Mile High bullet points

LW Gary Roberts has recovered from his upper body injury and will replace Evgeny Artyukhin in the lineup, manning the third line tonight against Colorado with Jussi Jokinen and Mark Recchi.

Olaf Kolzig will start in goal with Mike Smith working in Minnesota yesterday.

The Lightning reassigned defenseman Matt Smaby to Norfolk (American Hockey League) this morning. He was recalled on Nov. 27 and was a healthy on Friday at Minnesota. He had been recalled in case D Andrew Hutchinson was snagged by another team on recall waivers on Friday.

Jason Ward was reassigned to Norfolk after clearing recall waivers yesterday.

Most of the Lightning participated in an optional morning skate at the Pepsi Center, with Marty St. Louis, working hard on his play around the net.

Comments

[Coach Bill]

hviv- When that day comes, I hope they get rid of those gay "energy guys" and the little figure skaters that wave to noone at every time out. Get rid of it all ( Thunderbug can stay- kids love him).

[hyjyljyj]

"a 3rd goalie as a "shootout specialist"? I think we're headed off the deep end..."

We sure are. If kept up long enough, the league-wide infatuation with this mindless gimmick for deciding games will eventually spawn the shootout specialist goalie, as teams wake up to the fact that their playoff hopes and dreams rest squarely on the shoulders of the gimmick and their ability to make it work in their favor (see Lightning, Tampa Bay, 2006-07). When enough teams catch on that about ten points in the standings (maybe 1/10 of their entire season output or more) are at stake in this specialized non-hockey event, they will find a way to focus on it and prioritize it--to the detriment of actual _hockey_, BTW.

The league, recognizing the vital importance of their little gimmick to the playoff picture, will expand the admissible roster to accommodate the need for a goalie with the ability stay warm and loose in the dressing room during 3rd periods & OTs and to stop phony penalty shots, and little else. Kids will grow up facing nothing but penalty shots in practice day in and day out from age 6, until they get so good at it, shootouts will start taking 9-10 rounds and eventually 15-20 rounds and more. A third of the time at a hockey game will be spent watching individuals take turns skating lazily in on goal, taking a single shot, then going to sit down and shoot the bull.

Then, in the misty future, a groundswell of voices for preservation of hockey tradition and emphasis on team play will rise in opposition to the gimmick, which will be abolished in favor of extended OT, maybe 3-on-3 or whatever it takes for TEAMS to decide games once again.

How far off will that misty future be? We decide.

The End

[Boltflasher]

Mike P...its a big dropoff from Smitty to Olie plus a team with no life and no hits until STAMKOS of all people finally hits someone...theatre of the bizarre is all I can call it right now...made no sense to not dress Arty...

[PD]

Man what a brutal giveaway by Smith. That should be a wrap

[mike p]

It's funny you should say that Herb. Because I had just checked the shot totals before I read your comment and was going to say something about that. Does anyone know the record for least amount of shots in a game? Cuz we must be close to it.

[PD]

Don per the coach, indeed nice to have a great sparring mate back.

Been saying the same thing about V$, thats not leadership especially at those prices.

[McGz]

Good to see you back you Don. I'm not watching the game tonight but 3 goals in the first in 5 mind is not going to cut it. I would hate to seee V$ traded but I wouldn't put it by the ownership to pull a trade. They would probably mess that up anyway.

[Herb]

Well mike p, check the shot totals through 2 periods of play, that tell you something. Through 2 full periods it is Av's 22 and the Bolts with a eye-popping total of 9......no that is not a typo, 9 frickin' shots by a supposed NHL team.

[mike p]

Oh yea, and I can't see the game, so fill me in...has Kolzig completely lost any sort of usefulness? Or were those goals the other lightning player's fault. Cuz he's 3-10 right now. ROUGH.

[Don in St. Pete]

PD, Coach Bill, et al, I have not disappeared. I was a casualty of the Typepad acct system which does not work well with AOL accounts. I signed on using Internet Explorer to post here. Trade V4. I'm sorry but when you have a player whos coast's around out there, doesn't play d and looks for breakaways or 1 timers, it's not good.

[Tommy]

Just like last year. any team that gets more physical than us, rather than elevating to their intensity level, we go into turtle mode. Sure wish we had a line with Arty, Tarnasky and Roy

[mike p]

This was a good laugh for me. I haven't seen Dan Boyle's stats in a while. He's +9 and has 21 points (8 goals). The guy has one less goal than Lecavalier and 3 more points. So, essentially, we traded our top scoring player for Matt Carle and a first round pick. Ouch.

[Boltflasher]

Geez, if we had Karlsson and Darche, we could put even more meaningless fodder out there on the ice...this one has me stumped....

[Boltflasher]

Let's see,...Arty is a healthy scratch but we have Roberts, Hutchison, and Craig...and, also, Olie in goal,...are we trying to lose this one?

[Herb]

WOW 2 to ZIP. Well done Bolts. Keep it up and I won the pool at the end of the year. Man this team sucks bad. It's going to be another long, frustrating summer.

[Herb]

Yeah, I just read EE blog about the apparent benching of Arty. If he is going to drop someone from the lineup because he gave the opposition scoring chances, THEN WHY IN THE HELL IS RANGER IN THE LINEUP????!!! Ranger had a couple of nice games when he came back from injury, but since then he has been a turnover machine. The Nashville game was one of his worst games as far as turnovers in the defensive zone is concerned. I don't understand the logic or lack thereof.

[Oscar]

I sincerely hope if the Sens don't have the good sense to sign the recently retired Luke Richardson to a coaching contract....I hope we do!

I also hope he doesn't hate us for starting his coaching career a tad early, year before last. Scratching his healthy butt and making him watch/scout from the booth when we needed someone to offset the prodigious odd man rushes defied logic.
This is the guy who, at Columbus made Marc Denis look competent to Feaster. (Should've gotten a spiff out of Denis' $3M when they were here.)

Our ongoing need for leadership and his unemployment also spin the head.

Good Luck Luke...

Go Bolts!

[Coach Bill]

Ever wonder how many of us seem to know each other personally? Come to the Happy Hour on Dec 18 at Shots (on the patio) from 6-7:30. Who's in?

[Coach Bill]

PD- Just got a call from Don in St. Pete- Like you, I was also a bit concerned about him. He is having trouble with this new typekey system and he has aol ( like me) and has not been able to get through yet. I had the same problem and it took 8 or 9 tries. Even now. I can't get in as Coach Bill, but if I use my e-mail address. I can get in. Don works for environtal studies in the St. Pete area and has been very busy at work. He hasn't been to a game in a while. I think I got him to come with me Thurs. ( Bruins). He said he'd try to get on tonight or tomorrow. We'll see.

[Coach Bill]

PD- Tried calling Don. He'll be back soon I'm sure. Flasher- couldn't agree with ya more on "Where is R2?" He is our most energy person. Wade- You're right! We need to shoot the puck on shootouts. Not try to get fancy. And why is V4 and MSL not in the top 2?

[Boltflasher]

Roberts can not replace Arty...not sure about this...don't like it...

[McGz]

Hopefully Arty takes the constructive criticism and learns from it. He was pretty invisible against the Wild and that's hard when you're 6'5" and 260.

[Nan]

Hey guys, see EE's blog on TBO for reason why Tocchet took R2kn out of the game. He says it is because Arty gave the Wild 3 quality scoring chances and wants him to watch the game from above.

I am glad that most of the team showed up for the optional skate, they need to! Are they working on the shoot out in every practice? I sure hope so!

Go Bolts. Please get a win tonight!

[leo]

Oy, gimme a chance, PD.
Here I is.
And what's to say? We were putrid and fully deserved the slap in the face from Theo. Like Denis last year. What more is there to say?
Except that even in our suckiest moments, we got more points than Toranna.
P.

[Wade]

We need to atleast try putting Ollie in the shootout because obviously Smitty can't do it, i mean i love the guy and he's great in regualtion but he just can't stop 'em in the s.o.

Now if Ollie can't do it, might need to bring Holmer back in for the season as a extra forward and dress him up for the shootout, lol.

But seriously, Toch needs to spend more time on the shootout drills, get Jussi and Vinny out of there, i'm sorry but there just to fancy, just look at Malone scoring on the penalty shot vs. Jersey and Arty winning the shootout vs. Ottawa, and what did they do? Nothing fancy, just skate up and shoot the freckin puck!

[PD]

Arty replaced by Roberts make zero sense at any level.

[PD]

Oscar, you suggesting Smith takes a turn as a shooter?
Helluva an idea actually,,would make the NHL look the fools they are for perpetrating the carnival shootout.

Almost 24 hrs from Theo's shutout of the shabs and no Leo..interesting.

Seen Don

[Boltflasher]

Ahhh, a 3rd goalie as a "shootout specialist"? I think we're headed off the deep end...

[Boltflasher]

This team has not played well when Arty has been out of the lineup so it would be helpful to know why he's not playing...

[Boltflasher]

What's up with Arty?

[Oscar]

Here's a radical thought: After the first big three go in the shootout, put Mike Smith in there. He'd love it and might make it interesting.

BTW, we'd have to have Ramo covering our net during shootouts though...

Go Bolts!

[McGz]

Is arty injured cause there's no way Roberts replaces what arty does on the ice. Or is this sending a message for dancing around on the ice and not hitting anyone in the last game? Go Bolts!