A preview of the Lightning.
Record: 16-22-5
Leading Scorer: Vincent Lecavalier 63 points (28 points, 35 assists)
Last Game: 5-3 road win against the Rangers Tuesday.
Last Game Against The Penguins: 5-1 win in Tampa Bay, Feb. 25, 2007.
Lightning Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Michel Ouellet. While it is true, he is on injured reserve with a dislocated shoulder, we're pretty sure he's going to go all Martin Riggs on that shoulder and pop it back into place by slamming it off a fence or a car door or something. Then he'll break Joe Malone's single-game scoring record of seven goals and kill a South African terrorist. And he'll do all this just to make us look bad since we complained any time he was in the Penguins' lineup last season.
Ex-Penguins: Michel Ouellet, RW (injured); Andre Roy, RW.
Useless Lightning Trivia: Tony Esposito once served as the Penguins general manager (1988-89) His brother Phil Esposito was the Lightning's first general manager (1992-98).
Best Lightning YouTube video We Could Find: Check out this tic-tac-toe goal the Lightning scored against the Flyers in the 2004 playoffs:
JAROMIR "YEAGER" GETS DRAFTED
While randomly combing through YouTube, we found TSN's recap of the 1990 NHL Draft:
Among the highlights:
-Owen Nolan getting picked first overall by the Nordiques.
-Pat Burns selecting Petr Nedved No. 2 overall for the Canucks.
-Keith Primeau going No. 3 to the Red Wings.
-Mike Ricci getting picked No. 4 by the Flyers. He was expected to go No. 1 by some at the time.
-Ricci was ugly before he entered the NHL, but he wasn't anything like the gruesome troll he became after several seasons in the NHL. He was regular ugly when he was drafted. After he retired, he was this sort of super, mega, special type of ugly.
-Jaromir Jagr gets picked by the Penguins and his name is mispronounced "Jaromir 'Yeager.'" During Ricci's interview, you can hear Craig Patrick even mess his name up.
-Jagr is interviewed through an interpreter.
-"Badger" Bob Johnson is interviewed. God bless him.
-The Flames traded Joe Mullen to the Penguins for a second-round pick.
-As hard as it might be to believe, mullets seemed to be very popular among young hockey players in 1990.
(AOL's Kevin Schultz actually posted this before us. We didn't realize it until we posted it ourselves. Apologies.)
EMPTY NETTER ASSISTS
Penguins
-Sidney Crosby and Vincent Lecavalier are alike in many ways.
-If there's a time for the Penguins to beat the Lightning, tonight's probably it.
-Is Evgeni Malkin Crosby's sidekick?
-We're a little late with this. Mark Eaton will miss the rest of the season.
-Check out this cheap shot Tyler Kennedy delivered to some poor schmoe from the bench back in his junior hockey days:
(Kudos to The Pensblog by way of Going Five Hole for finding that.)
-Check out this highlight tape of "The Kladno Kid" from the 1995-96 season:
-Someone spotted a video of Troy Loney "interviewing" Tom Barrasso a few years back:
We hear David Volek likes the media:
-Mark Letestu scored two goals for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 3-1 win against Lake Erie.
Atlantic Division
-In a shocking development, Flyers senior vice president Bobby Clarke gave his approval of the sucker punch Flyers punk Steve Downie laid out on Toronto's Jason Blake last week.
-How do you not come away from that video thinking Bobby Clarke is demented? Unless you're a Flyers fan of course.
-The Flyers actually did something classy.
-Some of the Flyers' injured players are getting healthier.
-Martin Brodeur wants the NHL to bring the All-Star Game to Newark, N.J. The NHL wants Kevlar vests.
-The Islanders traded forward Darryl Bootland to Anaheim for forward Matt Keith. Plan the parade.
Northeast Division
-Sabres defenseman Teppo Numminen might be out for the rest of the season due to his heart ailment.
-A Stanley Cup ring belonging to former Canadiens forward Sergio Momesso was stolen.
Southeast Division
-Olaf Kolzig made 35 saves for the Capitals in a 2-1 win against the Avalanche.
-Panthers captain Olli Jokinen called out his team after getting beat by the Penguins Tuesday.
-The Capitals hired former head coach Glen Hanlon as a scout. (Next to last note.)
-Alexander Ovechkin is hot:
Central Division
-The Blue Jackets put former Penguins center Kris Beech on waivers.
-Columbus put defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and center Andrew Murray on injured reserve.
-The Red Wings signed goaltender Chris Osgood to a three-year contract extension.
-Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios officially became the second oldest player in NHL history.
Northwest Division
-Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo will not play in the All-Star Game.
-Wayne Gretzky endorsed Darryl Katz's bid to purchase the Oilers.
Pacific Division
-Todd Bertuzzi and Corey Perry each had three-point games for the Ducks in 5-0 rout of the Maple Leafs. Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 28 saves and recorded his 27 career shutout and tied Guy Herbert's franchise record for shutouts.
-Maple Leafs goon Wade Belak injured Ducks goon George Parros with a knee-on-knee hit then "bravely" decided to fight him last night. He even threw a punch at Parros as lay on the ice:
-Mike Modano recorded three assists for the Stars in a 3-1 win at Chicago.
-The Ducks assigned forward Bobby Ryan to Portland of the AHL.
Norris Division
-ESPN's David Amber lists the top ten individual seasons of all time. Mario Lemieux checks in twice. (Kudos to EN reader T.J. McAloon for spotting this.)
-Former Penguins Micki DuPont and Joel Kwiatkowski were named to the Canadian AHL All-Star team.
-Brett Hull says the NHL is too robotic. (Registration required.)
-According to TSN, the NHL will have a NBA slam dunk contest style of format to the shootout contest in the skills competition at the All-Star Game.
-Sean Buffery of Slam Sports calls out former Penguins assistant coach Pierre McGuire for being the most annoying human being ever.
First Published: January 10, 2008, 9:45 a.m.
