Tuesdays with Dani: Changing up routines

Sometimes players will hold players only meetings, nothing happens and the media glances over the occurrence of the meeting. Sometimes players hold player only meetings and the team turns around a losing slide, then people go back and say, 'it was because of the player only meeting' that sparked the change.

Before going into Sunday's game Boucher insisted the players have breakfast in the morning since some players just grab coffee and go. Then he had his pre-game meeting at the hotel instead of at the rink curbing the late naps that cause "coma mode". The Lightning had a comeback win over the Panthers who they've struggled against this season. Was it the routine change that made the difference? Maybe breakfast is the new players only meeting.

Your Lightning links:

• Breaking down Stamkos' one-timer shot from the left circle (Puck Drunk Love)
• With Hedman injured it's possible Gilroy will be paired up with Brewer. Great quote from Boucher on Gilroy's move that led to the Stamkos goal on Sunday,"But a spin-o-rama at the blue line?" (St. Petersburg Times)
• Boucher wants more out of Purcell, and says Purcell "is an enigma sometimes. He's a player who can give you a lot and make very smart, surprising plays. He just has a tendency to fall asleep." (St. Petersburg Times)
• Dustin Tokarski is Bolt Prospects' prospect of the week
• The Lightning have unveiled new team license plates with the new logo. Show your team pride by getting one

More links after the jump...:

Your links from around the NHL:

• The St. Louis Blues fired Davis Payne and hired Ken Hitchcock as their new coach (TSN)
• Elliotte Friedman on why the Blues were smart to hire Hitchcock and a breakdown of whether Columbus would be on the hook for a part of his paycheck
• Nick Kypreos calls the move to hire Hitchcock "desperate" and why he doesn't think players respond to coaches like Hitchcock anymore (Sportsnet)
• Jason Bourne who used to play for Payne doesn't like the Payne firing at all (Backhand Shelf)
• Payne gets a very unceremonious sendoff from Sportscenter (Awful Announcing)
• NBC adds NCAA Division I hockey into its lineup starting January (Ice the Office)
• Great article by Bruce Arthur on Patrick Burke who continues his brother Brendan's legacy. Patrick himself says "I’m 28 and single for a reason. I’ve got things to do." (National Post)
• Roy Macgregor of the Globe and Mail stirred up twitter about "Blackberry Journalism". He writes that in sports journalism today the focus is too much on being the first to break news and not enough on the actual storytelling aspect
  
• Kelly Reardon of Puck Drunk Love has solid advice for other writers: You shouldn't care about how you write, just write
• Stu of Hackel SI.com has a good post on why the NHL won't get an assist from the NBA lockout
• In Georges Laraque's new book, "The Story of the NHL's Unlikeliest Tough Guy", Laraque doesn't name names but does talk about the telltale steroid signs in the NHL. "First, you just have to notice how some talented players will experience an efficiency loss as well as a weight loss every four years, those years being the ones where the Winter Olympics are held." (Toronto Star)
• Jeremy Roenick gets interviewed by Rob Pizo and in response to Laraque's book says "There is no steroids whatsoever, across the board in the National Hockey League." Uhuh (Backhand Shelf)
  
• Jason Strudwick joined the writing team of Oilers Nation. No really, he did
• In case you haven't heard, Mike Smith has been playing well this season. Justin Bourne presents "The Dave Tippett effect: Mike Smith in Phoenix" (Backhand Shelf)
  
• The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport had a conference that just took place in Minnesota that featured a number of presentations about hockey. Even just reading the summaries about what the presentations are about was really interesting
• Great article by Nicholas Cotsonika on how brain disease claims divide hockey doctors and Boston University researchers
• Hockey in Society and how the progression to not wearing a visor is an evolution in manhood
• A NHL site that I didn't know about till Cassie pointed it out: NHL Green which profiles green initiatives by teams
• Jesse Spector picks The Sporting News picks Montreal as the best NHL city
• The Edmonton Journal's Eastern Conference notes has this gem "the Montreal Canadiens were so paranoid about a head coaching change getting out when Alain Vigneault was fired and Michel Therrien hired that they locked the players in their dressing room."