LIGHTNING 9, PENGUINS 0: Tampa Bay never has had a game as productive or a victory as decisive, led by a hat trick from Vinny Lecavalier.
By TOM JONES
Published November 9, 2003
[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
Vincent Lecavalier scored his first career hat trick Saturday against the Penguins.
TAMPA - The Lightning has played 900 games that have counted in the National Hockey League: 883 regular-season games and 17 playoff games.
Browse the record books, or ask any diehard fan, and learn that the majority fall somewhere between "heartbreaking" and "downright embarrassing." Among the 900, there have been a modest share of good games.
But the best game in franchise history? The absolute best out of all the games dating to the first on Oct.7, 1992?
The argument can be made: On Saturday, the Lightning played its best game ever. This can't be argued: The Lightning never scored as many goals or beat a team as badly as it did Saturday when it defeated the Penguins 9-0.
"This was our night," Lightning center Vinny Lecavalier said. "Everything went our way."
The funny thing is, the game looked like it had all the makings of a dense speed bump, a kind of game that could spoil the Lightning's good vibe.
The Penguins, missing its best player (Mario Lemieux) and sitting its hot-shot young goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury), have perhaps the worst team in the league. Toss in this: the Lightning, off to its best start, was ripe to be a little too big for its britches and a little too musty after playing for the ninth time at home in 11 games.
Lightning coach John Tortorella summed up the matchup with one word: "dangerous."
But instead of peeking through the cracks of his fingers, Tortorella watched a game in which the Lightning bullied an opponent like never before.
When exactly did the Lightning know that something special was brewing?
"I think right from go," Lecavalier said. "We came out to play."
The Lightning never stopped. Lecavalier netted his third career hat trick, goalie Nikolai Khabibulin tied the franchise record for shutouts and the Lightning showed no mercy in a performance so dominating that it was hard for the 18,262 at the St. Pete Times Forum to not feel sorry for the Lemieux-less Penguins.
"By no means are you trying to run it up against any team in the National Hockey League," Tortorella said. "I have a lot of respect for the Penguins and that coaching staff. But you can't tell your players to stop playing. ... We just caught them on the right night."
Though the Lightning can't come out and say it, Saturday's game proved it can be good enough to knock the fillings out of an opponent.
"Well, I don't know what it does for the confidence of the team," said center Cory Stillman, who had a goal and three assists, "but it helps the confidence of the guys who were involved in the scoring."
He could've been talking about Ruslan Fedotenko, who had his first two goals of the season to close the scoring. He could've been talking about Alexander Svitov, who picked up his first point of the season. Heck, he could've been talking about just about everyone. Of the Lightning's 18 skaters, 13 picked up a point.
"It feels good to do something like this, but really, I don't care if we win 2-1 or 9-0," Lecavalier said. "You're trying to go out there and embarrass anybody, but it's got to help the confidence of a lot of people."
Tortorella still was a tad nervous midway through the game. The Lightning got a big boost by killing off a seven-minute Pens power play in the first period, but led only 2-0 halfway through the second. Lecavalier then turned the game for good when he scored on a short-handed breakaway, the first of his three goals, to start the rout.
It was 5-0 at the end of two and then 8-0 before Pens rookie coach Ed Olczyk mercifully pulled backup goalie Sebastien Caron when Fedotenko scored 8:40 into the third.
Meantime, Khabibulin picked up his 12th shutout in a Lightning uniform to tie Daren Puppa's franchise record, though he barely had to work as the Lightning outshot Pittsburgh 42-15.
"This is about as bad as it can get," Olczyk said.
For the Lightning, it's as good as it ever has been, but as early as the second period, Tortorella was hoping his team can re-focus for this afternoon's game at Carolina.
"We can't take any of these goals with us," Tortorella said. "(Today) we start 0-0. But I trust my team to stay focused. They know (today) is another game."
But it's on the heels of what might have been the best Lightning game ever.
