Bolts developing road mentality

The Lightning weren't very good on the road early in the season, starting with a 6-3 loss at Atlanta in the season opener.

They lost at Carolina in a shootout on Oct. 6, and the Hurricanes have only won once since. They were beaten at Ottawa and Pittsburgh Oct. 15 and 17 by a combined score of 11-2.

But on their recent trip, thanks in large part to excellent goaltending by Antero Niittymaki, Tampa Bay went 2-1-1 at Philadelphia, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

That success, Coach Rick Tocchet said Saturday, should give the team confidence for this week's cross-country swing to Phoenix, Anaheim, Carolina and Atlanta. That success is because the Lightning are developing something they didn't have previously - road mentality.

"Probably everybody uses that (term) ... road mentality," Tocchet said. "We got a little bit tighter defensively in Toronto and Ottawa and Montreal, gotten to where you're not being as fancy.

"Obviously, coming home, we got a little off track (flat in Thursday's 4-3 shootout win over Minnesota), but it's nice to get a couple of road wins. So our guys know we can go on the road and win."

This week's cross-country trip won't be the Lightning's most grueling. Between Dec.11-21, the Lightning will play consecutive road games at Colorado, Chicago, Nashville, Detroit, St. Louis and New York (Islanders).

Nothing wrong

RW Marty St. Louis entered Saturday night's game against the Kings second on the team in points with 18, but without a goal in 11 games.

The perennial all-star has been part of a lot of line shuffling, as the coaching staff has tried to get Vinny Lecavalier and Alex Tanguay going, but Tocchet doesn't think that explains the scoring drought.

"Well, he's played with Stammer (Steven Stamkos) the last six or seven games," Tocchet said. "But no, he hit the post (against Minnesota). He's getting his chances. He's playing power play, so he'll score goals."

Tocchet said St. Louis might be looking to pass too quickly at times.

"A little bit," he said. "I think he had one time in the slot there where he could have cocked it and he looked for Stammer. But he's still producing in other ways. He got an assist in the last game on a good play. So it's not like he's coming up blanks.

"He's still producing on the other side. But he's a guy that can get really hot quickly."

Lopsided roster

Having a surplus of defensemen allowed the Lightning the luxury of resting D Matt Walker for body maintenance Saturday night (Kurtis Foster played instead). But Tocchet conceded that carrying nine defensemen this deep into the season is "a little unusual."

"It's good, but it's also bad," he said. "We're going a little too long with it. Brian (general manager Lawton) knows that. .. But it's a nice problem, because some teams have a lot of defensemen going down. We ran into that problem, obviously, last year."

The Lightning have been looking to trade one of their defenseman - Lukas Krajicek is the name that has come up most often in speculation - but they haven't found the right deal yet.

Nuts and bolts

Entering Saturday's play, Stamkos was tied for second in the NHL in goals with 13 and tied for first in power-play goals with six. ... D Matt Smaby and LW Todd Fedoruk were the scratches in addition to Walker.

Tony Fabrizio