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Same ol' Bolts? It's way too early to say

The Associated Press

Against Carolina, the Bolts wasted a strong night by goalie Mike Smith, who appears to be all the way back from post-concussion syndrome.

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 8, 2009

TAMPA - There was so much quiet optimism around the Tampa Bay Lightning camp during the preseason, mostly because of several key roster upgrades – particularly on defense.

But, alas, the pucks started flying for real, and after two games the Lighting are still searching for their first win tonight in their home opener against New Jersey. Despite the new look, we still recognize them. The new faces haven't cured a lot of the old problems, at least not yet.

It's still early October and it's about 278 degrees outside, so to say we're about to be treated to a rerun of the last two seasons would be grotesquely overstating matters. Still, the developments so far are worth at least half a raised eyebrow. The Lightning power play converted just one of eight chances – and that was with a two-man advantage – Tuesday in a shootout loss at Carolina. That they lost in the shootout was another flashback to last year. They are 3-11 in shootouts since the start of last season.

Breakdowns on defense led to a pair of goals in the 6-3 loss at Atlanta opening night. Paul Ranger put one in his own net and Mattias Ohlund cleared a loose puck onto the stick of Atlanta's Zach Bogosian.

Just as I said that it's way too early to draw any conclusions over a couple of losses, I'd have said the same thing if the Bolts came home with two wins. On paper, they should be greatly improved from last year's hopeless troupe, but they have to prove it, and so far they haven't.

The Bolts play seven of their next nine games at the Forum, and that's good news for a team still finding its way, a team with so many new faces. It's a stretch that allows them to settle in and shore up some of the shaky areas, particularly the power play. When they miss as many chances as they did at Carolina, it just wastes a strong night from goalie Mike Smith.

Smith appears to be all the way back from post-concussion syndrome that wiped out the second half of his season, and that's the best news of this season so far, but if the Bolts can't bring the other parts of their game together, then it won't matter.

They seem to have a fair amount of firepower at Coach Rick Tocchet's disposal, but have only four goals in two games – two of them by Martin St. Louis – to show for it. At least they're pressing the issue. For instance, Vinny Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos have combined for 20 shots. The idea is to convert, though, and that's something neither Lecavalier nor Stamkos has done.

People generally don't know what to make of the Lightning. I've seen them ranked all over the board in those laughable guesses known as preseason polls. I saw them as low as 27th in one national magazine and as high as 10th. And although right now the standings say they are the same ol' team we've become accustomed to ignoring, there's obviously still plenty of time for the Bolts to become … um, what's the word?

Unrecognizable.

Tonight would be good time to start.

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