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Bolts Work On The Basics

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet took a page out of Scotty Bowman's playbook, splitting practice Monday into two sessions - morning and afternoon.

"As a coach you look at what you want to work on and what your motivation is," Tocchet said. "We obviously were not happy with the effort on Saturday, so their life has to be a little bit miserable, so it's a long day like other people have to work nine-to-five and they have to work. No. 2, we have some teaching stuff we have to do, so as much as it's punishment, we are still getting something out of it as far as the learning part of it."

Tocchet's intention for three days before getting back to game action was to treat the week like a mini-training camp, breaking the roster up into two groups. While one group worked out on the ice, the other was in the weight room and vice versa. Later in the afternoon, the players reassembled to work on special-teams play. The plan is to do the same again today with a regular practice routine on tap for Wednesday.

But the idea behind running things this week isn't just about running a minicamp, getting the players attention or trying to implement any kind of a system. It's about getting everybody to play as a team.

"We need to get everybody on the same page and you only have so many breaks in the schedule to do so," right wing Marty St. Louis said. "And to be honest, they are teaching us the system well enough. I don't know if some of us just don't read the manual or skip a few pages or what. Sometimes we don't look to be on the same page and it only takes one guy to not be on the same page and your system is worth nothing at that time."

While the coaching staff has used plenty of video sessions as a teaching tool in recent weeks, now they want to teach through repetition by doing the same types of plays over and over, whether it's breakout plays inside the defensive zone or getting the puck back to the point positions and rushing to the front of the net.

"All the drills we did in the morning are all things that we can do better during games," captain Vinny Lecavalier said. "And when we say everybody has to be on the same page, everybody has to be on the same page. If one guy goes the other way from where he is supposed be it throws everything off. It's like football, if one guy doesn't do what he's supposed to, it doesn't work."

From the coaching staff's point of view, the same players continue to show up on the wrong side of the ledger, something they want to correct.

"I'm not trying to be a dictator, but you can't keep taking, you have to start giving," Tocchet said. "I'm probably more peeved at that Ottawa game than any other game because it was just ridiculous to have that kind of effort. So to me, we either have not smart hockey players or we have guys that don't care and that's as blunt as it gets."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835.

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