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Bolts Are Eager To Play Again

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 16, 2008

TAMPA - For the past week the Lightning's daily routine felt like the instructions on the back of a shampoo bottle: suit up, practice, repeat.

Starting tonight, however, Tampa Bay can add a different directive to the list: play.

Since returning Oct. 6 from Prague, Czech Republic, where the team opened the season with back-to-back games, the Lightning have had more than enough time to shake off any lingering jet lag with only one game played on North American soil.

In between, Tampa Bay has used the time to put in enough practice hours to correct what has gone wrong with an 0-2-1 start to the season - maybe too much time as things might have become, shall we politely say, mundane for the players.

"You're being very kind; players hate practice," Lightning coach Barry Melrose said. "When you have this many you try to come up with new things and come up with new drills that are teaching, but also interesting so they don't become boring. It's a challenge for the players and the coaches."

Barking from the coaching staff gets old, battling teammates becomes volatile and video sessions fall upon glazed eyes.

"These guys are paid to play games," Melrose said.

The situation for the Lightning since training camp began one month ago has been a drastic contrast in thinking. For the opening two weeks of camp everything was rushed in order to gear up for the trip to Europe, where the team spent 10 days. Since returning it's been a drastic slow down.

There's been no opportunity to gain consistency or get into a regular-season rhythm, when teams typically play up to four games a week.

"You want to get into a routine and make it feel like you are really into it and it hasn't felt like that with so much time in between games," alternate captain Marty St. Louis said. "Obviously you need to practice, but you want to get the last game result out of your head and you want to move forward. You can't do that when you're idle."

Starting tonight against the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay plays three games in six days and will close out the month of October with six games in 15 days, a far cry from three games in the first 15 days.

"It's been kind of a crazy schedule for the last month that has more of a college hockey feel to it where they play on the weekends, a week of practice, play on the weekends," said goaltender Olie Kolzig, who makes his regular-season home debut tonight. "It will be nice to get back into a rhythm and routine where guys go out and play and not think too much, just go out and take what we learned in practice and apply it to the game."

NO MALIK YET: While the Lightning have tentatively agreed to a one-year contract with free agent defenseman Marek Malik, vice president of hockey operations Brian Lawton said nothing will be official until Malik comes to Tampa today and undergoes a physical. Lawton said that if everything pans out, Malik could suit up as early as Tuesday vs. Atlanta or next Saturday against San Jose.

"He says he's been skating and we want to make sure he's 100 percent healthy," Lawton said. "And then he needs to get into game shape, so it's a process."

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

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