Craig injured

Lightning forward Ryan Craig left tonight's game late in the first period with a left knee injury and will not return, the team announced.

Craig played just 3:10 in the first period, playing on Chris Gratton's third line along with Mathieu Darche. He left the last of his five shifts 28 seconds 17:09 into the first period.

Craig missed the first 16 games recovering from a back injury. Last year he was slowed by a knee injury.

The Lightning is already without defenseman Filip Kuba, who was scratched from tonight's game with an abdominal injury after skating 28 minutes in two of his last three games.

Comments

[spanky]

injury prone, gone--good bye*. sooner the better. sorry, that's business. the way the young defence comes along w/o boyler there could be an attractive package of craig, boyle, lukowich, gratton, and whats his name that wears sweater number 30? get '08 picks, price, whatever.

*also say ta-ta to home ice in the spring; unless, unless, unless nothing! forget it...

[ajax]

I have had about two hours to stew since I left the palace.
This team? 10-12 quality NHL players, is not good enough. Period.
We play our best players til they are bent over at the end of the game. During the time out Marty and Vinny spent the whole time bent over. They must be out of shape!!!!Didn't see any NJ players bent over.
We win games when out C+/B- goalie stands on his head.
Do any of you feel, that if the MVP line doesn't score we could play all night and never get a 5 on 5 goal from any other line?
Open ended question. How many of the players on our roster would any other team even trade for?
We excel against our crappy division, and yes we are but a .500 club at best.
I think Torts gets the max out of a ultra thin team. I can not waver on this. We do not have a hockey "team"
I feel everybody is happy/blinded because we have some unbelievable special play from a few superstars. NJ is a very average team this year and they-their system-was far superior to our team. How many odd man rushes did they have tonight? How many battles did they win tonight? If Torts talks about winning the small battles in the corners, we had to get an F tonight. Darche, Ward, Karlsson, Janik, Lukowich!!, Roy, Craig, Jancevski, Lundin, and sad to admit Homer, a cast of not ready for prime time players. A bunch of European/NHL castoffs. Reality has set in. As the season rolls on, and Torts turns our stars into weary legged Earl Campbells, we will do all we can to even make the playoffs.

[Guy]

The typical Tampa Bay fair-weather fans... I bet you are a Bucs fan too..if the players are that 'tired', there are plenty of players like, Darche Vader, who would love to take their spot. Be careful not to misinterpret skill with desire. This team is playing below its potential. Like past seasons, there will be ebb and flow, but ultimately it will be who wants it most that will be the best. All of this 'the teams great' to 'this year is the worst' has got to go! If you have such lack of faith in the team, then why do you write?

[Hockey Chic]

Okay time to chime in I guess. I agree with Ajax to some extent. It does seem that we play our best against our division and when we need the win to stay above 500 some how they seem to do it. Where the heck is the leadership with this team? Why is it when one or two guys fall they all fall?

Ajax the reason our MVP line is bent over is because when we get a lead the odd man rushes bite us in the the behind or the d falls down and again the other team wants it more. Where is the desire fellas? I know it hurts to lose but can you imagine what it feels like for the fans that have your backs each and every game and go to the forum with heads held high. The team needs to find their motto and their swagger and go forward and take the friggin division guys. Odd man rushes are nothing new and if you really want it MVP line you will take that guys out when he is trying to skate past you not merely stick you stick out and try to stop him.
Safe is death is a joke we need some new motto and the team needs to find out old/new players what the heck they want to achieve out of this season. Any goals possibly? How bout a list.

1. Take it one game at a time.
2. Leave it all out there. Everyone special teams, offense, defense and the goalie should be dying of exhaustion on the ice if that is what it takes.
3. Don't worry about the pretty goals or passes. Just shoot the PUCK.
4. How bout we take the refs out of it and have a scoring frenzy then what the war room says does not even matter.
5. For god sakes lets play like a team. We WIN OR DIE TOGETHER.

By the way I listened to the game on the way home and it sounded like we waited to late to try to come back.
So # 6. Is 60 minutes of hockey. 3/ 20 minutes periods.

Lets Go Bolts....

You guys can do it. Lets get er done. By the way I will always be Bolts fan win or lose.

[Nat4]

Tough loss indeed. Hope things get on track but it won't be easy against Chicago and Detroit. Wonder if they will meet their former goalie in Chicago. But wow two more points for Lecavalier. Hlavac and Ouellet play really hard but can't seem to find the net. How many shots on goal have they missed?

[ted]

fire coach

[quick tuna]

I don't wanna say I told you so but...well, there it is.
We just can't expect to have Vinny play like Gretzky every night with 25 minutes under his belt. This guy is just a man. This man is just human. This human is just...uhhhh...anyway.
Without any worthwhile defense and without a RELIABLE goaltender, the playoffs will always be a pipe-dream. The only reason we were there last year is because the canes, the panthers and the caps sucked worse than we did, c'mon. The Thrashers? We saw what happened to them, didn't we?
This year, the canes are back. the panthers are suddenly on their game, (well, sometimes) and the thrashers? Who knows with those freaks?
In all, we don't have the horses to compete this year and management isn't about to move.
So go Lightning, go. But let's be real.
Real time. Real quick. Real tuna.

[Rudy]

It's noy a PLAYERS It Is a COACH
Time to refresh that position.All mistakes you mensioned in are COACH fault Wake up!

[Rudy]

fire coach

[Rudy]

Did you notice how easy everybody scoring against lightening? Well it’s not a goalie. Check all replay, usually unless two players get in front of our goalie. Almost alone. And watch situations in front of let’s say Brodeur. We have very difficult time even get there. And St. Louis? Is he tired? He has lot of ice time, its seems to me too much. Each time he get a pas he usually return it right away like he don’t want anything to do with it.

[Rudy]

None of players look like want a make play, so they are no criticized or get yield. Look like they are scare to get in. They have not many motivations beside that coach want a win so he not get fired.

[bear]

Torts has squeezed every drop out of this lemon last couple of years.

I think the guys who are bent over during time outs are finally figuring it out too.

This is not remotely a contending team.

[ajax]

Some of the gang buys into the overworked theory. I thought I would do a little homework on the subject.
our top 3, are 1st, 2nd and 11th among all forwards. Ranger, kuba and O'Brien have been getting 25-28 minutes the last 3-5 games. Is it a wonder both Ranger and Kuba have missed a game this week? But, back to stats.
versus NJ out top 3 forwards 81.16 minutes NJ's 63.45
versus Carolina 78min-62 min
versus NYR 77min-57min
Our top forwards are averaging 5-6 more per game than the other teams stars. Where this is really key, is over the long haul. 5 minutes more a night over 80 games is 400 minutes. If the average player plays like 20 minutes, our top 3 are playing an extra 20 games a year.
Weather we all praise, criticize, love or hate, these numbers are huge in explaining the ups and downs of this team. Torts can boast all he wants about his fountain of youth discovery, but he is killing our guys and they have nothing left to finish the game. And gang, we have 60 more games plus playoffs, maybe?? Last night the bottom 6 forwards played a combined 45 minutes. And the same thing is happening with the D. In the last 4-5 games PR/PK/DO are averaging almost 27 minutes and the other 3 guys about 13 minutes. And the workload is only going up, from what I see.
But, I don't blame Torts. He is trying to (see bear above) squeeze every drop out of a dry tree. This roster is full of guys who are at best 4th liners or number 6 dman elsewhere. Anyway my point is, and always has been, this is a very very thin roster. We want goals from our 3rd and 4th lines. But, they never play. But even if they did, none of them show scoring in their bloodlines no matter where their NHL journey's have taken them. Jason Ward, I feel hussles his buns off. He does everything Torts asks of him. He is 28 years old, with his 5th NHL team, and has 31 career goals in 9 NHL seasons.
Darshe is 31 years old with 2 career NHL goals, and if you read the paper, Torts loves what this guy brings. I love the Lightning, I am not a traitor. This team does not have the building blocks to go far, and these minutes are killing our stars.
The Penguins were in the midst of a 6 game losing streak and Crosby was playing 21 minutes a night. Is that coach an idiot or what?? That was a poor attempt at humor by the way. I am not a fair weather fan, I have had season tickets since day one. Hockey is won by a team effort. Our team consists of about 10-12 guys.

[Lightning rod]

Again, I want to know why there is only 1 goal camera at the forum; and it's in our net for 2 of the 3 periods. Why are there not 2 cameras, one in each goal. If there had been a goal camera in both nets in the Rangers' game and last night game, the Lightning would have at least 2 maybe 4 points, instead of zero. A functional replay system and Staal's goal might have not counted in that game.

I am PO'ed, and to me it's just BS that the NHL doesn't have a better replay system, especially when the technology is there to have one at every game. For god's sake, NBC had a disk put in the puck to track it. Even the retailers have a system to tract things, the magnetic bar code and the scanners at the exit. I can't take credit for that one, it came from the mouth of the 9 or 10 year old girl sitting in front of me last night. I guess that one is beyond the boys in Toronto to.

Does anyone out there know the last time the Lightning got a positive replay result from Toronto, when there was even a hint that the puck might be in (against us)or not be in (for us)? It's been a long long while, at least for me. Does anyone out there think that there might be a slight connection, between Tort's complaining about the poor officiating, and the next 3 losses, each with a replay that went against the Lightning, along with the critical hooking call on Richards? I could be wrong sure; but the lack of an effective replay system doesn't give me the warm fuzzies about the guys on the ice with stripes, and the boys way up Toronto way. They both have way to much subjectivity, when it comes to the puck; and deciding if it crossed the line or not. When fans, who pay to go and see the games and are the major source of every teams revenue, start feeling that officials can effect (rob)the results of a game or set of games, then the teams and the NHL need to do something about it. It's about integrity and the increasing lack thereof. It's about time, a better system was put in-place; and I for one am going to continue to demand that the teams and the NHL do something about it. I don't care if a good functional replay system continues to go against the Lightning. All I want, no demand, is that I can actually see/know that the puck was in or out at least most of the time. For the good of a game, it's not to much to ask for.

[Hockey Chic]

Lightning rod and Ajax the system sucks and it is going to continue to suck cause they do not want the lightning to win. I hate the refs, bettman needs to be kicked out of the NHL and screw the original 6. I am so sick of it.

There are expansion teams and we are going to continue to play and kick other teams butts and be in the playoffs and the more you try to allow the refs to sway it one way or the other the harder we are going to play.

Lets go Bolts you can do it...I agree why do we only have one camera and some arenas do not have replay at all or at least they do not share it.

Hey Betmann you want the NHL to grow how bout you make it fare or at least be smart enuff to admit that they are human (Refs) and they make mistakes...

[ted]

fire coach

[bear]

Q>Does anyone out there know the last time the Lightning got a positive replay result from Toronto?

A>Calgary
System does suck though, one camera is an insult.

[Brittany]

I don't know if any of y'all caught this last night but in the last minute or so of the game, Vinny L. broke his stick and as he skated back to the bench to get a new one he missed the equipment guy. As this is happening, New Jersey gets a breakaway towards our open net and Vinny skates over and protects the goal. It's crazy how quick this guy can think while he's out there.

[keith]

Thats why V4 makes the big bucks Brittany.He's supposed to think fast, but a good play none the less. Shame it didnt make a damn bit of difference to the outcome.

To all the "I hate the refs" clan......The Lightning won a Stanley Cup because of a blown call by the refs. Ask the Flames fans if they think they get any love from Toronto. Brett Hull's goal against Detroit in the Cup Final, etc. etc. It goes on forever, and probably always will.
Over a season it levels out. The blown calls just seem more prevalent when a team is losing close games (continually)
Trying like hell to keep the faith. Seems like 90's deja vu.
Go Bolts.

[karma]

Firing the coach won't win hockey games.

Torts was "visionary" in his coaching style 4 years ago when he foresaw upcoming rules changes on the "clutch and grab". He and Jay built a team based upon speed, risk, and great goal-tending. The defense was still based on the old model of big bodies and we are working away from that with OB55, Ranger, Lundin and Boyle (why Luke is back is beyond me...) It would have continued to work had Khabi continued to be our goalie (he mitigated the "risk" of sending in forward and d-men deep into the offensive zone).

Remember, coaches teach the game and prepare the athletes. They don't skate, shoot, or make saves, and they don't sign players to contracts. You can't blame Torts for the team on the ice.

[Joe]

I'll take a little different stab at this. I think one thing we need to do more is hit more and play more physical. No one's mentioning it, but I recall over the last couple years every time the bolts decide to start really hitting and putting the other team in it's place, it seems to even the playing field more and we play much better as a result. I don't mean fighting, I mean hitting - a lot. I'm not seeing enough physical play lately. I'm seeing our players, and our top players - St. Louis, getting pushed around. I'm seeing the other team banging the puck off Holmers pads over and over without any bolt taking him out. What? We need much more physical play and things will fall into place.

And, even though everyone's sick of whining about bad calls - I am too - but, you have to admit the calls are slanted against the bolts. Goal review - there's are overturned and go in, ours don't. We have to play at 200% to level the playing field. Unfortunate, but true.

And...don't fire the coach. Get real. I wouldn't want anyone else. The only problem I ever had with Torts was him mixing up the goalies so much, which he stopped this year.

GO BOLTS!

[keith]

Great post Karma. Coaches coach. Players play. GM's...well they GM!
Enough of the vituperative demagoguing.

[****]

I wrote that weeks ago about the strategy worked with Khabi and doesn't work now. Johnny come latelys.

[the shrink]

Joe's hammer found the nail head.
Horsebleep ref calls won't matter if we're focused on going b@ll$ to the walls all the way until the final horn tells our guys, 'time's up'.

"Enough of the vituperative demagoguing."
How bloody ironic...

[Mike13]

I'm not sure it really matters that Craig is hurt (again). He didn't really do anything so far this year when he has played.

Then again, spreading some minutes around so that our top guys aren't ineffective in the last 10 minutes of every friggin game might have somthing to do with that.

If there's one thing that we can pick on Torts about, its that. I don't care if the team doesn't have the depth that he wants. He cannot continue to play the top guys for 26+ minutes a game and expect them to be the stars that they are as the game winds down.

[bigboy]

Sorry, mike, but if you want a chance to win, you have to play them 26+ minutes, even if that burns them out. Guess what? Even if you guage their use perfectly, we're still a .500 team. The top players are the EDGE of our team that can turn any game on a dime.
Hey fans, we didn't make the playoffs but our guys are in great shape! C'mon. Play Vinny 35 minutes, I say!
What we need, is more than 5 players on our roster, plain and simple. Deppppth! we need depth. THAT'S what's killing us. We got nobody!
Coach Tortorella is doing an excellent job. Fire him and you activate the self-destruct sequence for this year.

[bigboy]

On reffing.
Are the refs really THAT bad? I've been hearing this for the last 20 years! They are neither better or worse than they ever were. The thing is that a lot of rules, some of them debatable unto themselves (interference at 80mph), are open to INTERPRETATION. Consider that's it's NEVER black or white. (High-sticking)
The only SURE thing is that the refs are much less tolerant. Whereas before, in doubt they would call nothing, now, in doubt they call everything. Before, they let too much go by without whistling, now they're quick draw whistle artists. Well, what do you want?! Perfection? Go watch the NFL. This is hockey. It's the coolest game in the world. (I love that coolest game bit.) And it's here to stay, no matter what.
If some doubtful penalties are the price to pay for the elimination of clutching, holding and grabbing that was killing the sport, I am more than content to accept that.
What about you?

[jr]

Here's something I found on a hockey blog:

The Columbus Blue Jackets had 41 sellouts and an average gate of 18,136 in 2001-02. Last season,MacLean's last, they had five sellouts and averaged 16,401. Such is the measurable backlash of the scorned and insulted.

[Mike13]

Re: Playing the stars for 35-minutes or whatever, I understand your point Bigboy. Torts doesn't have many (any) other options when trying to win the game. My point is that these guys are not capable of playing 35 minutes a night at their skill level. Yes, they can skate around and do what they have been doing late in the games: easily knocked off the puck, bad passes, out of position, losing battles in the corner, taking sloppy ill-timed penalties, etc. What is the sense in that? It only serves to worsen their performance statistically (see Brad Richards) and puts the team in a tail spin that ends with the Bolts loosing.

[bigboy]

True, but better a small chance to win than none at all. Our other 2 lines are canon-fodder for opposing lines.
I know they're tired, I know they're bent over and can hardly breathe, I see that.
Sorry Charlie.
Besides, Mike. Ask Vinny at the 30th minute; "You tired, bud?! You wanna sit?!"
"Hell no, coach!!!"
Attaboy Vinny.