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Search For Chemistry Begins As Lightning Open Camp

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 16, 2008

BRANDON - This year's version of the Lightning will be the ultimate hockey chemistry experiment - how does a locker room with so many new faces bond into a team?

The first step in that process formally gets under way this morning when players report for training camp at the St. Pete Times Forum. And there will be precious little time to do too much experimenting with the start of the regular season taking place in less than three weeks time.

"It's very strange, there are a lot of new guys," said center Vinny Lecavalier, one of the 11 players in camp who suited up for the team opening night last season. "It's part of the game, changes ... obviously we've never been through this many in such a short period of time, but I'm excited."

While there certainly is plenty of excitement entering this year's training camp - and quite frankly the only other time there may have been this much buzz surrounding the opening of a Lightning camp was the inaugural season in 1992 - there is just as much uncertainty.

There hasn't been this much of an organizational overhaul in such a short period of time before. There is no road map to follow, there are no blueprints to model themselves after. In a sense, they are a new model that many outside observers will be closely following and monitoring to see how this experiment progresses throughout the season. Those watching likely will be unable to take their eyes off of what could wind up as either a train wreck in action or a historic turnaround from a last-place finish last season.

But even with all the new, veteran Gary Roberts says it all still comes down to an age-old adage.

"It doesn't matter if you are 20 or 40, as a new player with a new coaching staff, you have to earn your spot, so that's your first responsibility," he said. "Then once you do that, the rest of the stuff falls into place."

With all the new faces coming in from different places, it will make for some interesting in-camp positional battles, especially at the forward positions where the Lightning enter with 17 players on NHL contracts fighting for 13 or 14 spots.

New Lightning coach Barry Melrose has mixed and matched potential line combinations in his mind and on paper so often he finally put slips of paper with names on them and put them in a binder so he can switch things out quickly.

All those thoughts, however, have little meaning until the preseason games start.

"You have to see it," Melrose said. "You can have all the best ideas, but until you see it on the ice, you see it in game conditions, you see that sort of telepathic ability ... you know, Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis have that and you won't know that until you put them together."

Melrose and company will have very little time to see it on the ice. Players will undergo physicals and spend a brief period of time on the ice today. Wednesday will constitute split-squad practices while Thursday and Friday will feature intrasquad scrimmages. The first preseason game comes Saturday in Pittsburgh, four days after camp officially opens.

The short training camp is compressed even tighter when one considers there will only be four preseason games in North America before the team departs for Europe, where they will play two more exhibition games before opening the season with back-to-back games against the New York Rangers in Prague, Czech Republic, Oct. 4-5.

But because of the extended period of time the team will spend abroad - they will depart following the Sept. 25 game at New York and return to Tampa on Oct. 6 - there are many within the organization who feel of all years, this is the ideal season in which to have such an extended time together as a team.

"I think the trip to Europe is huge," said goaltender Olie Kolzig, who spent the first 18 years of his career with Washington before joining Tampa Bay this season. "You are going to have about 24 guys that go over, 13 of which are new guys, and over that course of that trip you only have two regular-season games. So what that does is give an opportunity to get the guys together, give an opportunity to get to know each other away from the rink.

"Because when you get to know somebody personally away from the rink, you look at them more as a family member when you look at them on the ice and you feel accountable to that guy. And with no distractions on a 10-day road trip, just to get to know each other, I don't think the timing could be any better. Then by the time we come back for the home opener on Oct. 11 we should be in midseason chemistry."

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

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