Amanda Harris

And because watching the news crawl across the wire feed on my phone wasn’t painful enough, the in-transit experience was punctuated by a call from the folks (who shall remain nameless as, unbeknownst to their cable provider, they’re currently receiving the Center Ice package gratis) who simultaneously broke out the colorful hockey language to give me a play-by-play account of the Bolts’ choke job in the final seconds.

Talk about finding ways to lose.

Suppose we should consider it progress as the boys gave it up to the Devils with 38 seconds left on the clock this time around (you’ll recall a previous meeting with Jacques Lemaire’s crew saw them felled at 19:59 in the third).

Still, the fact we’re even revisiting the whole “working against ourselves in the worst way” scenario that defined the better part of Tampa Bay’s 2008-09 season (less than 30 games into the 2009-10 campaign no less) is troublesome to say the least.

So what gives?

For starters, the Bolts’ special teams officially suck. Yes, Steve Downie’s power play tally in the last stanza provided some relief, breaking the Lightning’s 0-for-16 man advantage drought (which included an 0-for-6 showing in Boston on Wednesday) but one goal in nearly 20 must-convert, five-on-four opportunities is nothing to write home about.

Throw in the fact the penalty kill has given up seven goals in the last four games alone and I’m thinking it’s high time I strapped on some pads and threw the body around a bit out there.

It certainly couldn’t hurt at this point, and might even provide a stopgap for the boys as they attempt to get a handle on those ill-timed and entirely stupid infractions that continue to shoot them in the foot.

It’s become an all too frequent occurrence and Friday was no different. Within the first four minutes of the final frame the Bolts’ squandered their lead, beginning a parade to the penalty box that would see Lukas Krajicek (slashing), Jeff Halpern (tripping) and Steven Stamkos (tripping) doing the walk of shame while New Jersey capitalized (twice) on the advantage.

Even worse than the citations themselves, however, is knowledge that Rick Tocchet took the time between periods to advise his players to stay away from penalties and reminded them to exercise a bit of patience on the ice.

Too much real-time pressure for the boys to heed his warnings or has Tocchet’s locker room essentially tuned him out already?

I’d be willing to give Tocchet the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to an untimely bout of brain flatulence on the Bolts’ behalf, if it weren’t for his comments earlier in the day regarding his captain’s apparent lack of confidence. Sure, Vinny Lecavalier is a 10-year NHL veteran but Tocchet telling the media Vinny’s on his own in his fight to regain the ol’ V4 swagger (which I must say, he ain’t gonna find on the left wing, coach) just doesn’t sit well.

Last time I checked it was the bench boss’ job to motivate his team night in and night out. With Tocchet essentially throwing in the towel on his captain, you’ve got to wonder just how receptive the boys are to those intermission pow wows, don’t you?

Plenty of blame to throw around in this one but, as you know, pointing the finger doesn’t really get you anywhere. Let’s settle things down a bit, quit shuffling the lines like a high stakes dealer in Vegas, and get back to basics as we return to home ice for a stretch.

Seeing Zenon Konopka stick up for James Wright the way he did on Friday is evidence enough for me this team has the fight to claw its way back into playoff contention.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Gambling Rick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.