For all the talk of how to improve the Smith / Ellis situation and now how to deal with three goalies on the roster, part of me wonders if something more important is being overlooked.

Over the past 10 or so games (a handful of games before Smith injured himself), I've felt the D have finally started being more effective and we're getting more timely secondary scoring so relying less on StamLouis to shoulder the load every night - you could probably dress any two of the three goalies, push one vaguely in the direction of the goal at the start of each game / period (being careful with Roloson, naturally, in case DiPietro's injury bug is contagious) and we could compete in each game...

But as Rick Peckham vaguely touched upon during the Rangers broadcast on Saturday, what to do with Steve Downie back from injury in the next few days (if not tomorrow, as has been reported)?  (Giving maybe a game or two to get back into gameshape)

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Another season is in the books, and the 17th season in Lightning history ended in a disappointing 25th place finish – which is at the very least is sign of continuing "improvement" on the previous two years.

After last nights triumph resulted in the 2009/10 season ending on a high note - a three game win streak - it's time for an evening of reflection, much merriment and final thoughts on the collective unit that was the 2009/10 Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Here's to hoping it can be capped off with a strong performance against Kamloops in the WHL Playoffs tonight!  Big talent who impressed at the start of this season, so hoping we see more of him in the NHL next year.

Coupled with the recent promotions of Stammer, it leaves just Hedman in the "NINE-TEEN!!" club... well, until June, I'm sure!  Some people won't be sad to see the end of that, either!

I was thinking after last nights game how it's a good thing we're losing because it's obvious we're not worthy of making the playoffs, so we might as well "Fall for Hall Brawl" (as John's been pushing recently)... and that's just wrong on every level. Yes, you need to allow the better players to go to the worse teams at the draft, but that seems to go against the philosophy of always going for the win... and how many fans tend to turn up to the last few games each season when their team has more to gain by losing?

Thankfully this year it's only us and Columbus in that position, but last year you had a lot of "High Risk" teams in that position - Phoenix, Atlanta, err.... Tampa Bay. So, given everyone's discussing changing OT / Shootout / Point Structure, and some people are mentioning changes to the Playoffs, I'm throwing my debating hat into the ring: why not change the way the draft order is decided?

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(Firstly, sorry if posting in the wrong place....)

Just quickly after clarification on a rule that's been bugging me for ages (and something I don't see often enough to remember, and so clarify) - coincidental minors... there are times when it results in a change in the on-ice numbers, and others when it doesn't change anything.

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Whilst watching the game last night, I was getting increasingly fed-up at our recent complete inability to win the first face-off in either a Power Play, or more importantly a Penalty Kill. Turns out my recollection is the typical you-only-notice-things-when-they're-going-badly (we finished 6-3 on the night!), but I've only found this out after all my research, so I might as well as get something useful out of the last two hours!

Obviously, you have to take a step back when trying to make sense of stats (in particular as I've based my stats on Play-by-Play's), and the first face-off isn't the be-all-and-end-all of either a PK or PP (just look how "good" we were before the Giroux PPG last night), but I don't know of anywhere that stores the stat I would really have liked – zone time.

What's surprised me the most is the advantage teams on the PP have - all bar 5 teams win over 50% of their first PP draws and only 6 win over 50% on the PK. The Bolts are firmly in the middle of both stats (52% on PP, 19th and 45% on the PK, 16th) and basically there is no correlation between the two stats - for every Florida (65% first win, 16.7% PP) there's a Washington (48% first win, 23.8% PP) and there's virtually no link in PK stats.

It confirms what I suspected before, that whilst winning face-offs is an important part of the game, it's a record of a single event in a game of moving parts that cannot really be linked to any other - and also part of the "propaganda" to make it look like we're actually good at something positive! (much like the rant by the Flyers commentators last night, regarding Stammer being second in the league in scoring since last February!)