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Bolts Remain In Race, But Have A Lot Of Work To Do

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

Updated: 02/09/2008 12:19 am

ATLANTA - Maybe Tampa Bay really is alive in a five-horse race, after all.

"We've been beating a dead horse with most of you guys all year about how we are still in it," Lightning center Brad Richards said. "We are. There's a lot of hockey left."

That about sums up the race in the Southeast Division, which turns the spotlight onto tonight's game between Atlanta and Tampa Bay, teams that have been counted out many times this year.

Atlanta started the season 0-6 and fired its coach. Tampa Bay started the season 3-0, but endured two five-game losing streaks and a seven-game winless streak that dropped the team to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, just two points ahead of Los Angeles to stay out of the league cellar.

Yet, with 27 games left on the Lightning's schedule, talk of a playoff berth does not seem as radical as it did last week when Tampa Bay dropped a heartbreaker at home to Florida in the final 65 seconds.

After that loss, heads hung low and shoulders sagged. Consecutive road victories later, however, and the music was blaring and spirits were soaring in the locker room following Thursday's overtime victory at Nashville that brought the Lightning within six points of the division lead. There was even a players-only team meal across the street from the Sommet Center after the game that injected a dose of enthusiasm into the team.

"Three games ago, we were pretty much out of it," defenseman Dan Boyle said. "Now we have a little pulse, we have a little life and we need another win, it's plain and simple."

Though Carolina's 2-1 win against Washington on Friday night increased Tampa Bay's deficit in the standings to seven, the Lightning hold games in hand on every team in the division.

"We know where we are at, and I've told you guys and our players to look at the standings," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "But we also have to worry about ourselves. We've won a couple of road games here, and you still have to think about yourself. Yet, where our division is, this is why it gives us a chance to stay in the hunt."

This might be the NHL that Commissioner Gary Bettman is dreaming of when he speaks of parity in the league. Where even the last-place team in the conference can't be discounted from the postseason with only eight weeks left in the regular season.

And with a heavy dose of divisional games down the stretch - tonight is one of 11 remaining games within the division, including the final eight - winning games that are essentially four-point swings becomes paramount if Tampa Bay wants to stay in the race.

"Thursday's win in Nashville was a very important game for us, because we know we have a chance now, especially with all the division games," center Vinny Lecavalier said. "Being six points out before Friday I think we are right in there and I think we need to keep on plugging away."

But Tampa Bay can't afford to think that everything is solved and things will continue to fall in line. While winning two in a row on the road since Saturday's setback has turned things in a positive direction, the Lightning need to win tonight to validate the consecutive wins in St. Louis and Nashville.

"We haven't accomplished anything yet, that's what we have to get into our heads," Richards said. "We have to have even more fight tonight. We have to battle even more tonight."

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

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