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End Of The Line For Denis

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 29, 2007

Updated: 12/29/2007 12:22 am

TAMPA - The mood surrounding the Lightning locker room these days is as somber as a rainy day funeral procession.

There has been little emotion, scarce smiles and a minuscule amount of enjoyment. And it didn't get much better Friday when goaltender Marc Denis was absent from practice after he was placed on waivers, all but ending his tumultuous two seasons in a Lightning uniform. The other 29 NHL teams have until noon today to make a claim on Denis, although the 30-year-old likely will go unclaimed and be reassigned to the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Norfolk, Va., today.

Denis was acquired from Columbus on June 30, 2006, for left wing Fredrik Modin and goaltender Fredrik Norrena. Denis quickly was signed to a three-year contract worth $8.6 million with the expectation that he would solidify himself as the No. 1 goaltender the team was desperately seeking. But by the end of his first season in Tampa Bay he found himself as a healthy scratch for the team's first-round playoff loss to New Jersey and with an unclear future with the organization.

Denis made only four starts this season, winning once, while compiling a league-worst 4.01 goals-against average and .859 save percentage among goaltenders with at least 10 appearances. With the call-up and play of rookie Karri Ramo the past week, the writing was on the wall about Denis' future with the team.

"This isn't a real shock thing that's gone on because you could probably see what was going to happen when we bring up another goalie," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "He's not happy with me, he's not happy with a number of different things, but he's never let it affect the workplace and have it affect other people and that's the most important thing. And we don't always expect players to be happy as far as the decisions we make, but it can't be brought into the room and be a distraction and with Marc it never did."

Tampa Bay's best hope is that Denis regains his form in the minors, the Lightning place him on re-entry waivers at some point and a team claims him for half his remaining salary this season and half the $3 million he is owed next season. Otherwise, the Tampa Bay could buy him out of the remaining year on his deal during the summer. General Manager Jay Feaster declined comment on the situation Friday but will address it today once the 24-hour time frame has passed.

Some of the Lightning players expressed their sympathy for Denis, who is well respected in the locker room despite his struggles in net.

"It's so tough because everybody in here, we all like each other and Marc is such a great guy, everybody likes him, but sometimes hockey does not always go the way you wish," said right wing Andre Roy, who went through a similar process last season in Pittsburgh. "Decisions are made and there is nothing you can do. It's a tough situation for Marc. And I know it stinks for him because he is such a great guy. Hopefully he gets the opportunity to climb back and get to play some hockey again."

So with all the negativity bringing down spirits, the Lightning coaching staff tried to interject some enjoyment into practice by splitting up the players into two teams and playing intrasquad games using tennis balls instead of pucks. The first half of the game the players were forced to shoot opposite-handed while the second half players had to glove down a pass from a teammate before shooting on net. The outcome was decided by a shootout with the winning side sharing smiles while taking a mock celebration team pose.

"I think we were still all a little down when we got to the rink this morning and then we got on the ice and just played around," center Vinny Lecavalier said. "It was just fun, like when we were kids and just playing. The competitiveness, everybody was into it, there was a lot of emotion and a lot of enthusiasm, so I think it was great."

With an afternoon start today against the Flyers, Tortorella didn't want to spend much time on the ice. And with so many long faces, he believed Friday was a good time to loosen things up a little bit, similar to last season when the team held a similar practice in December when the team was going through similar struggles.

"We've kicked them, we've video taped them to death as far as trying to get some structure back into our game, we've tried a lot of different things to try to get out of this funk here," Tortorella said "I think the most important thing for our players right now is to relax a little bit mentally and allow the game to come to them. So that's what this was about. They know we couldn't get out of our own way Thursday. We're not bad players, we're not a bad team, we're just playing like that right now. So we just need to try to relax them and let them enjoy themselves for a few minutes ... and play another game and just go from there."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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