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Boyle Returns To Face Lightning

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2008

TAMPA - For five years defenseman Dan Boyle was a cornerstone player on a Tampa Bay franchise that turned from league laughingstock to having the last laugh while lifting the Stanley Cup in 2004.

During this summer, however, Boyle felt like a castaway being tossed off the Lightning island to swim with the Sharks following a forced trade to San Jose on July 4.

Tonight, Boyle returns to the ice he used to become one of the game's top defensemen while sporting his familiar No. 22 jersey, only now he's donning the teal and black for one of the Western Conference's top teams.

It's a meeting he thought about once the schedule was released.

"I'm only human, so obviously, you try to play it down," he said. "It's an important game and a meaningful game for me personally, so I'm just going to try to have fun with it."

Once the trade went down, however, Boyle didn't hold back his feelings toward new Lightning owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie for what he felt was mistreatment on the team's part. Boyle had signed a six-year contract extension in February and was under the impression he was going to be a major part of the rebuilding project going forward.

Instead, Boyle said he was forced into waiving his no-trade clause to accept the move out west with threats of being placed on waivers and ending up on a cellar-dwelling team while also having his work ethic questioned.

Those words of bitterness have softened as he has moved on mentally from the events of the summer.

"The truth is, will I always be upset about what happened? Of course, it's a fact that it didn't need to be done that way," Boyle said. "But again, and I've said this before, I don't want this to come up every time in conversation when I talk about Tampa. I said what I had to say then. I think a lot of people know that I told the truth and that's it.

"Now it's time to look ahead and look forward. I'm in a good spot in a good city with a good team and hopefully it will work out."

So far it has worked out for Boyle, who entered Friday night's game against the Florida Panthers - another former team of Boyle's - with two goals and six points in San Jose's first seven games. He scored an overtime winner vs. Philadelphia on Saturday.

The awkwardness of the situation isn't lost on two of his former teammates who helped form the cornerstone of that championship team just more than four years ago.

"We played together for a long time, we won a Cup together, he was a great teammate," the Lightning's Vinny Lecavalier said. "So to see him back here and play against us, it's going to be pretty weird."

Added Marty St. Louis: "He had a major impact on the success of this franchise. So, it's going to be weird. But it's the nature of the game and it's something we all go through."

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

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