One goal.....One Dream......

St-Pete's Gazette

After a great article regarding the palyoff race, the Tampa Bay managment gathered up all the staff members, sponsors, cheerleaders, and even all  players from the Tampa Bay Lightning and Syracruse Crunch roster.

According to the big picture, two out of these three teams will advance in a playoff spot.......Tampa Bay, Montreal or Ottawa.

Here what GM St-Pierre had to say before the "special" meeting regarding the other two teams he will try to take the lead from.

Montreal Canadiens  -  " The Montreal Canadiens found their chemistry and have been playing really good hockey as a team, but their schedule ahead will determine if they are a playoff team or not.  They will play Detroit twice, Buffalo, Toronto, NYR, and Chicago....all teams in the top of the standing.  It's all or nothing for them, but be sure if they capture many wins in that stretch, fear the Montreal Canadiens in the playoff run, they can be the suprise team of the league."

Ottawa Senators      -   " The Ottawa Senators are the defending Stanley Cup champs.  All the pressure are on them, and for sure a true test to see if they can repeat the task of being champs again.  We played them in the second round of the playoff last year and we couldn't figure out how to beat them.  Their schedule ahead is not too bad, lots of the teams they will host could steal a point here and there, but if the Sens look at them as easy wins, they could be hurting point-wise in the standing race"

John Lu asked GM St-Pierre why they are having this meeting. 

" We are in positions, in the pro and farm team, where we need to regroup as a team, and talk about what the plans gonna be.  The Bolts do have a big task in front of them, and we can't let that playoff position slip out of reach.  Our schedule ahead is a rough one, because we will play Ottawa and the Canadien in that stretch on top of Detroit, Toronto and Buffalo.  And for our farm team, it will be our first time securing a spot in the playoff, and we want to make sure we are still driving that direction."  GM St-Pierre told TSN

Stay tunes.......more media to come after that suprising meeting.....in the mean time, a look at the upgrades GM St-Pierre did during the season.  Your call if St-Pierre is going the right direction......

Players traded

Byfuglien, J. McGinn, Schultz, Vey, Beleskey, Grabovski, Gonchar, T. McGinn, Stalberg, Neuvirth

Players Aquired

Burns, Lydman, Niskanen, Gardiner, Stajan, Corvo, Backlund, Tatar, Dekeyser, Killorn, Ward, Chimera, Montoya