Tampa Bay Lightning

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Tampa Bay Lightning
Conference	Eastern
Division	Southeast
Founded	1992
History	Tampa Bay Lightning 1992-present
Arena	St. Pete Times Forum
City	Tampa, Florida
Local Media Affiliates	Sun Sports WDAE (620 AM)
Team Colors	Silver, Black, Dark Blue, and White
Owner	Bill Davidson
General Manager	Jay Feaster
Head Coach	John Tortorella
Captain	Tim Taylor
Minor League Affiliates	Springfield Falcons (AHL) Johnstown Chiefs (ECHL)
Stanley Cups	2003-04
Conference Championships	2003-04
Division Championships	2002-03, 2003-04

The Tampa Bay Lightning is a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Contents 1 Franchise history 1.1 Early years 1.2 From Great Success to Utter Failure 1.3 Back to Respectability 1.4 Two Dream Seasons — and Lord Stanley's Cup 2 Season-by-season record 3 Notable players 3.1 Current roster 3.2 Hall of Famers 3.3 Team captains 3.4 Retired numbers 3.5 First-round draft picks 3.6 Franchise scoring leaders 4 NHL awards and trophies 5 Franchise individual records 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Franchise history

[edit] Early years

When Tampa was awarded an NHL franchise in 1991, the team's management brought in star power before they had any players. The new franchise hired 1970s Boston Bruins star Phil Esposito as president and general manager; his brother Tony, a legendary goaltender who'd played mainly for the Chicago Blackhawks, as chief scout and Terry Crisp, who played for the Philadelphia Flyers when they won two Stanley Cups in the mid-1970s, and coached the Calgary Flames to a Cup in 1989, to stand behind the bench.

A St. Petersburg group was reportedly better-financed and only lost out because two Hall of Famers, the Esposito brothers, were the "faces" of the Tampa-based group that originally won the team. However, in an ominous sign of things to come, Esposito's American partners backed out a few months before the season, and he had to recruit a consortium of Japanese businesses headed by golf course owner Kokusai Green in order to keep the team.

Phil Esposito initially attempted to recreate the mystique from the powerhouse Bruins of the 70s; he hired former linemate Wayne Cashman as an assistant coach, former Bruin trainer John "Frosty" Forristal as the team's trainer, and the inaugural team photo has him flanked by Cashman and player Ken Hodge, Jr., son of his other Bruins' linemate. The team turned heads in the preseason when Manon Rheaume became the first woman to play in an NHL game of any kind. It was against the St. Louis Blues, just an exhibition game. Rheaume would never take the ice for a regular season game.

The Lightning first took the ice on October 7, 1992, playing in Tampa's tiny 11,000-seat Expo Hall. They shocked the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 7-3 with four goals by little-known Chris Kontos — a scoring mark unmatched by any Lightning player. The Lightning shot to the top of the Norris Division within a month, behind Kontos' initial torrid scoring pace and a breakout season by forward Brian Bradley, before faltering to finish in last place. Their 53 points in 1992-93, however, was one of the best showings ever by an NHL expansion team, and Bradley's 42 goals gave Tampa Bay fans optimism for the next season.

The following season saw the Lightning move to the Florida Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg, which was reconfigured for hockey and renamed "the Thunderdome." The team picked up goaltender Darren Puppa, left-wing goal scorer Petr Klima and aging sniper Denis Savard. While Puppa's play resulted in a significant improvement in goals allowed, Savard was long past his prime and Klima's scoring was offset by his defensive lapses. The Lightning finished last in the Atlantic Division. Another disappointing season followed in the lockout-shortened 1995 season. Still, the Lightning appeared to be far ahead of their expansion brethren, the Ottawa Senators. In marked contrast to the Lightning, the Senators showed almost no sign of respectability in their first four seasons.

[edit] From Great Success to Utter Failure

In their fourth season, 1995-96, with Bradley still leading the team in scoring, second-year Alexander Selivanov scoring 31 goals, and Roman Hamrlik (the team's first-ever draft choice in 1992) having an all-star year on defense, the Bolts finally made the great post-season, nosing out the defending Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils for the 8th spot in the East. Although they lost their first-round series in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers, it still remains a magical season for Lightning fans (and the attendance of 28,183 on April 23 was the most for any NHL game until the Heritage Classic — a game played outdoors in Edmonton in 2003, in which Oilers alumni and current players played against Montreal Canadiens of similar status in the league).

The Lightning picked up sniper Dino Ciccarelli from the Detroit Red Wings that off-season, and he would not disappoint, scoring 35 goals (in addition to 30 from Chris Gratton). The team would open 1996-97 in a glittering new arena, the Ice Palace (now the St. Pete Times Forum) and appeared destined for another playoff spot. Then, the injury bug bit the Lightning. Puppa developed back trouble that would limit him to total of 50 games from 1996 until retiring midway into 1999-2000. Bradley lost significant time, which, too, was due to injury, and played only 49 games in the next three seasons before retiring, and center John Cullen came down with cancer. Cullen did survive, but the Lightning would barely miss the playoffs. The Lightning still appeared to be in grand shape, with a strong core of young players and veterans. These appearances proved to be highly deceiving, however. It would be seven years before the Lightning came even close to another playoff berth.

Most of the Lightning's stars from those first few seasons would be gone by 1998 due to free agency and questionable trades by Esposito, and most of the young guns they picked up would fail to materialize. The Lightning quickly became the laughingstock of the NHL. Crisp was fired eleven games into the 1997-98 season and eventually replaced by Jacques Demers. He appeared to be a perfect fit for the Lightning, having presided over the resurgence of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1980s and a Stanley Cup run in Montreal in 1993. However, Demers was unable to stop the bleeding. The Lightning went on to lose 55 (of 82) games in 1997-98, 54 in 1998-99, 58 in 1999-2000 and 53 in 2000-01, becoming the first NHL team to post four straight 50-loss seasons. At the same time, the Senators just nosed their way into the playoffs in 1997 for the first time and have not missed the playoffs since.

A major factor in their decline was Kokusai Green. Rumors abounded as early as the team's second season that the Lightning were on the brink of bankruptcy and that the team was part of a money laundering scheme for Japanese crime families (the yakuza). The Internal Revenue Service investigated the team in 1995. Even in their first playoff season, the team was awash in red ink and Kokusai Green wanted to sell. However, even some franchise insiders (including Crisp) didn't know who the owners were, and one of the major partners reportedly didn't even exist. Most of Esposito's trades came because he was under orders to cut the payroll to make the team more attractive on the market.

Finally, in 1998, after losing more than $100 million in six years, Kokusai Green finally found a buyer in insurance tycoon and motivational speaker Art Williams. Like the Japanese, he knew very little about hockey. However, he was very visible and outspoken, and pumped an additional $6 million into the team's payroll to turn it around. He wasted little time clearing away the considerable debt he'd inherited from Kokusai Green. He publicly assured the Espositos that they were safe, but fired them two games into the 1998-99 season. Demers became general manager as well as coach. Williams was widely seen as being in over his head and was an easy target for his NHL colleagues, who called him "Jed Clampett" behind his back because of his thick Southern accent and fundamentalist Christian views (he neither smoked nor drank and frequently used terms like "goldangit" and "dadgummit"). Early in the next season, the Lightning lost 10 games in a row that effectively ended their playoff hopes. Some blame Williams for the slide. He named sophomore Vincent Lecavalier (to whom he'd referred, with his naïve ignorance of the sport, as hockey's Michael Jordan) as team captain — the first known instance in years that a player of such a tender age has had this important task. Also, before the first game in the losing streak, against the New York Rangers, he decided to give a pep talk to the team loaded with college football slang and bizarre catchphrases. The Lightning were shelled 10-2.

However, in Williams' defense, he walked into a very bad situation. As early as 1997-98, Kokusai Green refused to spend another penny on the team. It was frequently late paying vendors and was behind on state and federal taxes during the last few months of its ownership. In late 1997, Forbes magazine called the Lightning the worst-off franchise in any of the major pro sports, with a debt equal to an astronomical 236% of its value. Even though the Ice Palace was built for hockey and the Lightning were the only major tenant, Forbes called the team's deal with the arena a lemon since it wouldn't result in much revenue for 30 years. [1]

[edit] Back to Respectability

By the spring of 1999, Williams had seen enough. He hadn't attended a game in some time because "this team broke my heart." He lost $20 million in the 1998-99 season alone — as much money in one year as he'd estimated he could have reasonably lost in five years. [2]

Williams sold the team for $115 million — $2 million less than he'd paid for the team a year earlier — to Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson, who had also owned the Detroit Vipers of the now-defunct International Hockey League. Davidson had been one of the bidders for the team in 1998, losing to Williams. Davidson remained in Detroit, but appointed Tom Wilson as team president to handle day-to-day management of the team. Campbell immediately fired Demers, who despite his best efforts (and fatherly attitude toward Lecavalier) was unable to overcome the damage from the Kokusai Green ownership. Wilson persuaded Ottawa Senators general manager Rick Dudley to take over as the Lightning's new general manager. Dudley brought Vipers coach Steve Ludzik in as the Lightning's new coach. Dudley and Ludzik had helped make the Vipers one of the premier minor league hockey franchises, and they'd won a Turner Cup in only their third season in Detroit (the team had originally been in Salt Lake City).

However, as had been the case with Demers, the damage from the last few seasons under Kokusai Green was too much for Ludzik to overcome, even with a wholesale transfer of talent from Detroit to Tampa (a move that eventually doomed the Vipers, who folded along with the IHL in 2001). He was replaced in early 2001 by career NHL assistant John Tortorella. The 2001-02 season, Tortorella's first full year, saw some improvement. While finishing far out of playoff contention, the Lightning at least showed some signs of life, earning more than 60 points for the first time since 1997. Tortorella stripped Lecavalier of the captaincy due to contact negotiations that had made the young center miss the start of ’01-’02.

[edit] Two Dream Seasons — and Lord Stanley's Cup

Entering the 2002-03 season, the Lightning's largely young roster was thought to be a few years away from contention. However, the team arrived considerably earlier than expected. Led by the goaltending of Nikolai Khabibulin and the scoring efforts of Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Ruslan Fedotenko, Vaclav Prospal, Fredrik Modin and Brad Richards, and with a new captain, Dave Andreychuk, the Lightning battled the Washington Capitals for first place in the Southeast Division throughout the season. They finished with 93 points, breaking the 90-point barrier for the first time in team history only two years after losing 50 games for the fourth year in a row. They won the Southeast by just one point over the Capitals. That one point made a big difference in their first round matchup with Washington.

The Lightning notched their first playoff series win by beating the Capitals in a six-game series, with St. Louis scoring the series-winner in triple overtime. The Lightning could not hold their own against their second-round opponent, the New Jersey Devils, however, losing that series in five games. Khabibulin had a 3.00 GAA in that Series before being pulled in Game 5 in favor of John Grahame. The Devils went on to win the Stanley Cup, but fans were ecstatic about the Bolts' return to the post-season.

After their breakout season, the Lightning finished 2003-04 first in the Eastern Conference with 106 points, second-best in the league after the Detroit Red Wings. It was the first 100-point season in team history. “We feel very confident out there. We know how to go out and win now,” Lecavalier noted^{[citation needed]}. Remarkably, the Lightning went through the season with only 20 man-games lost to injury. In the first round of the playoffs, the Lightning ousted the Alexei Yashin-led New York Islanders, a team many had picked to upset the Southeast Division champs, as the Islanders had given the Lightning much trouble in the past. However, this was not to be so, and with solid play from goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin, the Lightning went on to win the series by a convincing 4-1 margin.

In the second round, the Lightning faced the Montreal Canadiens, captained by Saku Koivu. However, with at times jaw-dropping play from Lecavalier, playoff MVP Richards, and once again, Khabibulin, the Lightning were able to sweep the Habs in 4 straight games. They faced Keith Primeau and his Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals, winning in a back-and-forth seven-game series in which neither team was able to win consecutive games (but in Game 7 winger Fredrik Modin became a thorn in the side of the Flyers in the Lightning's 2-1 win on his game-winner), earning the Lightning their first-ever Eastern Conference championship and their first-ever berth in the Stanley Cup finals.

There they defeated the Jarome Iginla-led Calgary Flames 4 games to 3 to win their first Stanley Cup on June 7, 2004. Ruslan Fedotenko was the Game 7 hero this time; he scored two goals in that contest. Brad Richards, who had 26 points, won the Conn Smythe Trophy; in all 31 contests in which he had scored a goal since the opening of the season, the Lightning did not lose a single game. Tortorella won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. Only three years after losing 50 games, the Lightning became the southernmost team ever to win the Stanley Cup. Martin St. Louis led the team and the NHL with 94 points (and his 38 goals were second-most after the 41 of tied trio Iginla, Rick Nash and Ilya Kovalchuk), and won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player. St. Louis also won the Lester B. Pearson Award for league's most outstanding player as voted by the NHL Players' Association, and tied the Vancouver Canucks' Marek Malik for the NHL Plus/Minus Award.

Having entered the NHL in 1992-93, the Lightning are the third-fastest team to have a Stanley Cup win to their credit and the second-southernmost to reach the Final after the Florida Panthers. The Lightning are second-southernmost in the league overall, also behind the Panthers.

The Lightning had to wait a year to defend their title due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout, but in 2005-06 they showed little sign of departing from the NHL's elite, although they experienced an early first-round playoff exit (losing to the Ottawa Senators 4 games to 1).

[edit] Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Records as of December 5, 2006. ^[1]

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1992-93	84	23	54	7	—	53	245	332	1625	6th, Norris	Did not qualify
1993-94	84	30	43	11	—	71	224	251	1579	7th, Atlantic	Did not qualify
1994-951	48	17	28	3	—	23	120	144	1040	6th, Atlantic	Did not qualify
1995-96	82	38	32	12	—	88	238	248	1628	5th, Atlantic	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 2-4 (Flyers)
1996-97	82	32	40	10	—	74	217	247	1686	5th, Atlantic	Did not qualify
1997-98	82	17	55	10	—	44	151	269	1823	7th, Atlantic	Did not qualify
1998-99	82	19	54	9	—	47	179	292	1316	4th, Southeast	Did not qualify
1999-00	82	19	47	9	7	54	204	310	1733	4th, Southeast	Did not qualify
2000-01	82	24	47	6	5	59	201	280	1404	5th, Southeast	Did not qualify
2001-02	82	27	40	11	4	69	178	219	1072	3rd, Southeast	Did not qualify
2002-03	82	36	25	16	5	93	219	210	1079	1st, Southeast	Won in Conference Quarterfinals, 4-2 (Capitals) Lost in Conference Semifinals, 1-4 (Devils)
2003-04	82	46	22	8	6	106	245	192	985	1st, Southeast	Won in Conference Quarterfinals, 4-1 (Islanders) Won in Conference Semifinals, 4-0 (Canadiens) Won in Conference Finals, 4-3 (Flyers) Stanley Cup Champions, 4-3 (Flames)
2004-052	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2005-063	82	43	33	—	6	92	252	260	947	2nd, Southeast	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4 (Senators)
2006-07	28	13	13	—	2	28	86	91	292
Totals	1036	371	520	112	33	887	2673	3254	17917	—	—

¹ Season was shortened due to the 1994-95 NHL lockout.

² Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

³ As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games will have a winner; the OTL column includes SOL (Shootout losses).

[edit] Notable players

[edit] Current roster

As of December 2, 2006 [3]

Goaltenders
#		Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
30		Marc Denis	L	2006	Montreal, Quebec
40		Johan Holmqvist	L	2006	Tolfta, Sweden

Defensemen
#		Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
3		Doug Janik	L	2006	Agawam, Massachusetts
7		Luke Richardson	L	2006	Ottawa, Ontario
21		Cory Sarich	R	1999	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
22		Dan Boyle	R	2001	Ottawa, Ontario
44		Nolan Pratt	L	2001	Fort McMurray, Alberta
54		Paul Ranger	L	2002	Whitby, Ontario
71		Filip Kuba	L	2006	Ostrava, Czechoslovakia

Forwards
#		Player	Position	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
4		Vincent Lecavalier - A	C	L	1998	Ile Bizard, Quebec
9		Eric Perrin	C/w	L	2003	Laval, Quebec
15		Nikita Alexeev	LW	L	2000	Murmansk, U.S.S.R.
17		Ruslan Fedotenko	LW	L	2002	Kiev, U.S.S.R.
18		Rob DiMaio (IR)	RW	R	2005	Calgary, Alberta
19		Brad Richards - A	C	L	1998	Murray Harbour, Prince Edward Island
20		Vaclav Prospal	RW	L	2005	Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia
24		Andreas Karlsson	C	L	2006	Ludvika, Sweden
26		Martin St. Louis	RW	L	2000	Laval, Quebec
27		Tim Taylor - C	C	L	2001	Stratford, Ontario
29		Dmitry Afanasenkov	RW	R	1998	Arkhangelsk, U.S.S.R.
34		Ryan Craig	C	L	2002	Abbotsford, British Columbia
49		Blair Jones	C	R	2005	Central Butte, Saskatchewan
74		Nick Tarnasky	C	L	2003	Rocky Mountain House, Alberta

[edit] Hall of Famers

• None

[edit] Team captains

[edit] Retired numbers

• 99 Wayne Gretzky, number retired league-wide February 6, 2000

[edit] First-round draft picks

• 1992: Roman Hamrlik (1st overall)
• 1993: Chris Gratton (3rd overall)
• 1994: Jason Wiemer (8th overall)
• 1995: Daymond Langkow (5th overall)
• 1996: Mario Larocque (16th overall)
• 1997: Paul Mara (7th overall)
• 1998: Vincent Lecavalier (1st overall)
• 1999: None
• 2000: Nikita Alexeev (8th overall)
• 2001: Alexander Svitov (3rd overall)
• 2002: None
• 2003: None
• 2004: Andy Rogers (30th overall)
• 2005: Vladimir Mihkalik (30th overall)
• 2006: Riku Helenius (15th overall)

[edit] Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current Lightning player

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	P/G
Vincent Lecavalier*	C	561	185	229	414	.74
Brad Richards*	C	422	110	269	379	.90
Martin St. Louis*	RW	388	146	169	315	.81
Brian Bradley	C	328	111	189	300	.92
Fredrik Modin	LW	445	145	141	286	.64
Chris Gratton	C	404	88	148	236	.58
Vaclav Prospal*	C	256	67	155	222	.87
Pavel Kubina	D	531	65	144	209	.39
Rob Zamuner	LW	475	84	116	200	.42
Roman Hamrlik	D	377	52	133	185	.49

[edit] NHL awards and trophies

[edit] Franchise individual records

• Most Goals in a season: Brian Bradley, 42 (1992-93)
• Most Assists in a season: Brad Richards, 68 (2005-06)
• Most Points in a season: Martin St. Louis, 94 (2003-04)
• Most Penalty Minutes in a season: Enrico Ciccone, 258 (1995-96)
• Most Points in a season, defenseman: Roman Hamrlik, 65 (1995-96)
• Most Points in a season, rookie: Brad Richards, 62 (2000-01)
• Most Wins in a season: Nikolai Khabibulin, 30 (2002-03)

[edit] References

1. ^ Hockeydb.com, Tampa Bay Lightning season statistics and records.

[edit] See also

• List of Tampa Bay Lightning players
• Head Coaches of the Tampa Bay Lightning
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons
• List of Stanley Cup champions

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tampa Bay Lightning

• Official website of the Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coaches
Crisp • Paterson • Demers • Ludzik • Tortorella