There sure hasn’t been any shortage of Tampa Bay Lightning talk since Steve Yzerman’s arrival as the franchise’s new vice president and general manager a week ago …
Seems anyone and everyone with ties to the NHL has something to say about the Bolts these days. (Nothing new, per se, but at least we’re finally through with incessant circus mentions and bad jokes about horror films.)
Yes, Stevie Y has given plenty of people plenty to talk about, which gave me plenty to read over the long holiday weekend and, in turn, plenty of reaction thereafter.
On his first day as Tampa Bay GM, Yzerman both praised Martin’s work specifically as well as noted his need for an assistant general manager with a focus on CBA issues, contract negotiations and other important day-to-day duties of that ilk. As a side note, Yzerman indicated to me no desire to add the role of Norfolk Admirals GM, as Brian Lawton did before him, to his duties with the parent Lightning. Rather, he’d be more inclined to find a quality candidate to handle those responsibilities, saying, “I can’t be in two places at once.”
Perhaps Martin or someone cut from similar cloth to handle the cap and finance side of things and holdover Tom Kurvers, to further his grooming for a GM gig of his own someday, running things in Norfolk? That wouldn’t be a terrible guess, at this point.
Another good guess, at one time or another, for one of those roles would have been former Lightning AGM Claude Loiselle, who will now assume that position with the Toronto Maple Leafs, for whom he scouted during the 2009-10 season. Loiselle was in the GM mix in Tampa and may very well have been given his long-awaited shot here, had the Yzerman coup been unsuccessful. But, rather than make himself available for a subordinate position here in Tampa, Loiselle will take full advantage of his new surroundings in hockey-rich Toronto and will look to further strengthen his resume under Brian Burke, Dave Nonis and company.
Former Lightning GM Jay Feaster, who also interviewed for his old position, will not take a step back to AGM in Tampa either (but is willing, as he told the St. Pete Times, to do so elsewhere).
Still, he did put forth some suggestions for Yzerman in several areas in his most recent blog for The Hockey News.
Namely, Feaster tabbed Damian Echevarrietta, of the league’s hockey ops department as an AGM possibility and then listed direct community involvement, finding a clear-cut, go-to goaltender, either committing to Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis or making plans to deal one or the other (or both) and re-upping Steven Stamkos as soon as possible as should-be priorities for the new Lightning GM.
Yeah, in a nutshell, that’s the start of what Yzerman has to do around here, though I still wonder why Mike Smith won’t get every (last) chance to reclaim the Lightning crease on a permanent basis. If that isn’t in the plans, adding another goalie is inhibited by Smith’s $2.2 million dollar cap hit. Who wants that kind of cash wearing a baseball cap regularly?
Not listed in Feaster’s proposed to-do list for Yzerman is the naming of a head coach (you know, that minor detail) but along those lines, Kevin Dineen’s name continues to pop up here, there and at The Fourth Period, the latest outlet to call Dineen the frontrunner in Tampa (but also the same folks who ruled out Yzerman as Lightning GM about a week-and-a-half before he took the post).
The Columbus Blue Jackets are also said to be interested in Dineen and are reportedly ready to make their decision in the next week to ten days, making their situation one worth monitoring for those with an interest in the Lightning.
Elsewhere, Kevin Dupont of the Boston Globechimes in on potential Lightning coaches as well, calling veteran NHL bench boss Ken Hitchcock too defensive-minded for the upbeat Lightning (agreed) and downplaying his association with Yzerman from their recent work together with Team Canada in the Vancouver Olympics.
Instead, Dupont calls Detroit assistant Paul MacLean (and his glorious, glorious mustache) a better fit, potentially. Personally, I’m still touting Bob Boughner of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires as a phenomenal choice, though recent efforts to contact the Spits’ part-owner and head coach to gauge his interest in the Tampa Bay job have gone unanswered to this point.
I would expect the Columbus job to be filled in short order, as GM Scott Howson has been at it for some time now and, perhaps, once that position is filled, Yzerman’s search for his own bench boss might soon hit its stride.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There’s Something About Krajicek
I’m not exactly sure what I find so interesting about defenseman Lukas Krajicek’s presence on the blueline of the Stanley Cup finalist Philadelphia Flyers.
Maybe it’s the unlikely path he’s taken: From poster child of the defense woes of the Lightning for the last two seasons, to a return to the American Hockey League for the first time in five years, to unconditional waivers before finally inking a free agent deal with Philly in late January.
Or maybe it’s the simple fact that a player last year’s Lightning, or their AHL affiliate, for that matter, literally had no use for and couldn’t find a new home for at any price on the trade market has landed a significant role on a team battling for Stanley Cup supremacy.
Whatever it is that intrigues me about Krajicek in the orange and black has been enough for me to take notice time and time again throughout the playoffs and certainly enough for a wisecrack or two on the ol’ Twitter.
But good for Krajicek for going from castoff to Cup contender and add the fruit of his travails to the long list of how-about-thats tacked to the previous management regime in Tampa.
Of course, nobody would have predicted this sort of ascension for Krajicek, nor is anyone in Tampa crying the blues about their custom #2 Lightning sweaters being outdated or their hero having gone on to another team, in this case. Even among the cast-of-thousands list of defensemen employed by Tampa Bay during his time here, Krajicek was a favorite whipping boy of the Lightning fan base.
And, in case anyone needed a reminder of why he caught as much grief as he did as a member of the Bolts, Krajicek’s below-the-goal-line defense on Chicago sniper Marian Hossa that led to the Hawks’ first goal in game two last night should do the trick:
Still, though Philly’s task of coming back from an 0-2 hole is an arduous one to say the least, that Krajicek still has the chance to have the ultimate last laugh in raising Lord Stanley’s Cup at season’s end should be enough to shut us all up.
One last note from me today that I think the masses might find a popular notion:
I have my opinion of Flyers forward Dan Carcillo (which isn’t worth delving into all that deeply, honestly, because it would only end with the same old, “But, if he were on my team …” copout) and, surely, you have yours. His return to the Philadelphia lineup added some energy, I suppose (just ask teammate Jeff Carter), though the end result was Philly’s second consecutive one-goal loss.
But what stuck out to me most in watching “The Car Bomb” last night was that we really need an iso on this guy. Actually, forget the “Cam” altogether, let’s just put a mic on him at all times. Sure, it’ll be chock full of spicy language but, hey, we can handle it!
I don’t know exactly what he said to the Chicago bench throughout the game but I’m sure it was some high-level, intellectual conversation, no? (And his exchanges with Chicago’s Tomas Kopecky just had to be instant classics.)
Make it a feature of next year’s Center Ice package or something cause if ever a guy need his own show …
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