Tampa Bay Lightning

[dmvincent]

Do you hear that? That's the sound of applause after Steven Stamkos scored his fifty-third goal of the year and set a new franchise record in that department. Stamkos has eight more games left, but he's not showing any signs of slowing down lately. Dwayne Roloson was once again very effective, stopping 35 of 38 shots fired his way. The full game summary is below. Tampa won the game 5-3, despite being outshot heavily by Philadelphia.

1st period
-Ryan Malone scores a shorthanded goal, his 15th. The lone assist went to Trevor Smith
-Stamkos gets his 53rd, assisted by Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell

2nd period
-Wayne Simmonds gets the Flyers on the board with his 23rd. Assists go to Brayden Schenn and Pavel Kubina
-Matt Read ties it up on his 22nd, assisted by Kimmo Timonen and Jakub Voracek

3rd period
-St. Louis pots his 24th, assisted by Tim Wallace and Eric Brewer
-JT Wyman scores his 2nd of the year, unassisted.
-Scott Hartnell continues to light the lamp with his 36th of the year, assisted by Daniel Briere and Voracek
-Tom Pyatt scores an empty netter, his 12th. The lone assist goes to Eric Brewer.

Next up: Steven Stamkos will try and continue improving his stats Tuesday night in Boston.

[dmvincent]

Steven Stamkos keeps rolling, but the Lightning don't. Tampa lost 5-2 to the Boston Bruins, despite Stamkos' two goals and now 55 on the season. The Bruins fired 38 shots on Dwayne Roloson, while the Lightning only had 18 on Tim Thomas. Zdeno Chara had three assists and David Krejci chipped in with two helpers for the Bruins. The full game summary is below.

1st period
-Stamkos scores his first of the game and 54th, assisted by Martin St. Louis
-Shawn Thornton scores his fifth to tie it up, assisted by Zdeno Chara.

2nd period
-Dennis Seidenberg puts the Bruins on top with his 4th, assisted by Chara and Krejci

3rd period
-Stamkos gets his second goal of the game and 55th of the season, assisted Victor Hedman and St. Louis
-Benoit Pouliot scores a controversial goal, could have been goalie interference on Chris Kelly. That would be his 14th, assisted by Brian Rolston and Chara.
-Brad Marchand scores his 26th, assisted by Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin.
-Rich Peverley gets the empty netter, his 10th. The lone assist goes to Krejci.

Next up: Tampa travels to New Jersey on Thursday, facing the Devils who are coming off a 2-1 shootout win over the Florida Panthers.

[dmvincent]

Apologies for the late game summary of Tampa Bay vs. New Jersey, here it is. Tampa Bay falls 6-4, is outshot 38-20 by New Jersey and once again really had no business being in this game. You have to give them credit, they capitalize on opportunities more often then not.

1st period
-Ryan Malone gets his 16th, assisted by Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.

2nd period
-Dainius Zubrus tied it up with a shorthanded goal, assisted by Patrik Elias.
-Malone scores again, second of the game and 17th. The lone assist goes to Eric Brewer.
-Jacob Josefson scores a rare goal for New Jersey, that would be his second of the season. Assists go to Ryan Carter and David Clarkson.
-Malone finishes off the hat-trick, getting his 18th of the season. The lone assist goes to Hedman.
-Ilya Kovalchuk bangs home his 33th, assisted by Adam Henrique and Patrik Elias.
-Marek Zidlicky gets his 2nd, assisted by Kovalchuk and Elias.

3rd period
-Alexei Ponikarovsky tips in his 13th, assisted by Bryce Salvador.
-Clarkson continues his incredible season, scoring his 29th. Assists go to Ponikarovsky and Henrique.
-Trevor Smith continues his impressive play and scores his 2nd, assisted by Tim Wallace and Keith Aulie.

Next up: Tampa Bay faces the Winnipeg Jets at the Tampa Bay Times Forum tonight.

[dmvincent]

Newcomer Sebastien Caron will start in goal tonight for Tampa. Also, NCAA star TJ Brown will make his Lightning debut tonight.

[dmvincent]

Sebastien Caron was very effective for Tampa Bay in his first start, he turned aside 26 of 28 shots and helped the Lightning to a 3-2 win in overtime. Steven Stamkos scored again and Ryan Malone picked two goals. Tampa outshot Winnipeg 39-28 and definitely deserved the win. Stamkos sniped his 5th overtime winner of the season, which is a new single season record. Stamkos now has 56 goals this season and continues to lead the league in that department.

1st period
-Malone keeps the hot streak going, scoring his 19th. The goal was unassisted.

2nd period
-Antti Miettinen scores his fifth goal of the year, assisted by Evander Kane and Mark Stuart.
-Kyle Wellwood puts home his 18th, assisted by Dustin Byfuglien and Tim Stapleton

3rd period
-Malone gets his 2nd of the game and 20th of the year, assisted by Teddy Purcell and Victor Hedman

Overtime
-Stamkos pots his 56th, assisted by Brian Lee.

Next up: Tampa Bay continues their home stand, as they host the Washington Capitals on Monday.

[hockeyrobot]

Two away from 60 now!!!

[dmvincent]

Two away from 60 now!!!

With 58 on the season, the Steven Stamkos show continued on Monday night against the Washington Capitals. The Lightning won the game 4-2 and they're clearly not giving up, this team looks primed for a big jump next season if they can fix some of the issues with the club.

1st period
-No scoring.

2nd period
-Alex Semin pops in his 20th of the season, assisted by Mathieu Perreault.
-Teddy Purcell gets his 21st, assisted by Stamkos and Martin St. Louis
-Victor Hedman scores his 5th, assisted Nate Thompson and Taylor Pyatt.

3rd period
-Jason Chimera scores his 20th, assisted by Semin.
-Stamkos bangs home his 57th, assisted by Brett Clark and Brian Lee.
-Stamkos pots the empty netter for his 58th, assisted by Thompson and Eric Brewer.

Highlight reel save by Dwayne Roloson, save of the year?
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...d=35&id=169584

Next up: The Bolts travel to Montreal on Wednesday night as Stamkos looks to continue his assault on the NHL scoring race and Tampa Bay Lightning goal scoring records.

[Bomm Bastic]

Sabres Fans for Stamkos!!!!

...a new PAC.

[dmvincent]

Sabres Fans for Stamkos!!!!

...a new PAC.

Haha nice one, Bomm.

[dmvincent]

Caron was first off the ice in practice today and is expected to start tonight against the Habs.

[dongjohnson]

A lot of people, myself included, have no idea why Tokarski's not getting a shot. Roloson's farewell tour (said to be starting the next two) really does nothing for the club.

[dmvincent]

A lot of people, myself included, have no idea why Tokarski's not getting a shot. Roloson's farewell tour (said to be starting the next two) really does nothing for the club.

Agreed, I won't be doing the game summaries anymore since there are just two games left. He looked good I thought, not sure why they're jerking him around and trotting out oldies like Roloson and Caron.

[dmvincent]

Stamkos goes for 60 in the Lightning's final game of the regular season. I'll have a piece on the year that was for the Tampa Bay Lightning coming out this upcoming week.

[dmvincent]

He did it! Stamkos puts a pretty bow on the Lightning's season with his sixtieth goal of the year! The Bolts top the Jets 4-3 in overtime. I enjoyed covering this team and I'll continue to do so in the off-season. As I mentioned earlier, I'll post a little sum up of the 2011-2012 season for everyone to enjoy.

[dmvincent]

Lets take a look back at the season that was for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2011-2012.

Optimism was in the air as the season began and the Tampa Bay Lightning were pretty much a shoo in to make the playoffs. They had a young, emerging sniper by the name of Steven Stamkos and some solid veterans like Martin St. Louis, Ryan Malone, Pavel Kubina, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Vincent Lecavalier. The only question was, could Dwayne Roloson be the starter for the entire season? Those questions were quickly answered after an impressive 5-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes to open the season. The team began to struggle, losing five games in a row to the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, New York Islanders and the Florida Panthers (twice). Goaltending was shaky and the Lightning forwards were not producing. As the season moved along, Lightning coach Guy Boucher handed an opportunity to Mathieu Garon and he ran with it. Garon was very effective until he suffered a torn groin, which has sidelined him since March 6th. This was the death blow for the Lightning, losing their starting goalie meant that making the playoffs was going to be a tall task. The Lightning were really in the race until then and you have to remember that they also lost their captain, Vinny Lecavalier. Lecavalier was out 18 games with a broken hand and finally returned March 29th against the New Jersey Devils. Tampa finished the season with 84 points, which left them eight points out of a playoff spot.

Is there a silver lining? No doubt about that, it has been a good year for the Lightning organization. Tampa has the tenth overall pick in the 2012 NHL entry draft, the reigning AHL defencemen of the year in Mark Barberio, a veteran that keeps on producing in Marty St. Louis and of course the sixty goal phenom, Stamkos.

Here's how I view the team after following them this season.

Unsung hero: Ryan Malone (48 points, 142 hits and 36 blocked shots).
Disappointment(s): Vincent Lecavalier (only 49 points) and Victor Hedman (23 points).
Surprise: Mathieu Garon (took over the number one spot in net and had 23 wins) and Teddy Purcell (24 goals and 65 points).
The offensive dynamo's: Steven Stamkos (60 goals and 97 points) and Martin St. Louis (at age 36 he still put up 74 points).