Putting another myth to rest

Myth #1: Dudley is responsible for the Lightning's success. FALSE

Myth #2: As Vincent Lecavalier goes, so go the Lightning.

Has anyone else seen this mentioned in virtually every report on what makes the Lightning tick? The latest was the comparison of Kovalchuk is to the (post-Heatley) Thrashers what Lecavalier is to the Lightning.

I highly disagree with that statement.

THIS THREAD IS NOT A SLIGHT AGAINST VINCENT LECAVALIER.

I think, like the Dudley myth, that if the national journalists really paid attention to the Lightning, they'd know that Lecavalier is not the driving force behind the club.

Personally, I'd vote for Khabibulin, but he gets his pub anyway. Among the skaters, who is the driving force of the Lightning?

IMHO, I would say that guy is Martin St. Louis. I think HE is the heart of the team and the skater the Bolts can least likely to afford to lose. I think he's Tampa's best and most consistent forward. I would probably put Richards above Lecavalier in terms of who impacts the club's offense more, but Richards isn't allowed to appear in the national media outside of an afterthought. Also, Richards is given more of a chance than Lecavalier in terms of linemates, but that could be a chicken vs. the egg kind of thing. Did Richards production/consistency create that spot for him, or is his production/consistency due to the spot?

I think when Sir. Vincent was drafted #1 overall it was assumed that he would indeed be the driving force for the Bolts for years to come, but IMO, right now, that spot could be given to STL, Richards, or even Boyle as much as it could Lecavalier. National media just assumes Lecavalier is driving.

Just thought I'd bring this up for conversation.

It is Lecavalier... because if Lecavalier doesn't give us a second scoring line, we're not going anywhere. That mostly has to do with Torts giving all the linemate quality to Richards and not to Vinny though too.

Second most valuable: Dan Boyle.

-Pete Choquette

I disagree.

You need the first line before a 2nd line can give the club another option.

Comparing Lecavalier to Kovalchuk in his role indicates Lecavalier is the main producer, and is surrounded by only secondary talent. Lecavalier doesn't have that production, regardless if it's Torts assignments.

I don't know, maybe I'm way off on this.

Lecavalier DID have that kind of production last year though. He and Prospal both finished ahead of Richards and St. Louis in scoring and we're learning now that Prospal was reaping the benefits of playing with Vinny and not the other way around.

I think getting that second line production and straightening out the power play with Boyle was the key to our offense last year.

-Pete Choquette

... Also, Richards is given more of a chance than Lecavalier in terms of linemates, but that could be a chicken vs. the egg kind of thing. Did Richards production/consistency create that spot for him, or is his production/consistency due to the spot?

Bottom line: Brad Richards is easy to play with. Vinny Lecavalier is not. Ben Clymer has said so. Cory Stillman has said so. Observation makes it easy to believe.

Richards plays a give-and-take style. He's looking for you as often as you're looking for him. He cycles, he makes the smart play, he keeps you involved.

Lecavalier plays more of a one-on-one style. He wants you to feed him the puck so he can take guys wide or split the defense. He dangles, he makes completely unpredictable plays, he keeps you guessing.

THIS POST IS NOT A SLIGHT ON VINCENT LECAVALIER.

Vinny is not the only player in the NHL who has this problem. Peter Forsberg, for example, is notoriously difficult to play with for many of the same reasons (primarily he's unpredictable). But Colorado found a couple of guys who mesh well with him and they're lighting it up.

This, to me, is the main reason that the loss of Vaclav Prospal was difficult to take. He's one of few players in 5+ years who has really seemed to have some "chemistry" with Lecavalier. After 12 months of watching Ruslan Fedotenko on his right side, I think we can all say fairly definitively that he and Vinny do not click. After watching Cory Stillman and Dmitry Afanasenkov on his left side for a couple of weeks each, I don't think we can reach any conclusions whatsoever. After watching Marty St. Louis play on Vinny's wing in last year's playoffs, I think we can all agree that, given the chance, these two guys could be VERY complementary.

All of which makes it that much more difficult to understand why Torts won't try switching Feds and St. Louis.

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To me, it makes SO much sense. Modin, St. Louis, Clymer, Prospal, Roy and now Stillman have all showed that just about ANY smart player can immediately jump in and contribute on Richards' line. (And if Fedotenko is ever going to score those 25 goals Feaster predicted he'd get, there's no question in my mind it's going to happen with Brad Richards feeding him the puck.) Meanwhile, Vinny gets a playmaker in St. Louis to replace Prospal, and it's a guy with whom he's already established a productive on-ice rapport. To me it's a no-brainer that if this team wants to take advantage of everything Vinny Lecavalier has to offer, they need to put another established, creative offensive player on his line. Even without that, Vinny is probably capable of 65-70 points. But with a guy like St. Louis (or Prospal, were he still here), I really think Vinny could legitimately challenge for the Art Ross.

It makes no sense to me to put all your eggs in one basket.

It'll be interesting to see who sits tonight if they play Roy.

IMO, the great thing about the TBL is that there's no one individual player who makes or breaks the team. Nobody.

Khabibulin struggled last year and Grahame stepped right up to the plate. Cullimore went down to injury and the other guys rallied. St. Louis struggled to score in the second half and everyone else picked up the slack. Even the ol' Cap'n Dave Andreychuk went out with an injury and we didn't miss a beat. Richards, Lecavalier, Boyle, Modin -- EVERYONE on the team, without exception, had their share of struggles during the course of the year and ultimately it didn't hurt as much as it could (or even should) have. Because this is a Team with a capital T.

I don't think there's any one guy about whom you can say, "As _________ goes, so go the Lightning."

IMO, the great thing about the TBL is that there's no one individual player who makes or breaks the team. Nobody.

Khabibulin struggled last year and Grahame stepped right up to the plate. Cullimore went down to injury and the other guys rallied. St. Louis struggled to score in the second half and everyone else picked up the slack. Even the ol' Cap'n Dave Andreychuk went out with an injury and we didn't miss a beat. Richards, Lecavalier, Boyle, Modin -- EVERYONE on the team, without exception, had their share of struggles during the course of the year and ultimately it didn't hurt as much as it could (or even should) have. Because this is a Team with a capital T.

I don't think there's any one guy about whom you can say, "As _________ goes, so go the Lightning."



Personally, I think if anyone can fill that blank it is Khabibulin. Yes he struggled last year, and yes the team still made the playoffs despite him having an off year, which is why I agree that no one fits that blank space.

However, while he didn't play up to par last year, he still played. I think that if the team lost nik to injury, it would go downhill because I am not sold on any other goalie in the organization being consistant enough to give us wins night in and night out.

Graheme is a legit backup, and was good last year when he needed to be. That said, I don't think he has what it takes to keep this team winning consistantly, which is why I think that Khabibulin is very close to fitting that blank above.

Close.... but thankfully not close enough.

Yeah. I think St. Louis and Boyle are close to that, too.

Highly disagreed on the Dudley statement, NJ, Quebec/Colorado, Ottawa, ect all endured LONG struggles and numerous players passed through the organizations before they acheived greatness, it is no different with TB and Dudley, he did a good job building your team. :bow:

Goalies are always the most important part of any team, so the goalie is always #1;its proven that you can't win a championship without a decent goalie. St. Louis however is the only player who can single handedly dominate a game, much like Jagr. He makes plays all on his own, and is a game breaker...no one else on the team is. Not Richards, not Vinny, not Boyle..no one. Maybe in the future, but till then Louis will always be MVP.


....two years ago we lost Louis to injury with that broken leg in the pitt game. Torts was qouted as saying his bench looked barren, and this is with Vinny and Richy on the bench.