Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning is a professional hockey team of the NHL in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1992 under General Manager Phil Esposito and head coach Terry Crisp. The team played their games at Expo Hall and a highlight of the season came on November 13 when Pat Jablonski had the first shutout in franchise history.http://lightning.nhl.com/club/page.htm?bcid=tbl_content_1691 The Lightning finished their first few seasons near last place in the league, then made their first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1996, where they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in the conference quarterfinals.http://lightning.nhl.com/club/page.htm?bcid=tbl_content_1694The team played in the St. Pete Times Forum that season. Following the 1996 season, the Lightning failed to reach the playoffs for the next six seasons. In 2003, the Lightning finished first in the Southeast Division and reached the second round of the playoffs, where they fell to the New Jersey Devils. In 2004, Tampa Bay saw much success in the playoffs, defeating the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers to reach the Stanley Cup finals. The Lightning won the 2004 Stanley Cup championship, besting the Calgary Flames in seven games.http://www.nhl.com/cup/champs.html

The Tampa Bay Lightning ended the 2007 - 2008 season in last place with just 31 wins and only 71 points. They fired head coach John Tortorella and hired Barry Melrose on June 23, 2008. He was fired on November 13 after just 16 games and a 5-7-4 record. He was replaced by assistant coach Rick Tocchet.http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Lightning-fire-Barry-Melrose-move-Tocchet-to-he?urn=nhl,122233 The Lightning finished the since with 19 wins under Tocchet and finished with just 24 wins and 66 points overall, their worst season since 2000 - 2001.http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm?season=20082009 The Lightning picked second in the 2009 NHL Draft and selected Victor Hedman, a defenseman from Sweden.http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=431936 During the 2009 - 2010 season, the Lightning struggled for consistency and head coach Rich Tocchet and General Manager Brian Lawton were fired on April 13, 2010.http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hockey/lightning/tampa-bay-lightning-head-coach-rick-tocchet-and-gm-brian-lawton-have-been/1086828

Alumni

• Mikael Andersson (1992 - 1999)
• Dave Andreychuk (2001 - 2006)
• Dan Boyle (2001 - 2008)
• Brian Bradley (1992 - 1998)
• Dino Ciccarelli (1996 - 1998)
• Ben Clymer (1999 - 2004)
• Cory Cross (1993 - 1999)
• Jassen Cullimore (1997 - 2004)
• Ruslan Fedotenko (2002 - 2007)
• Chris Gratton (1993 - 2009)
• Roman Hamrlik (1992 - 1998)
• Petr Klima (1993 - 1996)
• Pavel Kubina (1997 - 2006)
• Fredrik Modin (1999 - 2006)
• Vaclav Prospal (2001 - 2009)
• Brad Richards (2000 - 2008)
• Cory Sarich (1997 - 2007)
• Denis Savard (1993 - 1995)
• Alexander Selivanov (1994 - 1999)
• Tim Taylor (2000 - 2007)
• Rob Zamuner (1992 - 1999)http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/display_players.php?tmi=8385
  
  

Current Roster

• Brandon Bochenski
• Steve Downie
• Todd Fedoruk
• Zenon Konopka
• Vincent Lecavalier
• Ryan Malone
• Mark Parrish
• Teddy Purcell
• Martin St. Louis
• Steven Stamkos
• Alex Tanguay
• Nate Thompson
• Stephane Veilleux
• Kurtis Foster
• David Hale
• Victor Hedman
• Scott Jackson
• Mike Lundin
• Andrej Meszaros
• Mattias Ohlund
• Matt Smaby
• Matt Walker
• Antero Niittymaki
• Mike Smithhttp://lightning.nhl.com/club/roster.htm?type=roster