Deal or no deal: Long-term goal keys Bolts' trade talk

The clock is ticking down on today's 3 p.m. trade deadline, and Lightning general manager Brian Lawton is unsure what he will be able to accomplish to help give his team a boost.

Tampa Bay has lost four consecutive games and is in danger of falling back out of the playoff picture as quickly as it did in the early part of February. But while there was plenty of chatter Tuesday, nothing appears to be on the horizon that could help the Lightning.

"No, I wouldn't be overly surprised (if we did nothing) because we are in a market where we just don't have the assets built up to where we could toss a few out here and see what we could get," Lawton said. "We are still looking for deals that make sense going forward. We are more focused on deals that we can continue forward with because we don't have the depth."

Lawton wouldn't talk specifics of what he was looking to address, or who might be in play on Tampa Bay's end. However, the Lightning need scoring and could use a puck-moving defenseman.

Sportsnet in Canada, meanwhile, reported that those possibly in play to be moved by Tampa Bay include C Jeff Halpern, G Mike Smith, D Matt Smaby, D David Hale and LW Alex Tanguay. The Lightning also have young goaltenders such as former first-round pick Riku Helenius and Russian Vasily Koshechkin.

Other reports link Tampa Bay to forwards such as Chicago's Kris Versteeg and Columbus's Raffi Torres.

But whatever happens, Lawton said the team won't mortgage the future for a short-term fix by bringing in a glut of pending unrestricted free agents.

"The direction has been really clear that we will not do anything to jeopardize our long-term mission. I will never do that under any circumstances. That's not the way I manage the club," he said. "It's not prudent. It's a process to get back into the playoffs. We think we have a team that can get there.

"As a manager I would love to help the club. I would love to help the coaches out."

Video slip?

Did the Lightning let some plans for new pending owner Jeff Vinik slip?

An in-house announcement prior to the game advertised a question-and-answer session with Vinik on Friday, although the deal has yet to close. The team had no official comment on the announcement that was made on the video screen.

Vinik entered into an agreement to purchase the team last month. There are indications the deal could officially be announced this week, possibly as early as today. And with an apparent slip of the video, it seems close to happening.

Still streaking

Not even the two-week Olympics break was enough to slow C Steven Stamkos, who notched his 36th and 37th goals of the season Tuesday to put him on pace to finish with 49.

With his first goal, Stamkos increased his scoring streak to a franchise-record 14 games, breaking a record he shared with Brian Bradley, Vinny Prospal and Marty St. Louis.

Nuts and bolts

D Matt Walker sat out Tuesday's game after aggravating a nagging lower-body injury during practice Sunday, but he doesn't anticipate being out of the lineup long. Walker stormed off the ice Sunday during practice, slamming his stick against the wall in frustration as he made his way back to the locker room. "The (Olympic) break is good for some body parts, not so good for some others," said Walker, who said he expects to skate today. "This is something that I've kind of had and it started creeping back up on me." ... RW Brandon Bochenski was recalled from AHL Norfolk after clearing re-entry waivers, but was a healthy scratch.