The Tampa Bay Lightning made Rick Tocchet their full-time coach Monday, lifting the interim tag and giving him a three-year contract. The former NHL star took over in mid-November after Barry Melrose was fired. Tampa Bay went 19-33-14 under Tocchet. "Now I'm on the clock," Tocchet said. "I'm ready to go. We have some great pieces on this team. I think we have a lot of players here that can do the job. I'm excited." Hurt by injuries, the Lightning missed the playoffs for the second straight... Read Full Story
Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier will have surgery on his right wrist and miss the last five games of the season. The arthroscopic procedure will be done in Philadelphia on Friday. The team said Thursday the operation originally was scheduled for last summer but was delayed because Lecavalier needed shoulder surgery. He also had surgery on his left wrist two years ago. Lecavalier is a four-time All-Star center who has played in all 77 games this season. He leads his last-place... Read Full Story
Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier has had wrist surgery that will end his season and knock him out of the upcoming world hockey championships. The arthroscopic procedure to repair damaged cartilage in his right wrist took place in Philadelphia on Friday. It was scheduled for last summer but was delayed because Lecavalier needed shoulder surgery then. Lecavalier had surgery on his left wrist two years ago, an operation performed by Dr. A. Lee Osterman, who also operated on Friday... Read Full Story
A recent report from the Ottawa Sun stated the the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to fire head coach John Tortorella and replace him with current ESPN announcer Barry Melrose, who would sign a 3 year contract worth $2 million a year after the sale of the team from Palace Sports and Entertainment to Oren Koules’ OK Hockey LLC. The NHL Board of Governors is likely to approve the sale of the Lightning when they vote on the issue on June 18th and after that approval is when Melrose would be able... Read Full Story
The consensus number one pick of the upcoming 2008 NHL Entry Draft is Sarnia Sting Center Steven Stamkos. With the Tampa Bay Lightning holding that pick it has been obvious that the club would select Stamkos. How obvious? Obvious enough that the club has put out a website for the kid already and he is not even on the official roster. Stamkos is an incredible goal scorer netting 58 in his final year in Juniors with Sarnia, 14 more goals than current Lightning star Vinny Lecavalier. The... Read Full Story
Well, I was at the Tampa Bay game tonight watching the Lightning get beaten down by Buffalo, it wasn’t much of a game though since the Lightning seemed to be in some sort of a trance for the first 2 periods only to come alive in the 3rd, but 3 goals too late. Anyway, I happen to overhear this guy behind me talking about the tight race between McCain and Romney. I took a look on my blackberry and it was reporting that McCain had 34% of the vote while Romney had 33% of the vote... Read Full Story
I have been a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning since I moved here to Florida. Probably the big reason I became a fan is because my next door neighbor played for the Lightning (and no I am not going to say who that is). We have became very good friends and I look at him and his family as family at this point. In either event, he did not have a great love for John Tortorella…although he had a lot of respect for him. But basically, Tortorella changed after winning the Stanley Cup... Read Full Story
Mike Chen's Hockey Blog
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by Mike Chen on 05/14/09 at 03:18 PM ET
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Oh, those wacky Tampa Bay Lightning. Oren Koules and company are lucky that there are riveting second-round series going on this week; otherwise, more people in the hockey world might have noticed his bit of public idiocy (and a bit of contempt, really) when it comes to previous Lightning GM Jay Feaster. From the Lightning’s open house ( courtesy of Raw... Read Full Story
The conversations surrounding Tampa Bay Lightning forward Vincent Lecavalier are likely to heat up as we get closer to July 1, when the no-trade clause on his contract kicks in.
The two teams mentioned most when Lecavalier’s name comes up seem to be the Montreal Canadiens and Los Angeles Kings. With regards to the Kings, defenceman Jack Johnson is one of the players mentioned as possibly being involved in any deal with Tampa.
I had an interesting chat with Barry Smith, who is the... Read Full Story
Vincent Lecavalier scored twice and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for three goals in the third period to beat Dallas 4-2 on Monday night, their first home win over the Stars in nearly 13 years. Lecavalier gave the Lightning a 3-2 lead with 5:06 left in the third from the top of the right circle during a power play. Vinny Prospal had an empty-net goal at 19:11 to make it 4-2. Steven Stamkos pulled Tampa Bay even at 2 from the low slot off a pass from Steve Downie at 11:46 of the third... Read Full Story
