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Fennelly column: 'That Window Is Pretty Short'

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

Nothing says hockey season like Ducks-Kings in London.

There's even word that the Tampa Bay Lightning might open next season in the Czech Republic against the Penguins.

Nobody goes into Prague and beats the Lightning.

These guys might as well play half the home slate in Siberia if they don't start fast this season.

Dan Boyle getting his tendons sliced by one of his skates isn't exactly a wonderful omen. Sometimes you get the feeling we're simply waiting for the other skate to drop.

Is there a curse with the Bolts' name on it?

No Excuses, Boys

It sounds strange, seeing as the Lightning have done nothing but make the playoffs since that night they won the Cup in 2004, those memorable eighth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively.

Has it ever been as it once was?

The Lightning's future seemed boundless after that Cup season. Then came the lockout, a netherworld that staggered many NHL teams, but none like the Lightning.

They were the only defending champions.

They were the only ones with three great players with arms filled with trophies who needed to be signed - and a goalie waiting to cash out.

They were the only ones whose hangovers ran out, only to have no Cup left to defend, a vacuum from which there was no escape.

It never has been the same. The building has been filled with fans, but post-Cup Lightning history has been a series of sudden starts and stops.

Blame it on the parade of goaltenders who didn't get it done, but there's more to this funk than that. It just feels that way.

Now throw in an impending change of ownership, though the owners-to-be are doing a lot of impending. Guys, two words: cake sales.

What if the deal fell through, and it was back on Bill Davidson? Think he's going to double Boyle's salary to keep him from leaving as a free agent?

Davidson is through with the Bolts, at least he wants to be.

Who out there is right behind him?

Stop, start, stop, start.

It feels like this has to be the season when the Lightning are simply the best team in their division again, parity or no parity.

This isn't a parity kind of season.

This isn't an excuse kind of season.

'Win right away,' Vinny Lecavalier said.

Window Is Closing

The Bolts can say all the right things, think all the right things, but nothing quite beats doing the right things.

And that starts tonight against the Devils, the very team that ended the last Lightning season.

You don't make statements in one night.

You make them in 82.

It's easy to think Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis can fill score sheets again. It's easy to think Boyle will be back anchoring the back line and Brad Richards will bounce back in a big way.

'I think we really have the big four coming into the prime of their careers,' Lightning coach John Tortorella said.

But there are realities, some physical, some financial.

In the Lightning's case, it comes down to one thing:

'That window is pretty short,' Tortorella said.

Think the second, third and fourth lines and the defense - oh, and the goaltending - will have to be better.

Otherwise, this window snaps shut.

That's no way to head for Prague.

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