Recchi not surprised by Stamkos' rise

During his brief stop with the Lightning last season, veteran RW Mark Recchi took rookie Steven Stamkos under his wing. Almost a year later, Recchi is not surprised to see the top pick in the 2008 draft taking flight.

The 19-year-old Stamkos entered Wednesday tied for fifth in the league with 17 goals and was tied for third with seven power-play goals.

"He was really a great player in the last 30 or 35 games, probably almost a point a game at the end of the year and you have to give him a lot of credit and (Coach) Rick Tocchet a lot of credit, he was really good for him and he still is," Recchi said. "He's come in this year on fire and he knows he belongs. He's got the right attitude, he knows how to approach the game and when you have a head like him and an attitude like him, you're going to do well."

Stamkos said he was able to absorb quite a bit from spending time with Recchi, along with Gary Roberts, on and off the ice last year.

"I think (Recchi's) work ethic, at his age and with everything that he had already accomplished, he really doesn't have anything else to prove," Stamkos said. "He came to the rink always with a smile on his face and the way he handled himself, especially with how things went last year, he was always a leader on this team. He led by example, he was vocal, and especially for me, him and (Roberts) were great to me. They would pull me aside when they needed to talk to me about certain things, and the list goes on. But the way he presents himself, his work ethic and how he cared about his teammates, those are the things that stood out for me."

Extended camp

After two months of what amounted to an extended training camp, D Matt Smaby made his season debut Wednesday, 27 games into the season.

After having what Tocchet called a poor training camp, Smaby couldn't crack the lineup, three times heading to the minors for conditioning to get him into some game action. He said before the game he had obvious excitement to finally get into the lineup after appearing in 43 games last season.

"I've been ready to do this for a while," Smaby said. "Of course I want to play really well and I want to put myself into a position where they can't take me out of the lineup, so there is that kind of pressure, but if I let that affect my game then I'm probably not going to play as well as I would like. It's kind of a fine line between being real intense and pushing myself too far."

Left out

Tampa Bay 2009 first-round draft pick LW Carter Ashton, the 29th overall pick, was absent from the list of 21 forwards on Team Canada's preliminary roster for this year's World Junior Championship training camp.

Lightning general manager Brian Lawton had hoped Ashton's play during the preseason would have put him on Hockey Canada's radar for a spot on the U-20 team that is going for a sixth consecutive gold medal when the tournament opens Dec. 26 in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

"Obviously we are not involved in the process at all, but this certainly doesn't change our view on what type of prospect we think he is," Lawton said. "That's just the way it goes."

Nuts and bolts

Former Lightning prospect LW Justin Keller was signed to a one-year contract by Norfolk of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. ... Team Canada executives Steve Yzerman and Doug Armstrong attended the game. ... Tampa Bay scratched LW Todd Fedoruk and D David Hale.

Erik Erlendsson