New Is The Word As Lightning Open Camp

After a summer in which it seemed the sun would never set on the Lightning's makeover, a new dawn broke for the franchise on Tuesday.

With a roster that features a full crop of fresh faces led by a coaching staff with four new members, Tampa Bay opened its 16th training camp in the friendly confines of the St. Pete Times Forum.

And the common theme for everybody in the organization - new.

From the new ownership group of Oren Koules and Len Barrie, a new management group headlined by former No. 1 pick Brian Lawton, the new coaching staff headed by Barry Melrose to more than a dozen new players, everybody starts this year's training camp with a clean slate.

"I think there's only five or six guys still on our club from last year, so we are not spending a whole lot of time talking about last year," Melrose said. "We are spending time talking about the future and what we want to do, what we need to do."

As Lawton addressed the players during a morning meeting at the Embassy Suites hotel before physicals were conducted, the team's vice president of hockey operations made sure the message of what it is everybody needs to do was made clear.

"Every time you are on the ice, every time you are in the arena, every time you are in the hotel, you have to do whatever you need to do to impress the coaches," Lawton said.

Certainly, there are no surprises when it comes to the likes of Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis or veterans such as Gary Roberts or Mark Recchi. And there are virtual roster locks - such as Ryan Malone, Radim Vrbata and Andrej Meszaros - for who will be on the ice when the puck drops for real on Oct. 4 in Prague, Czech Republic.

That doesn't mean there isn't something for all of them to prove, not only to the coaching staff, but to the other players in the locker room.

"There definitely are a lot of new faces, it really feels like we are on a different team, it's a different atmosphere," Lecavalier said.

Because there is so much that is new, even to those who have been around the team, having everybody in basically the same situation makes this a smoother situation to handle.

"I think it makes it easier that there's so many new faces," said Roberts, who is entering his 21st NHL season. "I think when you are one new face on a team, it's tough. But when you have 10 or 12 new faces like we have, plus some other guys who are really fighting for jobs, it makes that transition easier for a number of guys."

And all the new faces have the same task in front of them no matter their situation.

"We've got extra veterans here, guys who have had success, 17 or 18 forwards that are looking for jobs, it doesn't matter," Roberts said. "It's a new coaching staff, everybody is here to earn their spot and impress the coaching staff. By no means is anything given to you."

As far as first impressions go, Melrose and Lawton liked the early ones the players have created.

"I thought it was excellent," said Melrose, who is running his first training camp since 1994, when he was with the Los Angeles Kings. "The guys were sharp, took to the drills and worked extremely hard. The ice wasn't great, but I thought they were very quick and they tried to do everything I wanted them to do.

"It was a very, very good first day."