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Wednesday, November 8, 2000
Treading water still but tide has turned
By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com
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It didn't take long for Lightning coach Steve Ludzik to determine the progress his constantly evolving team had made in the offseason. All it took was one glance at that first intrasquad scrimmage in training camp.
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Wed., Sept. 27
Head coach Steve Ludzik has been trying to instill a better team attitude. Perpetual losing creates doubt when games are close. The Lightning will not win the close games until the players learn to sacrifice for each other.
The front office is starting to add the right kind of players. Now it's a matter of getting the new and old players to play together. Their young captain, Vincent Lecavalier, will have to lead the Lightning. Offensively, he's as good as they get in the NHL, but – at age 20 – can he provide the leadership his team needs?
He'll have some help from goalies Dan Cloutier and Kevin Weekes. Both goaltenders have NHL experience the Lightning can count on when the forwards and defensemen are making mistakes. Last year they played a goalie from their minor-league system, and that's not the way to stabilize a young team.
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"We were probably 10 times better," said Ludzik. "The turnaround was dramatic, and it was very high tempo."
It would be easy to say the old line about how it couldn't be much worse, but for the first time in three years, there was someone worse in the NHL than the Lightning last year. That achievement recorded, now they're going to try to be competitive on a daily basis.
That's a high standard to set for a team still lacking the talent to do so. But when you're in this position and still trying to build a team, what other approach could you take?
"I think competition for jobs is what every organization strives for," said Ludzik. "I don't think the competition for roster spots in our organization has been hard in ... I don't know how many years. This year will be tremendously hard."
So many young men, so little time to determine which of them will actually be players.
Until some answers start revealing themselves, the Lightning will count on building-block center Vincent Lecavalier, who continues to progress toward stardom.
Then there is power forward Fredrik Modin, who keeps hearing he'll be great once he starts shooting more, but still hasn't shown much evidence of being someone opposing defenders should always look out for.
On defense, there's veteran Petr Svoboda and a bunch of underachieving kids, which means goaltending tandem Kevin Weekes and Dan Cloutier will have to keep pushing each other on to greater performances.
They'll need it.
But this team, at least, is far from the joke it was not so long ago. And on certain nights, it'll even be fun to watch. Especially those nights that Kyle Freadrich – all 6-7, 260 pounds of him – decides to get frisky.
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Bottom Line on the Lightning
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Vincent Lecavalier
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Everything else
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Goaltending
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SEASON OUTLOOK: Don't expect this team to break any records, which is a good thing. Not too long ago, remember, the Lightning were the modern pacesetters for losses in a season. All that will be forgotten in a growing year for a team that will dish out more punches than punchlines, but also isn't a playoff contender. Fourth in the division is still its rightful place. |
Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.
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