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It's Come To This: Ramo Or Bust For The Bolts

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 29, 2007

Updated: 12/29/2007 12:22 am

TAMPA - They don't do Viking funerals on Channelside Drive, even as a season and franchise are being consumed by fire. They quietly bury mistakes.

The cemetery is filling up.

Marc Denis, already a ghost, was placed on waivers by the Lightning on Friday, 1 1/2 seasons into what is now, clearly, among the most disastrous trades in franchise history, which is saying something.

And that's just the start.

This is a bad team right now.

There's no way around it and maybe no way out.

The only hope is - get this - a 21-year-old goaltender named Karri Ramo.

Forget still GM Jay Feaster. He has swung and missed on goalies, on wingers to help Brad Richards, you name it. Forget Bolts coach John Tortorella firing up the boys. It ain't happening right now.

It's up to the kid, Karri Ramo. He has shown some swagger in three NHL starts (2.01 goals-against, .939 save percentage), but it's three NHL starts.

Now, as for his last name ... we pronounced it Ray-Mo after his call-up last season, and the kid didn't seem to mind. Now he says it's Rah-Mo.

Pronounce this season dead if he doesn't shine.

Heading Nowhere Fast

It might be dead anyway. The Lightning are tied for the second fewest points in the NHL. They're tied with Washington for the fewest points in the Eastern Conference. They're five games under .500 for the first time since 2002.

Does Jim Mora ice skate?

Playoffs? You're talking about playoffs?

"This is pretty low," Lightning winger Marty St. Louis said Thursday after a dreary 5-2 loss to Montreal. "This is as low as it's been in a long time."

After today's game with Philadelphia, the Bolts go on a four-game road trip - and they're the worst road team in hockey. December was filled with home games, but the Lightning actually took a step back.

They're on the edge of the cliff, maybe even over it. It's the worst the Tortorella Lightning have been since well before the Cup year, with Dan Boyle's injury and the NHL's worst goaltending to match.

It's a tired story. The problems today are the problems of yesterday, problems never fixed. It's still about shaky defense, weak goalies and just one scoring line. Yeah, yeah, Vinny and Marty and Richy. The Lightning have become the most boring exciting team in hockey, a three-year broken record.

Denis is a smoking gun. The Lightning surrendered Freddie Modin to get him. They've never replaced Modin. They've also never replaced Nikolai Khabibulin, Dave Andreychuk and Cory Stillman.

This season's solutions? Chris Gratton was good for about two weeks. Jan Hlavac, scorer, has been a joke. And forget bringing a winger up from the farms. There aren't any. The Lightning continue to live off the 1998 Lecavalier-Richards draft. The franchise hasn't developed a scorer since.

It has never developed a goaltender.

Enter Karri Ramo.

Play The Kid

He's not here to save a season. He's here to save the future and maybe some jobs. Tortorella and Feaster helped forge a Cup winner, but their legacy is fast becoming the guys who didn't leap through the window of opportunity with a team to match.

Ramo is their last stand.

The Lightning need to forget the playoffs if need be to go with the kid. Play him as many nights as he can stand. The Bolts know what they have in Johan Holmqvist and what they had in Denis. They need to find out about Ramo - fast.

If he's not the real deal, then it's over.

And the Lightning start over.

They get another goalie, maybe by trading a top winger, or they sell new ownership on a spending spree, though any owner would wonder why Tortorella and Feaster should get to pick more goalies, or why Feaster should get to pick anything.

It's Karri Ramo's turn to play.

And play he will.

The Lightning need to rebuild.

This is a bad team right now.

From bad to worse is not out of the question.

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