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For Lightning, effort equals ice time tonight against Sharks

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By TONY FABRIZIO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2009

TAMPA - Tampa Bay Lightning coach Rick Tocchet addressed the team after this morning's skate and promised to allocate playing time tonight against San Jose according to effort.

The Lightning are suiting only 12 forwards, so, with four lines, all of the forwards have a job. But Tocchet can determine how the ice time is distributed.

"The ice time is something that we'll monitor tonight," he said. "Guys are going to be rewarded tonight -- that was our meeting today. If we see you battling, doing what we're asking you to do, you're going to play tonight. ... I really think all the guys will show up tonight."

Tampa Bay was outscored by a combined 11-2 last in losses last week at Ottawa and Pittsburgh and hasn't played since. Practices this week have been geared toward winning individual battles. Tocchet expects improvement.

"You're going to have bad shifts," he said. "A guy makes a bad play, you can't just always bench a guy. But if a guy is consistently losing battles, if it's a trend, the ice time has got to come down. Maybe, in the future, it'll be (watching from) the press box and going from there. Right now, we have ice time as a bullet, as a coach."

In a far cry from last year, the Lightning actually have a surplus of defenders, especially with Matt Smaby on the verge of returning from an upper-body injury.

David Hale, a scratch in four of the first seven games, apparently will be part of the defensive mix tonight.

"Hale had a good game in Pittsburgh," Tocchet said. "He played gritty, and we need gritty players."

Mike Smith (0-2-2 with two shootout losses) gets the start in net after giving up seven goals in last Thursday's 7-1 loss at Ottawa. He had a strong week of practice.

"I noticed with Smitty last year, when he has good practices, he's on his game," Tocchet said. "He's really tightened up his practices. He's done well the last week. He got away for about five or six days (from games) and got some good practices. He had a sharpness to him this week that was nice to see."

The Lightning don't have an easy task with San Jose, which is tied for first in the Western Conference Pacific Division at 5-3-1 and has the best road record in the NHL since the 2006-2007 season. Though 13-11-2 all-time against the Sharks, the Tampa Bay is 0-4-1 in the past five meetings.

"I call them a heavy-stick team." Toccket said. "They're very heavy with their sticks. They challenge you down low, they throw the puck at the net, and they always have people going to the net. To get the puck off them, you have to have a heavy hand."

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