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Ouellet Trying To Break Through

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2007

TAMPA - Two weeks ago Michel Ouellet overcame a slow start while adapting to the Lightning's style of play and began to emerge as a legitimate top six forward in the Tampa Bay lineup.

On Saturday he wasn't even in the top 12. At least he wasn't scheduled to be after the morning skate.

The 25-year-old RW was supposed to be a healthy scratch against the Bruins before C Craig MacDonald had to take himself out of the lineup to be with his wife, Amanda, who delivered the couple's second child, daughter Emerson Grace at 4:08 p.m. at St. Joseph's Hospital.

During his morning news conference, Coach John Tortorella opted not to discuss Ouellet's play - or anybody else's for that matter.

"I'm not going to get into any assessments of players, the team or anything publicly right now," Tortorella said. "We'll keep that in the room."

Ouellet, who was signed to a two-year free agent deal worth $2.5 million during the summer, entered Saturday sixth on the team in points (14), goals (5) and plus/minus (plus-3). He went without a goal for the first seven games as he admitted to struggles trying to adapt to Tampa Bay's up-tempo forecheck after playing in a trap system most of his career.

He said following the morning skate that he knows he has gotten away from what he was doing when he was playing between 16 and 20 minutes a night from Nov. 7-24. In the past two games prior to Saturday, Ouellet dropped to 13:29 Wednesday in Chicago to a previous season-low 8:09 Thursday at Detroit.

"I was back to trying to do too much," Ouellet said. "We need to focus in on the things I was doing good when I was playing good and you cannot forget about how to get to where you were."

Ouellet played 5:48 against the Bruins, picking up an assist on Vinny Lecavalier's power-play goal in the first period.

CATAMOUNT CRAZY: Lightning RW Marty St. Louis spent his day off Friday at the same place he spends most of his work days - inside the St. Pete Times Forum.

But St. Louis wasn't on the ice or inside the workout room. Instead he sat in the stands for the NCAA basketball game between his alma mater, the University of Vermont, and Florida. St. Louis, who remains the all-time scoring leader in the school's hockey history, said it was the first live Vermont sporting event he had seen since a hockey game during the 2002 Olympic break.

RAMO RETURNS: G Karri Ramo made his return to the lineup for Tampa Bay's AHL affiliate in Norfolk on Saturday. Ramo, who suffered a high ankle sprain during practice between Norfolk's first and second game, was originally expected to miss three or four weeks. He surrendered seven goals on 33 shots in an 8-5 loss to Binghamton, including three in the third after Norfolk took a 5-4 lead with 10 minutes left in the game.

Erik Erlendsson

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