The Playoff Push Starts Now

The difference in size between Marty and Vinny will never cease to amuse me - Getty Images

“We have to make a push now.” 

On Monday, Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier uttered those words, making it clear that the fight to make the playoffs cannot wait any longer. Despite the season not yet reaching its halfway point, the team finds itself battleing for its post-season lives. Going into Tuesday night’s game against the Flyers they found themselves 8 points out of a playoff spot with five teams to hurdle. 

So how did the team, the team that has been disappointing all season long, respond? With a 5-1 win over Philadelphia that eerily resembled a lot of their playoff wins last spring.  How so? Look at the numbers:

Playoffs: The Lightning played 18 games in the postseason and were outshot in 11 of them. Of those 11 games Tampa Bay won 7. 

Tuesday: The Lightning were outshot 32-16.

Playoffs: The Lightning averaged almost 19 blocked shots a game.

Tuesday: They blocked 22 shots (Eric Brewer led the way with 6)

Playoffs: Dwayne Roloson was epic goalie man.

Tuesday: Mathieu Garon was epic le gardien de but stopping 31 of the 32 shots he faced.

There was some grumbling from Lightning fans on Wednesday morning about the team being “lucky” and only winning because of a humongous big bad effort from 24/7 sensation Ilya Bryzgalov.  As Tampa Bay area fans are want to do they focused on the negative. What they fail to acknowledge is the positive from the game.  Steven Stamkos scoring as a grinder (rebound in front of the net) and a sniper (one-time roofer from the post), secondary scoring from Steve Downie and Bruno Gervais, and a winning record in the face-off dot (Adam Hall winning 10 out of 15 was huge).

The Lightning played physical, blocked shots and won face-offs. They also took advantage of the limited offensive opportunities that they generated. In short, they won a playoff-like game against a tough opponent.  Being able to sustain that type of intensity for the rest of the season will be near impossible, but right now it’s the only way they can win.  They have to want each game more than the other team.

Not gonna lie - Simmonds handed Brewer his lunch - photo from Getty Images

Having to play that style for 47 more games will wear a team out mentally and physically.  Tuesday night’s game was a prime example.  With the defense already depleted Victor Hedman left in the first period with an undisclosed upper body injury (please don’t be a concussion) and midway through the second period Brewer was knocked woozy after a fight with Wayne Simmonds.  Brewer returned after getting a cut cleaned up, but is now listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury as well.  I’m sure that means Evan Oberg is repacking his suitcase for yet another plane ride from Norfolk.

Should the Lightning suffer any suspensions from the Scott Hartnell/Ryan Malone/Steve Downie spearing/stick-waving/angry words incident then the team will be extremely shorthanded going into a critical stretch of games against teams they’re chasing (Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto).

Tuesday night’s win against the Flyers was a good starting point for the Lightning’s playoff push. A win Thursday night against the reeling Montreal Canadians would be even bigger.   As Lecavalier (who scored a sweet goal at the end of the game on a 2-on-1 with Martin St. Louis) pointed out this team can’t afford to wait around any longer.  They need to get it going now.

Gotta have a Downie photo! - Getty images

The Reason Marty St. Louis Can Return From a Broken Face

Finally My Take on Realignment

So have you heard all about that realignment talk? Seems that down Tampa way it’s time to put Gary Bettman’s head back on the platter. The diminutive commissioner has it out for the boys in black and is working on a masterful plan to snatch the team from the comforts of Channelside Drive and deposit them in Kansas City, or Las Vegas, or Houston…basically anywhere but Florida or Canada (because if there’s any region that the man in charge hates more than Florida, it’s our maple syrup-loving neighbor to the north).  Feeling persecuted much, Lightning fans?

Let’s face it, when talks of shuffling divisions around it was predetermined that at least one time would find themselves with the short end of the hockey stick.  Whether it be Dallas and Detroit forced to play west coast opponents or long-time rivals being torn asunder, somewhere, someone was going to bitch about how the chips settled.  Unfortunately for Lightning Nation (16 strong and growing!) the Florida teams are the ones on the outside looking in.

Being grouped into a division with Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Florida does mean that the team will be eating more peanuts on planes and standing longer in customs lines next season.  To some fans, having the players earn extra stamps in their passports is proof positive that Gary Bettman and the rest of the NHL hates Tampa Bay and would love nothing more than to move that franchise somewhere else.

To those folks, I say ne ne.  Instead I offer you two words. Jeff Vinik.  That’s right, the savior of the organization, the man who brought this team back to respectability, the very man who harnessed electricity and stored it inside the Ice Palace. That man, that god, is only in charge because of Gary Bettman.  After all, it was Commissioner Bettman who introduced the idea of buying the Lightning to Vinik and paved the way for a smooth sale between the northern businessman and Those Who Owned the Team Before But Shall Not Be Named.

Proof that Betts doesn't hate Tampa (not sure about Canada)

That simple fact allows for a lot of leeway in my book.  So let us not look down upon the new schedule and curse our fates.  Instead, look forward to new rivalries being forged in the playoffs.  Think about how many “Lecavalier/Stamkos/St. Louis Return Home” articles get to be written by the Canadian press.
Let’s embrace the fact that the Lightning get to compete against some of the most storied franchises in NHL history - and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Let’s not forget one thing.  I am a greedy hockey fan living in a different city than the team I follow.  With the new schedule allowing every team to play every other team at home and on the road I know that I will be able to see the Lightning at least once a season.  That is awesome.

Most importantly, think about how much fun it will be to follow the team on the road now! Gone are boring cities like Raleigh and Winnipeg (we hardly knew ya’). Instead of going to see the Lincoln Memorial three times a year, Lightning fans can now go to Montreal. It’s almost like a slice of Europe in North America.  The only two cities missing from my favorite places to travel are New Orleans and Honolulu, and there is a 36% chance that Bettman will expand to those cities in the next 6 years.

Let me give you a personal experiences breakdown of the cities where the Lightning’s newest foes are located.

Sunrise- Oddly enough, the only arena I haven’t attended and it’s the one closest to the Lightning.  I probably should have checked that out when I lived in Florida.  The closest I came was watching an Argentina/U.S. soccer match at Joe Robbie stadium.  Afterwards, we went to an Argentinean restaurant where not a lick of English was spoken, but the meal was delicious.

Montreal - In the top three of favorite cities to visit.  The first time I went was with legendary travel mate Hambone and I had a picture taken.  The bartender swore his name was Jimmy Walker and made us take a picture in front of  “The Jersey”.  I think it was Henri Richard’s jersey, I’m not sure because I got pretty drunk that night.

The jacket - real pleather baby!

On top of the drinking there is beautiful architecture, wonderful museums and a restaurant called Au Pied Cachon.  If you ever want to see if you can give yourself a heart attack with one truly exquisite meal then go to this place.  After all, it almost broke Anthony Bourdain.

I love having reasons to post pics of Downie fighting

Ottawa - Haven’t seen a game here yet, but did attend a session of Congress.  They were debating something about marijuana laws I think.  Cool city, would definitely hang out there again.

Toronto - Hockey Hall of Fame.  Clean city. Watched Zac Beirk take a puck to the throat in warm-ups. This would probably be the first city to take a weekend trip to watch the game for me.  I’ve been twice (once for business) but never stayed long enough to truly explore the city, although Link and I did have a robust game of air hockey in the basement of the CN Tower.  (Holy Crap! They have a rotating restaurant in the CN Tower, I’m a sucker for those things!) .

Link and I ended up getting standing room tickets to watch the Lightning and the Maple Leafs and I must say, we weren’t disappointed.  We had a decent view of the ice and a counter to lean against.  The beer was fantastic and we had a decent time.

Buffalo - On the same trip that took us to Toronto, Link and I stopped in Buffalo to watch a Sabres/ Pittsburgh Penguins game.  Based on my hazy memory the Penguins won in overtime.  I can’t say much about the city since we were basically there only long enough to watch the game, but it’s close to the border and there are casinos close by.  So is Niagara Falls, which every American should see at some point.

Boston - I've only been once, but I liked the city.  Although I will say Wrigley > Fenway.  There are tons of historical sites to visit and places to eat.  Why I didn't research the Freedom Trail Pub Crawl before I went is on the big regrets in my life.

So get ready to look at those calendars and book those flights Lightning Fans.  You have some new cities to start exploring!

One Goalie, Six Cards, A New Collection

There are a lot of cards out there in the world.  I don’t hope to own all of them, just all of the ones with Vinny Lecavalier on them.  I know that’s never going to happen (too many 1/1 cards and not enough PowerBall money) but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.  However, lately I strayed a bit, my eyes wandered and before I knew it I had another flame to keep an eye on.

It started innocently enough a rookie card picked up in a trade, simply because the other guy knew I liked the Lightning. It wasn’t all that special (although it was shiny) and I didn’t think twice about it.  Little did I know that the seed had been planted.

 The next card found its way into my collection on purpose, an eBay purchase that featured an auto and a jersey swatch.  I told myself that I picked it up because it was cheap and I had some extra money in the PayPal account.  It meant nothing to me, I liked auto/jersey cards and Vincent’s were way overpriced.

Then it happened.  I crossed the line.  One dark, rainy night, while surfing eBay, I bought a lot.  Six cards for basically the price of two (with free shipping!)  I couldn’t resist, I bid and I won.  Three days later the cards were in my hands and I was officially a Dustin Tokarski collector.

The first four cards are what I call fodder.  They weren’t the cards I was looking for, but they look nice in the collection.

What you see above are four ITG cards from four different years that all proclaim Tokarski a “Future Star”.  I can cross the 2008 through 2011 ITG Between the Pipes Future Stars cards off of my needs list now. The 2008 and 2009 cards feature him in his Spokane Chiefs uniforms while the 2010 and 2011 show him adorned in the Norfolk Admirals colors.

All four cards are considered “pre-rookie” cards since they were either issued before his NHL debut, or in the case of the 2011 card, were issued by a company that doesn’t hold a NHL license.  Nice cards to have as filler but not the real meat of a collection.

Next up is the secondary card, the card that made bidding on the lot worth it.  The card I really wanted could have been had on its own, but when I saw it paired with this card for almost the same price I had to pull the trigger.

A 2010-11 Upper Deck Rookie Materials from series II.  “Tic” is shown in his Lightning gear on the front of the card and it includes a nice black jersey swatch.   Game used? Nope.  On the back of the card Upper Deck’s Dick P. McWilliam lets us know that the card is from a rookie photo shoot.  So this falls under “even used”.

Finally we happen upon the money card.  I perused several eBay pages trying to decide which auction I should bid on.  The ones with free shipping were too expensive, and the ones with cheap shipping were being bid up beyond what I wanted to spend.  So I switched tactics and started looking to see if I could score a lot that included this card.  Low and behold there was.  So it became mine.

A 2010-11 Upper Deck Young Guns #246.  Its the hockey card cornerstone for any player collector. If you’re building a player collection and that player has a Young Guns card you have to have it.  No if’s, ands or buts about it, get that card as soon as you can.

So that’s how a player collection is born, or at least my Tokarski collection was born.  Will it continue?  Probably, as long as he doesn’t get traded by the Lightning along with a number two pick and a prospect for Tuukka Rask.

I’m not sure if he’ll be in next year’s releases.  It seems, despite their woes, the Lightning are committed to keeping Tokarski in Norfolk for a full season. So far this season, he’s been splitting time with fellow prospect Jaroslav Janus. Tokarski is 10-6 with 2 shutouts, a 2.43 GAA and a .901 save percentage.  The numbers are solid, but not spectacular. 

At this point, the Lightning might opt for steady and not spectacular as opposed to what they’re getting from Roloson and Garon right now.  There would be a big risk calling him up.  The team in front of him is not very responsible and could lead to him getting barraged with shots.  A couple of bad outings could damage his confidence and he could join the long list of failed Lightning goaltending prospects.

He is only 22 years old, so I can wait another season for him to get called up.  In the meantime I can look forward to some more ITG cards (maybe he can make Future Stars for a 5^th straight year).

C'mon Panini!

Even though I’m no longer a set builder I like to keep an eye on the products that the companies are releasing just to see if there is anything novel.  Last week Panini, one of two companies that have a NHL license, released some images from their upcoming 2011-12 Limited Hockey set.

Panini, long known in the U.S. for their sticker yearbooks, jumped back into the hockey market last season with mixed results.  They revived several defunct brands such as Score, Pinnacle, and Donruss while also offering collectors an alternative to Upper Deck’s monopoly.  They also flooded the market with thousands of pointless parallel versions of cards and inserts upon inserts. 

One of the new inserts for Limited Hockey is Back to theFuture. The card will feature autographs from two players from a team.  From their post they think the cards are a “compelling insert {that} unites one current superstar with one all-time great (along with their respective autographs)”.  That’s not a bad idea for an insert set.  Although I don’t collect vintage cards, it’s nice to see cards that tie the past with the present.

Their website features some pre-signed versions of the cards.  Some of the pairings are pretty cool: Brad Marchand/Ken Linesman, Claude Giroux/Tim Kerr and Jeff Skinner/Ron Francis. These cards should be a big hit for team collectors, especially since it appears the cards will be hand-signed.

As I was scrolling through the images I was delighted to see the Lightning represented in the set.  Even though I would be classified more as a player collector than a team collector since I focus most of my collecting budget on Vincent Lecavalier, it’s still nice to see the boys from Tampa included. 

The “current superstar” half of the card is Steven Stamkos.  As the most prolific goal scorer over the last three years, that’s pretty much a no brainer.  Stamkos is the best player on the team and does have appeal outside of the Tampa Bay area (enough so that he made the cover of NHL12). 

Look at the flowing locks! - From Panini's site

So who, out of the almost 20 year existence of the organization, did Panini pick to represent the “all-time great”?  None other than Steve Yzerman.  Holy crap do I have a problem with that selection. Not just a little problem, but a large-probably-overreacting-taking-too-personally-problem with it.

I don’t disagree with the notion that Yzerman is an all-time great, just not for the Lightning.  If you want to put his autograph in the set, put it on the flipside of Pavel Datsyuk.  Yzerman has done a good job of putting a professional product on the ice in Tampa, but he never donned the uniform for Tampa Bay.  Heck, he hasn’t even been with the team as long as Stamkos has. 

Sweet Suit Stevie - From Panini's site

Despite what some people in the media and in the stands believe, the Lightning existed before they drafted Steven Stamkos in 2008.  Hundreds of players, some good, a lot not-so-good, have skated for them since the franchise debuted with Chris Kontos banging in 4 goals against Chicago on October 7, 1992.  It strikes me as lazy and a bit of a shot at the organization that Panini would chose Yzerman to represent the other half of the card.

So who should Panini have tracked down to sign the cards instead of Yzerman? From looking at the other pairings it appears that Panini matched up players with similar skills, or at least ones that played the same position.  So that rules out Darren Puppa (and as a novelty, Manon Rheaume) since he was a goaltender.  Chris Gratton was more of a big, physical center, not the gifted scorer that Stamkos has developed into.  Rob Zamuner, Alex Selivanov and Dave Andreychuk were all wingers so despite their contributions to the team they’re out as well.

That leaves, as the only logical choice, Brian Bradley. The center from Kitchner, Ontario was the first true scoring threat, some would say the only threat, for the Lightning. He played 328 games for the Bolts from 1992 to 1998 and tallied an even 300 points.  He scored 111 goals in a Lightning uniform and provided some legitimacy to the organization in its infancy.

Overall in his career he also played for Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, logging 652 games and 503 during that time.  He retired during the 1997-98 season, a season prior to Vincent Lecavalier joining the team.  I wonder if Lecavalier’s transition to the NHL would have been smoother if Bradley had been around to help him out.

I don’t know why Panini chose Yzerman.  If someone over there reads this, feel free to let me know.  They imply that this insert is for team collectors so it would be nice if they actually picked someone who skated for them in the past.  They might not know it, but there those of us that remember folks who played for them prior to 2008.

If they were worried that no one outside of Tampa would know, or want to collect a card with Brian Bradley on it at least chose an organizational figure that has been tied to the team longer than a season and a half.  Throw Phil Esposito on the other half of the card and I would understand.  Like Yzerman, Espo never played for the Lightning, but unlike the current GM, he has been around since day one.

Either guy would be better, especially in those uniforms - Photo from St Pete Times

I would be remiss not to mention that the cards Panini posted on the website aren’t the complete set.  There is a chance that there is a second card that represents an actual player from the Lightning’s past. After all, the Alex Ovechkin card shown features Mark Messier as the other signer and while that is a cool card, not entirely indicative of Washington’s past. 

Despite being in the same area for 20 years having a hockey team in Florida still seems to be a bit of a novelty for the rest of the hockey world. That holds true for the collecting world as well.  Throwback sets rarely feature Lightning players, even if they feature other players from the 1990s.  Cards like the one Panini is producing don’t help the cause. 

Time to Clean House - 2011 Topps Insert Trade Bait!

As baseball card collectors know, 2011 was the year of the insert glut.  Soooo many different insert sets were placed in Topps base product alone that it was nigh on impossible to collect all of them. Therefore, I chose to collect none of them.  Since they are taking up limited space, I've decided to trade/give away all of my non-Orioles inserts.  Check out the list below, let me know what you want and we'll work something out. 

Don't be shy in asking either.  If you want them all, tell me you want them all and we'll make a deal.

DS 23 - Josh Johnson

DS - 1 Evan Longoria

Diamond Parallels:

296 - John Buck

441- Rafael Furcal

459 - Frank Francisco

78 - Mike Stanton

180 - Paul Maholm

189 - Kerry Wood

191 - JayBruce

Kimball Champions:
KC-10 Ichiro
KC-1 Ubaldo Jimenez
KC-19 Brandon Morrow
KC- 28 Mike Stanton
KC -29 Jered Weaver
KC-32 Alex Rios

CMGR-20 Lou Gehrig 1932 U.S. Caramel
BTT2 - Christy Mathewson American Tobacco 1911: T205
CMGR - 8 Cy Young 1911 T205

HOT - 5 Topps Goes Public
HOT -7 Topps Reintroduces Bowman
MBC1 - Mickey Mantle Chrome Insert
THP26 - Pedro Alvarez
THP28 - Justin Upton
THP16 - Cliff Lee
THP7 - Chase Utley
Topps Gold -#554 Cedric Hunter 1786/2011

T60-2 Andre Dawson
T60-37 Stephen Strasburg
T60-100 Albert Pujols
T60-82 Shane Victorino
T60-8 Felix Hernandez
T60-63 Evan Longoria
T60-9 Ian Kinsler
T60-11 Troy Tulowitzki
T60-27 David Wright

DD-2 Utley/Cano
DD-12 Tulowitzki/Ramirez
DD-27 Johnson/Verlander
DD-10 Gonzalez/Youklis
DD-18 Halladay/Hernandez
DD-LJ Larkin/Jeter
DD-BY Boggs/Youklis
DD-CS Carlton/Sabathia
DD-KA Kinsler/Andrus

60 Years of Topps
Paul Molitor - Original Back
Mariano Rivera - Original Back
#140 Reggie Jackson
#695 Rod Carew
#193 Calrton Fisk
#595 Nolan Ryan
#97 Curt Schilling
#459 Mike Piazza/Ivan Rodriguez/ Jason Kendall

60 YOT #100 Vlad Guerrero

60 YOT #290 Stan Musial

DD-BW Berkman/Wallace

Not pictured - a slew of Topps Town cards:

TT-5 Roy Halladay

TT-7 Joe Mauer

TT-9 Adam Jones

TT-19 Andrew McCutchen

TT-25 Ryan Howard

TT-28 David Ortiz

TT-37 Billy Butler

TT-38 Justin Verlander

TT-41 Carlos Santana

TT-45 Hanley Ramirez x2

TT49 - CC Sabathia x2

TT2-12Justin Morneau

TT2-19 Victor Martinez

TT2-35 Ian Kinsler

A Card in The Mail - Low Numbered Edition

As you may remember, I recently acquired a Steven Stamkos emerald parallel of his 2010-11 Upper Deck Artifacts card.  Numbered to 50, it was the lowest numbered card in my collection.  I say “was” because a day ago I received a new card that is numbered even lower.

I love GOOOOOOLLLDDD!

What you are looking at is a Vincent Lecavalier gold parallel of one of his 2010-11 Artifacts cards.  It’s not his base, despite having a card number of 174 on the back. It is, in fact, part of the Legends and Stars subset from that release.  The regular version of this card is short-printed and numbered to 999.  The one above is serial numbered to 35.

Over all I’m not really impressed with the design.  Sure, the writing is in a lovely gold script, but look at all of the wasted space.  I mean, really, could they use a smaller picture of Lecavalier?  I do like the background, but I don’t want it to be the focal point of the entire cards.

As for the picture itself, I like to think that Lecavalier has the puck at the end of his stick as he heads up ice.  Possibly, he’s on the power play and looking to hit Marty St. Louis for a beautiful one-time goal.  This is one of an inordinate amount of cards featuring Vincent with his mouth open.  When coupled with his raised eyebrows he looks mildly shocked.  Perhaps he’s shocked that he was still with the team (it was during those days when he was being shipped to Montreal for every player on their roster) or perhaps he’s surprised that he’s getting paid $10 million a year to skate around the ice.

I do like that he’s wearing the old, road whites, you know the “classic” ones that lasted about two seasons?  I hope the NHL goes back to having teams wear their white sweaters at home like the good ol’ days.  After all, how stupid is the Winnipeg White Out going to look when the road team is the one wearing white?  Granted, they have a few seasons before they have to worry about it, but you would have to assume that the ex-Thrashers make the playoffs sooner or later.

The back of the card doesn’t offer any stats, just a couple of sentences about his season.  2009-10 wasn’t one of Vincent’s better years and the only thing they could mention is that he played in all 82 games and was second on the team in shots on goal.  Ten million a year, folks!

I always felt bad for the copywriters who had to tackle the backs of the late-80s Score cards.  Coming up with three paragraphs on Mickey Brantley (former student of Coastal Carolina University - Go Chanticleers!) couldn’t have been easy. At least Topps had the decency to cram enough stats on the back of their cards so that they only had to write one or two sentences on the back.

The number 35 doesn’t play to relevantly in Lecavalier’s career.  He did score 35 goals in 2005-06, but that’s about it.  The number 11 plays even less a factor.  The best I could find was the 11 playoff games he played in 2002-03.  Like I said, not that important.

Such a great uniform!

How about in Lightning history?  Well, Tom Pyatt currently rocks the 11 on his sweater.  However, my favorite number 11 has to be Steve Kelly, or as he was known around the Ice Palace - Speedy Stevie Kelly.  Speed was really the only thing he brought to the ice.  In parts of two seasons, from 1997-99, he scored 3 goals and added 4 assists.  Somehow, in only 58 games he managed to end up a -24.  Those were some good times to be a fan!

The number 35 is currently unused, but has graced the backs of several players in Lightning history, all of them goaltenders.  The most famous would be Nikolai Khabibulin, the Russian net minder who led the team to their only Stanley Cup Championship.  As much as I liked the wild-eyed, puck stopper, he isn’t my favorite player to wear that number.

That honor belongs to Kevin Hodson, the backup goalie from the turn of the century.  Much like Kelly, he was a member of the organization during their darkest days and only managed 4 wins in his 36 games with the Lightning.  During those days he also sported number 30 and 31 on his uniform. I’m not going to lie, it was hard to keep track of who was who back in those days, not that it really mattered - they were all pretty bad,

Hodson, whose problems with a rapid heart beat earned him the nickname “Ticker” from his teammates,  came over to the Lightning at the 1999 trade deadline.  He was part of the blockbuster deal (at least to Lightning fans) that sent Wendel Clark to Detroit.  Clark, who actually had a decent year with the Bolts, was traded along with a 6th round pick to the Red Wings for Hodson and a 2nd round pick.  That pick would become Saint Leo Mike’s favorite Lightning player of all time - Sheldon Keefe.

Ben Clymer? Paul Martins? How did this team NOT make the playoffs?

While he never lived up to the potential Lightning fans hoped he would, Hodson was well-liked by the fans.  He habitually flipped pucks to fans following pre-game warm-ups and occasionally handed his stick to young fans following games. Oh, and he was nice enough to autograph a card for me one time!

Not in Lightning uniform, but still nice!

Overall, even though I’m not a big fan of the card, I’m glad I picked it up. If I didn’t have the need to collect every Lecavalier card ever produced I probably wouldn’t have bought it.  Heck, if the cost wasn’t less than a pack of 2011-12 Upper Deck Series One (the secret is free shipping, my friends!) I probably would have passed it by for another card.

The problem know is, since it’s a colored parallel, I must have all the different version to complete the rainbow!