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Bolts hope to bounce back

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 22, 2009

Updated: 10/22/2009 12:23 am

BRANDON - Make no mistake, Tampa Bay's game against San Jose tonight - the eighth on an 82-game schedule - carries meaning.

The result, in essence, will merely be a sidebar. Instead, the focus of those involved with the team will be on how the team goes about gaining whatever outcome the scoreboard shows at the end of the night.

It has been five days since the Lightning last took the ice. A loss in Pittsburgh ended a two-game road trip where Tampa Bay lost both games by a combined margin of 11-2. It also sent General Manager Brian Lawton into the locker room after the game to deliver a message that tore some of the already tarnished paint off the walls in Mellon Arena.

So, after four days to recover, Tampa Bay looks to rebound tonight.

"It's very important (to respond the right way), because we have four lines and we're going to have to play the guys - and coaches always say that if there are seven guys playing, play seven guys, but I might have to shorten the bench if guys aren't going, and I will do that," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said.

One emphasis during the four days between games has been getting back to fighting for pucks and open space. Practices have been geared toward battle drills of various degrees, and Tocchet wants to see that carry over in the team's - and individual players' - efforts tonight.

"The one thing that we have been stressing, and a couple of trends that have happened the last couple of games is we are losing battles, and the video doesn't lie," Tocchet said. "We had individual meetings with everybody ... and if you are a guy who showed up on video five or six times a game as losing a battle, and that's a trend that has happened in the past two or three games, we have to change that attitude, you have to learn how to battle."

Another area that has crept into the team's game is failing to handle early adversity.

Against Ottawa, a turnover led to an early goal, and that was followed shortly by a short-handed goal. In a sense, the game was over as Tampa Bay all but folded up shop the rest of the night.

In Saturday's loss to Pittsburgh, it wasn't quite as evident after the Penguins scored an early power-play goal, but the Lightning did not generate any offensive flow after falling behind. They never really threatened to get back in the game, even after the deficit was cut to 2-1 in the second period.

Captain Vinny Lecavalier said snapping out of a mini-funk just comes down to getting back to how the team played in the opening week of the season.

"We're seven games in, we can't be pressing the panic button," he said. "Yes, we have to be concerned with the way we've played the past two games, but if we win a couple in a row, we are playing well. So it's two games that we have to remember what we did wrong and how we were out there and change it.

"I think it was perfect to have these four days of hard practices, just to try to get back to basics. I think we are ready."

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

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