Players lose breath, more in fitness test

BRANDON - Defenseman Jeremy Van Hoof threw up. Defenseman Brad Lukowich was on all fours. And just about every player said his legs were a little wobbly.

Such were the reactions to Thursday's fitness test on the first day of training camp at the Ice Sports Forum.

"I don't think I could see 5 feet in front of me," Lukowich said. "I was dying."

Each player was required to sprint six sets of three laps around the nets. And each time, coach John Tortorella pushed the nets a little farther apart.

The test serves two purposes. It kick-starts the team's conditioning program and measures how well players stuck to the offseason workout plan. No times were divulged, but right wings Ben Clymer and Evgeni Artukhin were announced as the most consistent.

"It never gets easy," defenseman Jassen Cullimore said. "No matter how good shape you're in, you're pushing yourself to the limit."

Just ask Lukowich.

"I don't know if it's nerves or what it is," he said. "You can practice that, and everyone's coming in and saying, "Man it wasn't that hard last week.' We've been doing it out on the ice and stuff. I don't know if it's Torts' presence or what it is, but you just lock up. It's hard. There isn't anything like it."

And it only will get worse.

The team did a 3-mile run Thursday night, and today's test is three sets of 15 laps.

"We're doing this for a reason, to get us ready for the season," right wing Martin St. Louis said. "It's not much fun to do, but these are the behind-the-scenes things that people don't see."

PRAISE FOR VINNY: General manager Jay Feaster said Vinny Lecavalier's effort appeared "effortless." The center wasn't sure that was the proper characterization but said, "It was tough but not as tough as last year."

Lecavalier said he worked hard during the summer to improve his upper-body strength and speed. It apparently worked.

"I'm incredibly impressed," Feaster said. "I think he's taking it to another level. He tasted that success last year and wants more. To see that, he has put in the work. It's tremendous."

ROY RENEWED: All Andre Roy wanted was to stay with the team. The left wing was benched early in the first period of Game 2 of the East quarterfinals after taking a bad penalty and grousing at the referee. He was left in Tampa for Games 3 and 4 in Washington.

"Maybe I should have been benched, but I felt I was pushed aside a bit," Roy said. "That was the only part that was hard for me."

Roy had meetings with Tortorella and Feaster to clear the air, and he said signing a new two-year contract did much to smooth things over.

"It shows they didn't give up on me even if we went through a little hard time," Roy said. "It shows they trust me. I just want to come in fresh and help out the team as best I can."

ODDS AND ENDS: Left wing Jimmie Olvestad had the least body fat, 4 percent. Eight percent is considered good. ... The news that Sweden's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, was killed in a Stockholm department store was troubling to Swedish left wing Fredrik Modin. "Sweden is such a small country. It's not very common things like this happen," he said. "We're not used to that kind of violence. It's scary."

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