Purcell getting opportunity to shine with Bolts

Talk of Teddy Purcell's sleight of hand with a hockey stick arrived in Tampa long before Purcell ever did.

"We have the same agent (Kent Hughes) and for a while there it was like all he ever talked about was Teddy Purcell, Teddy Purcell," Lightning center Vinny Lecavalier said. "He just kept telling me how great his hands were, so I knew about him before he got here."

Lightning coach Rick Tocchet knew about him, too. He'd heard about Purcell's magic hands from assistant coach Cap Raeder, who first saw Purcell when he was a scout with the San Jose Sharks.

"At first all I really knew about (Purcell) was that he was a kid who needed a chance," Tocchet said of the forward the Lightning picked up last week in a deadline-day trade with the Los Angeles Kings. "But then Cap told me he had some really good hands and a very good skill set, and already we've seen some of that."

They saw it last Saturday, when Purcell lit up a sold-out St. Pete Times Forum crowd by faking a forehand shot before turning his stick and roofing a backhander over goalie Johan Hedberg to score on a penalty shot early in the second period of Tampa Bay's 6-2 win over Atlanta.

"I really liked the way he went after that breakaway," Tocchet said, "because Mario Lemieux and I were talking about breakaways that night and he said he was always big on showing the forehand and going top shelf off the backhand. So it was really nice to see that style there."

Even nicer is the fact that ever since Purcell arrived, the Lightning have been putting names other than Steven Stamkos and Marty St. Louis on their score sheet.

Lecavalier, for example, has put his name on that score sheet three times in the last two games, and the fact that he's got Purcell skating alongside him now may be one of the reasons for that.

"We are working well together, and I think a lot of that is because he's such a smart player." Lecavalier said. "He really knows when to press the play and when to just slow down and wait for his teammates."

That knowledge didn't lead to much playing time for Purcell in Los Angeles. The 24-year-old winger sat out 24 of the Kings' last 30 games before coming to Tampa in a trade for 33-year-old Jeff Halpern.

"I was doing OK at the start of the year, but then I kind of lost my confidence a little bit and after a while I just got away from doing the things that make me effective," Purcell said.

"I mean, I'm never going to be one of those guys who runs over five or six guys on his way to the net. I'm going to handle the puck and make plays and ever since I got here, I feel I'm getting back to that."

Obviously he is. In addition to the goal he scored on the penalty shot on Saturday, Purcell also has recorded two assists in the two games in which he's played regularly for the Lightning.

That and Lecavalier's scoring surge have the Lightning feeling like they may have finally found a second scoring line to take some pressure off Stamkos and St. Louis.

"The thing is, I'm, not afraid to make a play myself anymore," Purcell said. "My first couple years, I was always trying to make sure I got the other guys the puck.

"But with Vinny, he said just go out and have fun and make plays and that's made it a lot easier for me, and so hopefully we can continue to build off what we've started and keep this going."