Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 10, 2002
BRANDON -- Martin St. Louis picked up the puck along the wall, carried it into the slot and cut hard to the right before getting off a shot.
The moves made at the Ice Sports Forum, where Tampa Bay begins training camp Thursday, were quick and crisp. If the Lightning right wing was feeling any ill effects in the right leg he broke last season, he wasn't letting on.
"I feel as good as I was last year before training camp, if not better," St. Louis said Monday.
St. Louis spent the summer strengthening the leg that snapped just above the ankle 1:29 into a Jan. 23 game at Pittsburgh when he was pushed into the corner boards by Josef Melichar. At the time, St. Louis led the Lightning with 16 goals, 33 points and six power-play goals.
He missed 26 games, returned for five without scoring and sat out the season's final two games because, as even he admitted, he was out of shape from the inactivity.
St. Louis, in the first year of a two-year, $2.5-million contract, began working out the first week in May instead of July, as was his custom. He said he did not change how he worked out, just how much.
Two times a week St. Louis said he jumped -- yes, jumped -- on one leg, up 30 rows of bench seats at the ice rink at the University of Vermont. St. Louis played for the Catamounts and lives in Burlington.
St. Louis used the seats instead of the stairs because it forced him to jump the gap between rows. He said he did this five times for each leg.
"I just want to get back to where I left off. That's the biggest thing," he said. "I'm really excited about this season."
KEEP YOUR COOL: Left wing Andre Roy said he has been told by coach John Tortorella and general manager Jay Feaster to better control his emotions this season.
The heavyweight will spend the first six regular-season games serving the rest of a 13-game suspension. The penalty was assessed by the league because Roy left the penalty box and tussled with linesmen after a fight with Sandy McCarthy during an April 1 home game against the Rangers. "Jay and Torts told me, "We need you to be sharp and on the ice,' " Roy said. "I know I can't be doing stuff like that. I rarely react like that and put my team in trouble. It was one of those games. I lost my composure, but I've moved on."
Well, maybe.
Roy will miss the season's first meeting with the Rangers Oct. 21 at Madison Square Garden, but will be back Oct. 30, when the teams meet at the St. Pete Times Forum. Asked if he has a score to settle with McCarthy, who taunted Roy from the penalty box, Roy didn't say yes, but he didn't say no.
"We did fight, and it's over," he said. "I'll play hard and whatever happens, happens. If there's stuff to settle, I'll do it. I'll stand up for myself and the team."
LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE: Think the Lightning is trying to provide a good example for Vinny Lecavalier? The center's seat in the Ice Sports Forum locker room is between left wing Dave Andreychuk and center Tim Taylor.
PRESSURE, WHAT PRESSURE?: Ruslan Fedotenko knows he is expected to score 20-25 goals and lend a defensive awareness to Lecavalier's line, if that is where he ends up playing. He also is under the microscope as the player acquired from the Flyers for the No. 4 pick in the draft.
"There's a little bit of pressure, but it's a job you have to do," Fedotenko said. "It's for everybody like that. You know you can prove you can do it and be everything they expect."