Veteran voices are key in times of team adversity

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 12, 2016

TAMPA, Fla. – When a team goes through difficult stretches, things can go awry in a hurray.

It’s easy for the season to go completely off the rails and things can disintegrate if finger pointing and blame start to infiltrate the locker room. That can lead to bad feelings between teammates.

That’s where veteran voices can have a huge influence.

The NHL can be a grind, but those who have been there certainly have done that. Which is why it’s important for those voices to keep everything in perspective and not anybody overreact to situations to pop up throughout the course of an 82-game season.

“Teams go through rough patches for different reasons,” center Brian Boyle said. “You have to know the group. And we’ve come at it a couple of different ways. I think (Monday practice) was great, we competed hard. We still believe in one another, and maybe in that sense we are even keel, nobody is turning on each other and we are still very much a close group in here.

“But it would be sad if we let this slip any further and put ourselves in a position that we can’t get out of. So we need to understand what is at stake, have a little feel that that’s a possibility at this point. You get some motivation from there, and obviously you can’t get paranoid about it, but it is a possibility so we need to understand that we need to get motivated and get out of this together. We are going to need everybody, especially with some injuries.”

While it’s one thing to ensure there is no overreaction to the situation Tampa Bay finds itself in less than two weeks away from the Christmas break. With just one win in eight games before starting a three-game road trip on Wednesday in Calgary, there needs to be some sense of urgency in Tampa Bay’s game. The only thing that has prevented a full-scale slide down the standings has been the inability of teams around them in the division – Boston, Ottawa, Detroit and Florida – to create a gap in the standings.

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All the more reason to understand what is at stake if the losing trend continues, which is where those voices can come in to play, for more reasons that preventing overreaction.

“And under react, that’s just as important,” associate head coach Rick Bowness said. “So the voices have to send the right message in the right tone. Do we want to overreact? I don’t know, we’ve lost a lot of games lately, so we certainly better not under react. It goes back to recognizing how good the league is and how a lot of teams from last year are a lot better. So do we need their voices to say the right thing at the right time? Yeah. Do we want them to panic? Absolutely not. Do we want them to realize the dire situation we are in here? Absolutely.”

It’s no easy task as the Lightning hit the road once again for three games in four days, playing at Calgary on Wednesday, at Vancouver on Friday and at Edmonton on Saturday.

Practice notes: RW Ryan Callahan sat out practice and has not skated with the team since Wednesday. … D Slater Koekkoek and RW Erik Condra were recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League. … The Lightning again spent a good portion of practice working plays around the crease, focused on 2-on-2 and 3-on-2 plays. … The drills included an in-tight 3-on-3 game with the nets brought in to the blue lines. … Tampa Bay is expected to hold a morning practice at Amalie Arena on Tuesday before leaving on a charter flight for Calgary to begin a three-game trip. … The lines were slightly different than Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh

Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn-Vladislav Namestnikov-Brayden Point

Brian Boyle-Valtteri Filppula-Jonathan Drouin

Joel Vermin-Cedric Paquette-J.T. Brown



Video: Rick Bowness speaks to the media after practice on Dec. 12:

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