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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

Games days are becoming busier than usual at 401 Channelside Drive. Saturday, prior to the Lightning's win over the Washington Capitals, the anticipated trade of defenseman Pavel Kubina was completed. Things around the Forum were quiet for a couple of days after that as the team was off. Then today, a small flurry of personnel moves preceded the game against the Anaheim Ducks, including the departure of forward Steve Downie and an update on forward and team captain Vincent Lecavalier (check the notes below the game recap for details).

"It was a tough day for a lot of us, you know? To come to the rink and find that out. Downs has been a warrior for this team. He's gonna be missed because he's got a great personality. He's always in the mix. Always a lot of laughs with Downs. He's a heck of a hockey player. He always played with a lot of heart." - Martin St. Louis

"It's the business of hockey sometimes. It's not always pretty and we don't have control of it. He was a great friend and a great teammate and just wish him the best of luck and move on the best we can. I think we were able to do that with a big win tonight." - Steven Stamkos

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The Tampa Bay Lightning edged the Washington Capitals 2-1 in front of 19,204 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Saturday night.

If the Lightning are not still in it to win it this season, it's awfully hard to tell from the effort put forth in their last two games.

"I always felt and still feel that that’s our trademark: fight, fight, fight; character. I feel that whenever you can dream it, you can do it. We just wanted to continue improving. Our motto keeps on being ‘get better today.’ So what it does is keeps our focus very narrow on the things we control and tonight that result isolated it for the team. Nothing before, nothing after, just one game against Washington." - head coach Guy Boucher

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I think there needs to be some ground rules pertaining to the concept of time travel, along the lines of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Because even though time travelers in movies are relatively responsible and well-behaved, there's just too much room for abuse that would result in mayhem. And while it would be great if we could all go back and circumvent horrific events leading up to world wars, far too many of us would waste time having inappropriate interactions with our own ancestors...and that's icky. That's why I am offering Clark's Three Laws of Time Travel.

• You can only go back to the past (I don't need you rubbing your flying car or robot dog or flying robot dog who can drive a car in my face).
• You can only go ONCE (that means if you go back far enough, you have to live through Milli Vanilli. Vanilla Ice and the OK Hockey eras all over again).
• You can only change ONE THING.

With that in mind, plus the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and the intent of making the Tampa Bay Lightning better than they are right now (without sacrificing efforts to build for the future), what ONE THING would you go back and undo prior to the start of the 2011-12 season? Answers from the Raw Charge staff are after the jump. Please share yours in the comments.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the San Jose Sharks 6-5 in overtime at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

On a day when talk focused on who was going where, it was widely seen as the beginning of the end of the pursuit of fortune and glory in the 2011-12 season for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Except nobody told the guys who are still here.

"At the end of the day, we're still gonna fight, regardless of what's going on around us. There's 26 games left. That's like a third of the season. So there's a lot of time left. If we start winning games, you never know. But if we throw in the towel because of what's going on around us, it's going to be a pretty miserable two months." - Martin St. Louis

The day began with speculation (confirmed by general manager Steve Yzerman) that steps were being taken to move defenseman Pavel Kubina. Later, just prior to the start of the game, forward Dominic Moore was traded to the San Jose Sharks, the Lightning' opponent tonight (Moore didn't play for either side). The day ended with a hockey game that saw six lead changes.

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The Ottawa Senators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Tueasday.

You know, sometimes the puck just will not go in the net.

"For that game to be one-nothing for so long it just seems like it's right there. Their goalie made some really good saves and really kept them in there but it was right there the whole time. We just couldn't bury one." - Vincent Lecavalier

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The Winnipeg Jets beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in overtime at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Thursday night, snapping the Lightning's season-long winning streak at five games.

As will be the case in most of the games remaining on the Lightning's schedule, since they're going head-to-head against so many of the teams they're chasing, this was another four-point game. The Lightning had a chance to pull within two points of their closest division rival (in the standings, if not geographically) but ended the night five behind instead.

"It's obviously disappointing, but we still got up another point and we gotta move forward...We gained another point on Washington, if you want to look at it that way. Six behind and we still gotta play them three times.But I don't want to look at it that way...it's disappointing but not frustrating" - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

As the Lightning return from the all-star break and resume the task of attempting to climb back into contention, their first order of business was to face off against the Southeast division-leading Washington Capitals. The game represented a key four point swing as the outcome would find the Lightning anywhere from seven to eleven points out of first place at the conclusion.

For their part, the Lightning are adapting a one-step-at-a-time approach to that task. Not just when it comes to the standings but within each individual game...like tonight.

"I kept saying on the bench, 'be in the moment, be in the moment; it's not what just happened, it's what we're gonna do next. We pushed, we didn't hold back. We weren't scared to lose; we were hungry to win. " - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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It's safe to say that the vast majority of us in the extended Tampa Bay Lightning family will not be in Ottawa this weekend, meaning we'll be focusing mostly on the break part of the All-Star break. Breaks in any endeavor are designed for you to stop, rest, get your bearings, re-assess your plans and go forward. If during this break, your re-assessment of plans doesn't include going forward with the Lightning, I'm here to tell you so long and good luck.

I honestly do so without malice or rancor. Look, passionately devoting yourself to a favorite team can be difficult. It requires demands on your time, emotions and bank account that can be strenuous. Especially if you're expecting some kind of return on those investments that may not be immediately forthcoming.

It's a busy world out there with lots of things going on to occupy our attention. I fully understand your predicament. Being a die-hard sports fan isn't for everyone. There's a reason bandwagons are slow-moving, low-to-the-ground conveyances; they're easy to get on and off of. If you feel like you need to get off of this one, even if you just climbed on less than a year ago, I say go in good health, no questions asked, no hard feelings and we'll happily welcome you back if you're so inclined in the future. I would just ask you to make sure you're not doing it because of undue influence from some of those in the media.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 Tuesday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, their fourth win in a row.

In a season that has been marked by a search for consistency, one thing you've been able to count on fairly regularly is for the Lightning to play up or down to the level of whatever opponent they're facing. Good, solid efforts against league powerhouses have frequently been offset by dismal, sloppy outings against non-contenders. So coming off a three game stretch featuring wins over the defending world champions and two teams jostling for playoff spots in the Western Conference, how would the Bolts fare against the team with the worst record in the league in the last game before the extended All-Star break?

Not great maybe, but certainly not too bad.

"I don't think we'd like to have the break right now in terms of how we're rolling in games, but if you're going to get a break, you want to finish on a winning note." - Martin St. Louis

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 5-3 in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,204 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

The routine the last few games has featured the Lightning falling behind early, due to being called for a penalty in the first two minutes, fighting valiantly but ultimately coming up just short. And tonight, more dependable than a delivery from Dominos, Bruno Gervais found himself in the box on a high sticking call at 1:58, which allowed the Bruins to go right down and...

Wait...what now?

"It was nice to get that kill, and kill their momentum and not let them get anything from that. Luckily, we built some momentum off of that" - Steven Stamkos

"You gotta be sharp in all areas at the start. You gotta be ready to kill penalties, you gotta be ready for the power play. Just being ready in general." - Dominic Moore

If the Lightning were mouthing the words "here we go again", at least nobody heard them saying it aloud.

"If I'm asking my players to put things behind, we have to put things behind too, as leaders. And right away, we said, ' yes, we're gonna kill this one, and we're gonna fight it off and we're gonna block shots'. So we kept on talking about what we're gonna do, not what can happen against us, but what we're gonna do. And we did it and our goaltender was part of it too. So it's all about the actions. Your words become your actions and your actions become your character and your character becomes your habits. And so it's important that we take care of our words." - head coach Guy Boucher

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The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-3 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Sunday afternoon.

The Lightning woke up this morning, presumably early due to an unusual 1 p.m. Sunday start time, to find themselves in last place in the Eastern Conference as a result of a six-game losing streak (0-5-1). It's safe to say things are becoming desperate at 401 Channelside Drive. And as desperation sets in, frustration sometimes boils over. Right, coach?

"I don't want to focus on frustration. To me, it's all about today...I gotta get ready for the next game and assess the things we can do better." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

Well, if it's not frustration, what is it? Anyone?

"It's the same mistakes, the same story...I don't know what to say. We spot every team two goals and think we can come back. We're not doing the little things right to have success and now we're trying to tread water." - forward Ryan Malone

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Style points may be pretty to look at, but you run the risk of getting distracted admiring them. Following a valiant comeback effort against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday (earning a point after overcoming a two goal deficit before losing in a shootout), the Lightning followed up with one of their worst efforts of the season.

"I would say this is the hardest one to take this year. We always talk about work ethic first, attitude and then discipline. In the first period, we had none of those, so we don't deserve the game." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher.

This was a somewhat pivotal game in that a win could have brought the Lightning to within six points of the conference's final playoff spot while the loss narrows the gap between Tampa Bay and the last place Hurricanes to a single point.

"I don't know what it is. It's unacceptable. We know what we have to do. we played a good game against one of the best teams in the league in Vancouver and we have this tough of a time against a team that's almost in the same situation as us." - Steven Stamkos

So did the Lightning fall victim to being so enamored with that effort against the Canucks that they simply overlooked the Huricanes?

"I would like to say no, but you know what? We get up for the big games against big teams and I don't think we're being very respectful to teams like Carolina or anyone else who is a little lower in the standings or isn't one of the top three teams in the conference. We can't have that. Period. We're not in a position to think we're better than any other team." - Boucher

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One thing that people who aren't hockey fans don't get is that the hockey community is one big, extended, not-necessarily-always-happy family. They tend to look at the most brutish and violent aspects of the game we love and form a less-than-flattering opinion of those who play it as well as those who follow it as maladjusted, knuckle-dragging, cement-headed sociopaths with an insatiable lust for gore and mayhem.

And it thoroughly mystifies them that the only professional sport that openly condones any kind of fighting is also the only one where opponents line up after a hard-fought playoff series and shake hands. They fail to understand that the love for the sport itself that binds those in the hockey community together is ultimately stronger than any loyalties to individual factions that might temporarily divide us and that even if we don't always like each other, there is a deeper-rooted respect for one another.

The spirit of that unity is never on better display...unfortunately...than when tragedy strikes. Such is the case in the wake of recent severe spinal injuries suffered by Minnesota high school players Jack Jablonski and Jenna Privette.

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The Vancouver Canucks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 in a shootout at the Tampa Bay Times Forum Tuesday night.

In a game that might have had many fans groaning before it even started, with the struggling Dwayne Roloson making the start in net, the Lightning hung in quite well and made a relatively impressive showing against one of the NHL's best.

"We have to be positive. We're playing one of the top teams in the league. We've got some injuries and these guys are a powerhouse; they're Stanley Cup contenders. We came back twice from two goals. That's a character comeback...We got to take the positive out of this one. It would have been easy to get nothing tonight against a team like that." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

"They don't look like an 11th place team." - Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,204 at the newly re-named Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa Saturday night.

Out with the old, in with the new? Not so fast. A Tampa Bay Lightning team that was probably praying for the start of the new year a little more than two weeks ago is ending 2011 on a hot streak. Having now won three straight games and four of the last six, collecting nine out of a possible 12 points in the process, the Bolts have to feel good about their recent efforts.

"I feel better because the results are there, but the reality is I kept on saying it, you could see it coming. We were playing better and better and better and better. It was just a matter of results at that point, and getting some home games. You know, some teams right now, they're looking great in the standings. Well, they got the opposite. They got six games at home more than the other teams that they've played. So let's see what they do when they go out west and they go back and forth on their trips and see where we are at that point." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

"We finally played a good complete game. That was the first one in a while. the last couple games we hadn't started out the way we wanted to, but tonight I thought our five-on-five play was pretty solid." - Steven Stamkos

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Nobody anywhere has any idea why we celebrate the arrival of a new calendar year by resolving to change our behavior and/or accomplish new goals. All we know is if you don't make at least one New Year's Resolution, whether or not you actually follow through, your taxes get severely audited. So as a public service to keep you from being exiled to Tax Dodger Island (a place you do NOT want to visit; sure, the beaches are nice but everyone is required to wear bright orange Speedos), we here at Raw Charge are offering a forum for you to present YOUR resolutions. NOTE: U.S. tax law states that it is entirely 100% admissable to make resolutions pertaining to the sport of hockey in general or specific hockey teams if you prefer.

Below the jump you'll see what the staff of Raw Charge is halfheartedly pledging to do in 2012 before failing to act in January, feeling guilty about it in February and losing complete interest in the whole concept around the middle of March. Let us know what YOUR plans are in the comments. Me? I resolve to be as good at what I do as Steven Stamkos, as hardworking as Martin St. Louis and as tanned as Bobby "The Chief" Taylor.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at the St. Pete Times Forum Thursday night.

A sell-out crowd of 19,204, featuring vocal fans of both the Lightning and the Canadiens watched a back-and-forth battle between teams with similar records in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning rallied from a two-goal deficit to get the win, their second in a row and fourth in their last six games.

"It's extremely positive. We've just got nine points out of the last twelve points possible, last six games, and that includes three on the road and three at home. So we've stepped it up and that's also done without some key guys." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 5-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 19,204 tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum.

"Anybody play defense here?" - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher, addressing the media after the game

So let's see: if a team that has struggled all season long defensively loses their top two defenders (who would ideally be slotted no higher than the #3 and #4 positions anyway) mid-way through a game against the second best offensive team in the league, and gets outshot 2-to-1 (this, after an opening period where they were outshot more than 4-to-1), what logically would happen next?

If you said, "they'd never trail and would eventually win by four goals", you're tonight's lucky winner and should probably seek immediate psychiatric help.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames 5-4 in front of a crowd of 17,241 tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum.

When a team is losing, like the Lightning have been, and they're losing games the same way almost every time, the way the Lightning have been, winning a game that they'd normally lose not only helps in the standings but could provide some much-needed psychological relief as well.

"It's huge. Huge. We played two terrific periods...What's been happening the last 10, 12 games, we've been playing great in most of them and having the chance to win in the third and something always happens...Everything looked like Groundhog Day again (tonight) and that's difficult for a team that's lacking confidence in those moments. And you only get confidence by doing it, by actually getting results. You can't get confidence because you tell yourself you're confident." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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Visualize a snowy land of gum drop trees and candy cane lanes, where toys are alive and snowmen and elves greet you with a happy, "Glad tidings to you and yours! Peace on earth, good will to men!". Now visualize a radio show on the internet where you can call in and talk about the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Well, one of these things is completely real! The other one is our radio show and you can get there by going to SBNation Tampa Bay Live! tonight at 8 p.m.

That's where you'll find Blue Thunder, a live internet call-in radio show by and for fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Join me and Cassie McClellan of Raw Charge with Patti McDonald and host JC De La Torre of SBNation Tampa Bay as we celebrate the holiday season by making wishes and putting names on our naughty & nice lists, all while sitting in a hot tub filled with hot cocoa and mini marshmallows. Come open your gifts with us!

In November, the Tampa Bay Lightning hosted "Girls Play Hockey" day at the St. Pete Times Forum. Tuesday night, it was the more mature ladies' turn to explore the home of the Lightning and the game they play.

The team has been hosting "Hockey N Heels" for over ten years now, and it's believed to be a one-of-a-kind program in the NHL.

"The Flyers tried something similar, but it was just women sitting in the bleachers while people from the team talked at them. This is much more interactive and a lot more fun." - Bobby 'The Chief' Taylor

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The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum.

In a season marked so far by consistent inconsistency, the Tampa Bay Lightning have struggled to learn the lesson that anything less than a full 60 minutes of effort is not likely to yield anything but disappointment. Tonight, rather than come out fast and furious before running out of steam late, which has been a recent and ongoing trend, they started out in low gear and found themselves in a deep hole early on. In spite of coming on strong as the game progressed, the end result was a collection of efforts that just didn't quite add up to good enough to win.

"If it's not defense, it's the offense. If it's not the offense, it's the defense. Or it's the special teams. You can't be awful in certain areas and expect to win. You have to be at least average or solid in each and excel in others to give yourselves a chance to win." - Steven Stamkos

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Join us (me and Cassie McClellan of Raw Charge with Patti McDonald and host JC De La Torre of SBNation Tampa Bay) tonight at 8 pm. We'll be discussing the recently announced realignment plan, the ongoing woes of our beloved Tampa Bay Lightning, previewing the upcoming schedule and sharing a fabulous recipe for butterscotch scones...also I will be giving away a horse (one or more of those things might not happen due to time constraints)!

http://sbnationtampabaylive.com/home/

Click the link, listen in, call up, join the chatter.

Blue Thunder Radio: It's like sticking a little bit of Raw Charge in your earhole!

The NHL's Board of Governors on Monday approved a new realignment plan that will eliminate the current two conference, six division format in favor of four regional "conferences" beginning with the 2012-13 season.

Realignment became necessary after the Atlanta Thrashers franchise of the current Southeast Division was sold and moved to Winnipeg prior to this season. The Board voted in favor of this plan over one that would have maintained the current structure while moving Winnipeg to the Western Conference and moving either the Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings or Nashville Predators to the Eastern Conference.

Two of the four as-yet-unnamed conferences will consist of seven teams while the other two will have eight teams. The Tampa Bay Lightning are assigned to what is currently known as Conference C along with the Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.

The new alignment will result in a schedule that will have all teams play each other at least twice. Conference champions along with the second, third and fourth place finishers within each conference will advance to the postseason playoffs.

How does all of this directly affect the Tampa Bay Lightning? Read on...

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The New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 4 to 2 in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,204 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.

It's the third loss in a row for the Lightning and the fifth consecutive win for the Rangers.

Once again, the Lightning were unable to get a complete, consistent 60 minutes of effort. Why this keeps happening is the big mystery surrounding this team, especially coming after a stretch of four games where the issue seemed to have been resolved.

"It’s a question of urgency, reliability, sticking with the plan. It’s not there." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

"We played two good periods, just a little let down in the third period something that happened more than once this this year. We have to give them credit, they played really well in the third, but for our part, we simply have to play better." - Lightning goaltender Mathieu Garon

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"Football is king in Florida" - virtually every sports pundit in the world

"We stink" - virtually every football fan in Florida in Fall of 2011

Football fans in the state of Florida have not had a very enjoyable autumn, with perennial winning programs under-performing and in some cases, failing to meet even the lowest expectations of excellence. If not for all the intense scrutiny football gets, people might take notice that it's the two NHL teams that are currently doing the best job of representing the Sunshine State in the world of sports. And not just by default.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Florida Panthers by a score of 5-1 in front of a crowd of 17,841 tonight at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.

The one key word that keeps coming up over and over again when people talk about what this year's Tampa Bay Lightning has been lacking is "consistency". After back-to-back games (plus the first period of the loss to Toronto, if you want to include that) in which the Lightning won by sticking to their gameplan of using their speed to dictate the tempo, create turnovers on defense and generate scoring chances on offense, they may be on their way to reaching one of the definitions of that word, which is "the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time".

"It's been about that since day one, first day of camp. It's about being ourselves. We're showing it now. It's just a question of team commitment. The leaders not only buying into it, but really leading the way in it...We're skating, we have a shooting mentality and we're tough to get through in the neutral zone. That's been us, it just hasn't been us consistently. So the last two games we've playe 60 minutes of that and it's paying off." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

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The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Florida Panthers 2-1 in overtime at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, Friday night.

In what was looked at as a "bounce-back" game if not a "save-our-season" game, the Lightning found some of the consistent intensity (or intense consistency, if you prefer) that seemed to have been in short supply lately by sticking to their game plan, being disciplined and giving a sustained effort the whole game. 

"It was a good team effort. I thought our forwards set a good pace for us and then we used our speed in the neutral zone, and on breakouts, we weren't slow like we usually are in our zone. So it gave us opportunities to set a certain tone." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

The Panthers allowed very little room for error, especially in goal where Jose Theodore was solid throughout and occasionally spectacular, stopping 29 of the 31 shots he faced. Lightning starting netminder Mathieu Garon was equally tough, stopping 23 of the 24 shots that came his way.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 7-1 in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,204 at the St. Pete Times Forum Tuesday night.

Tampa Bay was looking to rebound from a particularly poor effort in their last game, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the New Jersey Devils last Saturday night. 

"We came out, we played terrific in the first period. I can't ask more of our team. We came out flying. We executed. We had jump. we were first on the puck. We were shooting. We were doing great." - Lightning head coach Guy Boucher

Unfortunately, after things were pretty good for a while, they got considerably worse.

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