Isles rookie Tavares, Stamkos share bond

New York Islanders 2009 overall No. 1 pick John Tavares is no stranger to Lightning 2008 No. 1 pick Steven Stamkos. The pair played on the same youth team for a few years, helped Canada win a gold medal at the 2008 World Junior Championships and squared off many times in the Ontario Hockey League.

But when it comes to the start of their respective rookie seasons, there is no comparison.

Tavares entered Saturday leading all rookies with 11 goals and 22 points while averaging more than 18 minutes of ice time per game. Through 28 games last season, Stamkos had three goals, 12 points and was playing as little as six minutes a night early on.

"It's a different situation for both of us," Tavares said. "It was pretty well known in the offseason they made a lot of moves to try to be competitive, then they struggled and it caught up with them and Steven took the brunt of it. But he handled it pretty well, and I always knew growing up with him and playing with him that he was a special player and he would always do well."

Tavares said he didn't really look at what Stamkos went through last season as he began his career, instead trying to fit in as best as he could and learn as much as he could.

"I just wanted to come in and try to make it real easy on myself early on and find my way," Tavares said. "The coaches put me into situations early on to help me succeed and use my strengths the best I could to help the team. It's helping me out to make the adjustments, but everyday I feel I can get better, better for me and better for the team."

Stand up

Rookie LW James Wright had no problems engaging in his first NHL fight Friday in New Jersey, accepting Matthew Corrente's invitation after Wright knocked Bryce Salvador to the ice with a clean hit in the first period.

"I didn't think it was a dirty hit. I would have felt OK about turning it down, but I felt I should try to get myself involved in the game, get my team involved in the game and try to boost things up out there," Wright said. "I would have liked to have gotten a better grip and he got a couple of good shots in, caught me a little by surprise. But I came out of it OK."

C Zenon Konopka, however, wasn't enamored with Corrente, considered a pretty tough customer, going after the rookie. So Konopka stood up for Wright, taking on Corrente early in the second period.

"You don't want to see one of your younger teammates getting the better of," Konopka said. "I think sometimes you have to send the message that there are going to be repercussions if that is going to happen. ... Sometimes there has to be boundaries and that's what I was just trying to say."

It's the kind of message Lightning coach Rick Tocchet likes to see delivered.

"I don't want James to fight guys like that, but it happened and you move on from it," Tocchet said. "And that helps create a team that won't want to do things like that against us. That's what I want to get to here."

No PK changes

Heading into Saturday's game, the Lightning had allowed seven power-play goals in the previous four games. But after discussing the situation with associate coach Rick Wilson and assistant coach Wes Walz, Tocchet said they don't intend to make any major changes to how they kill penalties.

"It's not so much teams are getting tic-tac-toe goals against us. It's basically individuals not getting the job done," Tocchet said. "You have to be careful as a coaching staff when you start changing. You can change individuals, but I don't think it's a system thing. I really believe it comes down to executing."

Nuts and Bolts

C Paul Szczechura missed the game with an undisclosed upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day. ... Kurtis Foster returned to the lineup on the fourth line after sitting out Friday's game as a healthy scratch. ... D Victor Hedman will appear at IKEA today from 2-4 p.m. ... LW Todd Fedoruk was scratched for the eighth consecutive game.

Erik Erlendsson