Round # 2

St-Pete's Gazette

The Tampa Bay Lightning are ready to battle tonight at the St-Pete's Forum versus the Ottawa Senators.  During the year, the two teams battled each other four time ending up tied with two wins each. The Bolts, same as the Sens, needed a game seven to past the first round.

" It will be interesting to see these two teams in action.  The Bolts made tremendous changes to their line-up, and the Sens got Iginla to boost their first line "  tweeted TSN - Bob McKenzie

Shipping away Thornton, Marleau, Thomas, Elliot and Hemsky, confused many teams around the league.  The main question was "Why?".  Almost all year long, the team was in the top five in the Eastern, and suddenly, before the deadline, a new "facelift" was done for the Lightnings.

" We had  great players before the deadline, but our team was getting old and we needed to add some youth for the years to come." said Assistant Gilbeault.

GM St-Pierre brought on board Yandle, Grabovski, Bufyglien, Bobrovky and Kulemin.  And also veteran Landkow and goalie Hiller to the mix.

" Our team is now younger and faster, but I was a bit disapointed that we needed a game seven to past the first round.  The Devils came out really strong, GM Roussel did a great job matching our line-ups, and for sure a team to watch in the years to come.  We had to come out stronger on our end to win the last game, and I was pleased to see all the team showed up."  GM St-Pierre told the media.

The Bolts would like to say good luck to the other seven teams still in the chase for the Stanley Cup.

Stay tunes - John Lu  TSN