Tampa, Florida					Thursday, September 09, 2010

First Vince Lombardi, Can Lord Stanley Be Next?
Sunday, April 18, 2004
TAMPA—It was such a short time ago hereabouts that icing was only on a cake. That was when we thought of the Stanley Cup as perhaps a reward for the winner of an old car race across the Serengeti. That was when offsides was a football term, when to us a forward was in basketball. That was when St. Louis was, of course, where Stan Musial played baseball, if you had a name like Ruslan Fedotenko you were a tackle for Notre Dame, or like Roy you pronounced it like Rob did, or as did the singing cowboy—Roy Rogers--but certainly not Wah. That was when if you had a Vincent Lecavalier on your team surely he was a cousin of Maurice, eh? That was then, but not now. But, that was before Phil Esposito and his believers changed all that when they got the arena built in Downtown Tampa, and with ice hockey and not basketball, as the anchor sport, force-feeding the sport and the team he named Lightning on us, that adventure eventually leading to these grand and infectious moments such as have been going on lately with the success of this present-day Lightning. In no time, Tampa Bay has not only embraced ice hockey, though not all of us understand all we need to know, but as this team owner, Bill Davidson of Detroit, and his associates have assembled a well-matched, selfless club John Tortorella is coaching so effectively that the Lightning-04 are well into those Stanley Cup playoffs and by golly, could get to the finals, could even win it. It’s fun. It’s all fun, these hockey playoffs, these nights of hard knocks and noise in the arena, now the St. Petersburg Times Forum. It’s rewarding—for the faithful fans, for Espo and all those who have followed him and made it better, for the new fans who didn’t believe at first, for the people in public office who dared help get this all done, and for the this Band of Brothers on Ice who have come to be a doggone good team—yes! They got stars—yes! Got super stars—yes! But got the team at heart foremost—yes! Nobody dislikes anybody on this team. No real egoes here. Nice balance of youth and age, experience and new guys at this great event. These aren’t new kids on the block anymore, as a team. This is real. They are champs of their division again. They have beaten, and solidly, their first playoffs opponent—the New York Islanders—in the nick of time three games to one (3-1), to one to earn them some time off to heal and to recharge. They need it. They have earned it. And their opponent is still on the ice trying to earn a spot against the Lightning, the best of the East, maybe the best of them all. And, while nothing has come easily to get this far and into this respite, surely the point being driven by each of them is that chances like this don’t come often. They may not come again. I say it all the time and forever will in sports—Time passes, the moment is lost. The Lightning of a year ago lost such a moment—after a dramatic first round series win over Washington. That has been reported over and over, again and again. Needs to be. Friday night before the opening face-off at the Forum, the place filling up for the fourth game of the Islander Series with Tampa ahead 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, Bill Wickett, public relations man for the Lightning, said to us: “This may be the most important game in hockey history here.’’ Absolutely was. It also may have been the loudest, best, most dramatic ever. It also offered a few more forget-me-not moments. + The Lightning won, that’s foremost.	+ The Lightning won in overtime, 3-2. + The Lightning won despite being ahead 1-0, and losing that lead. + The Lightning won despite losing a 2-1 third period lead that sent the game into overtime. In both instances, they could have lost momentum. + The Lightning got its first goal from an unlikely source, defensive star Tim Taylor, the second from winger Ruslan Fedotenko, and the final, the overtime from the fountain of Tampa goals this year—forward Martin St. Louis, with a bullet off a feed by game Series star Fedrik Modin. + Not listed was the conclusion of many that the crowd deserved an assist for all three goals. It was the loudest crowd, some concluded, ever for the Lightning, hey, for the Forum. Using those balloon sticks to cheer, the Japanese invented and sent us, the crowd was superb, surely part of the reason for the win. + The Lightning won despite a couple of weird developments over which they had no control, which, Coach Tortorella said later, could have caused a letdown. But, it did not. First, to the surprise of most. Suddenly, in the first period, officials stopped play, and declared Oleg Kavasha had scored a goal minutes before. When the puck passes into the net, a red light is set to flash. That hadn’t happened during a flurry around the goal Nikolai Khabibulin was guarding for Tampa. A replay clearly showed the goal was legit. Moments later, at the north lend of the ice, the fog horn went off signaling goal for Brad Richards of the Lightning. A replay clearly showed no goal, no tie. The crowd booed what they considered inefficiency, but not the result. Didn’t matter. The Lightning tied it with the Taylor goal and went ahead 2-1 with the Fedotenko goal, slipped through as trench fighting was going on around the Islander. That was when the noise meter hit a high number. + Then, in the third period, the last, suddenly, the game was tied at 2-2 with four minutes to play. It was a surprise. The shot from outside past Khabibulin, was by Mark Parrish. It too was a bullet. Many had to think it was a bullet to the Lightning heart. The lead, most thought, would be protected. + Now, that it was not, put the hat on the Lightning once more. It was a fit. The Modin pass from behind the net rolled towards the quick St. Louis who propelled it over the fine young Islander goalie, Rick DiPrieto, and into the top of the net. St. Louis said when you go after a rolling puck you lose some control, then the tender also does not know where it may go. DiPrieto was beaten, and so were the Islanders, who had nothing but praise for this youngish Lightning team. + And again, the win provided a brief time away from the ice and the speed, and the contact—time to heal. It was a grand night at the St. Pete Times Forum, a grand win, a moment to remember—a high point to this point—for fans, the Lightning family, and those individual players who are on the top of their games right now. And, once more, the chance at the Cup, at the rings that Lord Stanley guards, may not come again. . . for, well, there is another professional team in town that became a champion by doing all it had to do as a unit and individually, also well-coached and seizing the moment as it arrived—The Tampa Bay Bucs—a club classically organized by its leaders and coached well by Jon Gruden and his sidekicks The Vince Lombardi Trophy and Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons in Tampa Bay? Holymoly! We got to teach Khabibulin to say—eh? Holy Moly, Khabi. ##
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