressure drops, continues to drop and doesn’t stabilize, and then he passes out. The doctors want to increase the potassium and sodium in his blood. They want to treat it with salt tablets and less water.”
Nix one from the prospective #6 Defensive slot.
Speaking of which, Mike Egener is not joining the team on their trip north to play exhibition games in Detroit and Montreal.. Tom Jones has speculated in the St. Petersburg Times that Feaster has his eyes affixed to the waiver wire and hopes something pops up between now and October 5th.
Who’s traveling north?
Forwards (25): Vaclav Prospal, Vincent Lecavalier, Dmitry Afanasenkov, Ruslan Fedotenko, Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Fredrik Modin, Chris Dingman, Dave Andreychuk, Martin Cibak, Rob DiMaio, Tim Taylor, Jim Campbell, Jason Jaspers, Ryan Craig, Adam Henrich, Norm Milley, Mitch Fritz, Darren Reid, Marek Kvapil, Andre Deveaux, Evgeny Artyukhin, JF Soucy, Brandon Elliott and Nick Tarnasky.
The 10 defensemen: Cory Sarich, Pavel Kubina, Darryl Sydor, Dan Boyle, Nolan Pratt, Doug O’Brien, Andy Rogers, Timo Helbling, Vladimir Mihalik and Paul Ranger.
…Rogers heading north while Egener stays in TB? And Andy is due to head to Juniors again… Weird…
While the Lightning are looking for a 6th defensiveman and haven’t had anyone step up into the role, one prospect that is stepping up and making people take notice is Morgan Cey:
On Saturday, he stopped 20 shots against Team Blue, but it wasn’t his play in regulation, it was what he did in the shootout. In succession, Cey stopped Fredrik Modin, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards in the regulation round of the shootout, eventually won by White in the seventh round on a goal by J-F Soucy.Team White happens to feature Vinny Lecavalier, Vaclav Prospal and Dmitry Afanasenkov among others.
Meanwhile the Times and the Tribune feature player articles today… Rob DiMaio is cast as the true original in the Tribune story (treading on his original-team status) while Vinny Lecavalier gets Franchise treatment in Tom Jones Evolution of a Superstar article:
“Vinny is at another level right now,” said Pierre Maguire, hockey analyst for Canada’s TSN and former NHL coach. “Vinny is about to explode on the scene. Everybody knows how good he is, but now he has become a more complete player.”Mike Brophy, senior writer for the Hockey News, said whatever everyone else is thinking.
“Lecavalier can take his game to the next level and be the best player in the league,” Brophy said.
There’s a quiet buzz among the Lightning, even Lightning executives who are slow to praise players. This could be the year Lecavalier throws his helmet into the MVP ring.
And on a final note — I’m eating my own thoughts so far this season with the Bucs… They are 2-0 but two games in leaves a lot of season left for things to implode…
