Arty doing fine as a Duck

Jumping from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast this season really hasn't been that big of a deal, according to former Lightning LW Evgeny Artyukhin.

After spending eight seasons affiliated with Tampa Bay, which drafted the 6-foot-5, 230-pound winger in the third round of the 2001 draft, Artyukhin was dealt over the summer to Anaheim for LW Drew Miller and a third-round draft pick. In 16 games with Anaheim entering Thursday, Artyukhin - who also recently served a three-game suspension - had two goals and 25 penalty minutes along with a minus-1 rating.

"I liked it in Tampa," he said. "Obviously with hockey this is part of the business, but I liked Tampa, It was my first team and I spent a lot of time there from my first training camp many years ago. Tampa felt like my home. But it's good here, coming to a new team."

In 145 career games with the Lightning in two seasons of play, Artyukhin had 10 goals and 33 points to go with 241 penalty minutes. Graced with a natural skating ability for a player his size, he always has been a raw talent that was rough around the edges, something Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle is discovering.

"With our situation, he's expected to go up and down the ice and be physical player, but first and foremost be first on the forecheck," Carlyle said. "He's a big, strong guy who can skate, and there's not many people who can skate like he can. We've been working with him on some of the things we feel he can improve on - his positional play so he's not exposed, finish checks, don't turn it over in the offensive zone - and those are all things that we teach on a day-to-day basis.

"I would say that he has shown some growth in those areas for us, so we have to be satisfied that he's at least showing the growth for a player who is new to our system."

Ohlund out, again

D Mattias Ohlund missed his second consecutive game Thursday with a lower body injury, believed to be an ankle situation, suffered in last week's shootout loss to Los Angeles.

Ohlund said he still doesn't believe the situation is serious, and he is no longer using a walking boot. But after discussions with the training staff, he said it was better to take the time off to receive additional treatment.

While Ohlund did not say he would play in either of the two remaining games on the road trip - Saturday in Carolina and Sunday in Atlanta - he has not been ruled out.

"These type of things, 24 hours can make a difference, but we are going to err on the side of caution," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "He's one of those guys who logs a lot of minutes so I don't want him to aggravate it. We want him to be as close to 100 percent as possible."

Goal-scorer's touch

The next edition of "Inside the Lightning" will feature a roundtable discussion on The Art of Scoring/The Anatomy of a Goal, and will premiere on Sun Sports on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Lightning broadcast territory. It will begin running statewide Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m., with re-airings throughout December.

The 30-minute discussion will be hosted by Paul Kennedy and feature feedback from Hall of Famer Phil Esposito (717 career goals), former team captain Dave Andreychuk (640 goals), Tocchet (440 goals), television analyst and former goaltender Bobby "The Chief" Taylor and Lightning captain and 2006 Rocket Richard Trophy winner Vinny Lecavalier (306 goals).

Nuts and Bolts

Assistant coach Wes Walz missed Thursday's game while suffering from the stomach flu. ... Former Lightning D Steve Eminger, now with the Ducks, missed the game with back spasms. ... With Ohlund out of the lineup, C Jeff Halpern served as the second alternate captain.

Erik Erlendsson