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Bolts Face Challenges Head On

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 26, 2008

SUNRISE - While the Lightning's lack of success has created a murmur among all the naysayers this season, Tampa Bay's most recognizable figure has been relatively quiet.

Whether it's from the lingering effects of his surgically repaired right shoulder, the team's offensive ineptitude or something else, captain Vinny Lecavalier has felt the effects of an already trying season had by all associated with a Lightning team off to an 8-16-9 start.

"It is frustrating. Nobody likes to lose. It's the worst and it's been tough on everybody," Lecavalier said. "We just have to try to stay positive and think about what we have to do to win and be a better team."

As the face of the Lightning for a decade, Lecavalier has experienced the franchise coming full-circle, from laughing stock to a Stanley Cup champion to back to what many now view as a circus act at the bottom of the barrel.

Even as the team has slipped, Lecavalier said he is fully behind the direction new ownership said it would take the franchise when the 28-year-old all-star signed an 11-year contract extension worth $85 million in the summer, a deal that kicks in on July 1.

"I believe that we can still turn it around. We just have to start now," Lecavalier said.

From an offensive standpoint, this season has been near disastrous for both the team and its captain. Tampa Bay is the lowest-scoring team in the league with 73 goals for a league-low average of 2.21 per game. Tampa Bay has scored more than three goals twice through 34 games.

It's somewhere Lecavalier said he never envisioned when the team opened the season with additions such as Ryan Malone, Mark Recchi, Radim Vrbata and overall No. 1 draft pick Steven Stamkos.

"No way, not at all did I think we'd be here," Lecavalier said. "I was very excited coming into the season and I didn't think at all we'd be in this position."

Lecavalier can go a long way in determining where the team goes from here. Coming off consecutive 40-goal and 100-point seasons, he is on pace for 28 goals and 64 points, which would be his least productive-season since 2001-02, when he had 20 goals and 37 points.

As the team's captain and one of its leaders, Lecavalier needs to set the tone, according to interim coach Rick Tocchet.

"He's got to make sure, every game, he's up for the challenge," Tocchet said. "Vinny Lecavalier, if he's on the ice and looking like he's down, what are the other guys going to do?"

When it comes to preparing for a game, Lecavalier knows the tone has to be set before the opening faceoff.

"We have to show by example," he said. "When others see us maybe not doing the little things right, they feel that. We have to play with energy. I think those games we've had success, we've had energy. It seems when we are behind 4-2 or something in the third period, it seems that's when we play our best hockey and that's not good enough. We have to go through the whole game like that."

Tocchet said that it's up to Lecavalier to establish and be a key to any turnaround as the face of the franchise.

"When you lose, guys look at the best player and captain," Tocchet said. "Whether it's fair or not, it's the nature of the beast."

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

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