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Bolts Can't Wait To Get Back On The Ice

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2007

Updated: 10/04/2007 01:12 am

TAMPA - A magical-type aura surrounds opening night. From the first frozen puck that drops out of the referee's hand to the first flashing red light to the initial first-star selection of the season taking a curtain-call skate.

They all signal the start of another season for the boys of winter.

And when it comes to jumping out of the gate, no team has been better in the past four seasons than Tampa Bay. Entering tonight's season opener in a playoff rematch with New Jersey, the Lightning are tied with Vancouver for the longest active winning streak on opening night at four games.

Not since Tampa Bay's opening-night lineup featured the likes of Jimmie Olvestad, Brian Holzinger, Andrei Zyuzin, Kristian Kudroc, Juha Ylonen, Glen Metropolit and Matthew Barnaby have the Lightning dropped the first game of the season, which came in a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Oct. 5, 2001.

In the world of sports, that just happens to be one of those streaks or stats that mean squat tonight. But perhaps it does say something about how a team prepares for the first night of the long NHL season when players are eager to put training camp behind them. A night when emotions and adrenaline are pumping like high-octane fuel through a Ferrari as 20,000 fans provide an energy level that might cause someone to push the pedal to the metal.

Channeling those emotions quickly and settling into the game are essential to opening-night success.

'You want them to play with emotion, and it's a good problem to have as you start a season with the emotions there,' Lightning coach John Tortorella said. 'Then it's just finding that area of staying within yourself.'

While opening night pales in comparison to the start of a playoff series, there still are plenty of nerves to deal with leading up to the opening faceoff.

'Everybody is going to have a lot of emotion, and you want to hit somebody, but you have to stay in your position and play within the system,' center Vinny Lecavalier said. 'We're all excited to be back here, even though it's really tough the first few shifts because you are excited because we haven't played for a really long time.'

For some veterans, such as defenseman Brad Lukowich, nerves are not necessarily part of the equation.

'Opening-night jitters ... I call them opening-night excitement, because I'm ready to go,' Lukowich said. 'More than anything, if you can just keep your emotions in check, don't get too high or too low, you will be ready to go.'

Goaltender Johan Holmqvist, who will be making his first opening-night start in the NHL tonight, said it's a matter of blocking out all the ancillary events and worrying about the game.

'You have to be focused. When you have a full-house crowd at home it's different, but it's something that I try to work on all the time: be focused, be sharp at all times,' he said. 'It's something I have to improve, and I will improve.'

There's really no sense in trying to over-think the situation. When it comes down to it, it's basically just the first game of the 82-game season, something that comes into focus long before the first period ends.

'A lot of it is the anticipation more than anything,' center Brad Richards said. 'For a couple of the younger guys here it's their first NHL game, so it might be a little bit different, the nerves might not leave them that quick. But if we are still nervous halfway through the first period, for us older guys, then we are probably in trouble.'

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

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