Some players say every game is just as important, but the Lightning really needs a good showing today.
By BRANT JAMES
Published December 31, 2003
TAMPA - It's not Chris Dingman's personal battle, but he'll gladly fight it.
For Dan Boyle, it's plenty personal.
When the Florida Panthers meet the Lightning at 3 p.m. today at the St. Pete Times Forum, there will be certain well-known, underlying energies. Panthers general manager/interim coach Rick Dudley was the Lightning general manager until resigning amid tensions with management Feb.10, 2002 and being replaced by his assistant, Jay Feaster. Florida assistant Steve Ludzik coached the Lightning until Dudley replaced him with his assistant, John Tortorella, on Jan.6, 2001. John Torchetti has been an assistant on both teams. Several Panthers front-office employees have Lightning references on their resumes.
So there is emphasis on winning at several levels of both organizations.
"I think there will always be a thing with Dudley going over there," Dingman said. "Dudley wants to show that he did a good job building this team here and that he's going to do a good job there. Feaster obviously wants to continue to do a good job here and show we have the better team."
Lightning fans will pound the glass and implore Dingman to fight any Panthers who care to go. That's their expectation. An in-state rivalry, cultivated when the teams were in their development stages, is easy to latch onto. But for many of the Lightning players this game, though important given the 15-13-5-1 team's recent struggles, is simply next on the schedule.
"You try to get fired up for them all," center Brad Richards said, "but I don't think it's as big a rivalry as they say it is. We and (Southeast Division-leading) Atlanta are more, but (Florida) is closer to us (in the standings) than before, so it's hard to say. We've just not had that battle where we meet in the first round like we have with a Washington."
Whether conscious or not, Lightning-Panthers games generally are marked with physical play and emotion. Still, individual players find personal reasons to emphasize certain games.
The animosity game matrix is a relatively simple one: the team that traded you, your hometown team, playoff rivals, a team with a particular player, coach or general manager that really irks you.
Boyle feels that special twinge for the Panthers even though Mike Keenan, the coach who had him traded to the Lightning on Jan.7, 2002, has been fired.
"(This game) is always going to mean something to me personally," Boyle said. "You always sort of remember. It's not just against the team, but a GM or some guy that traded you. Little things like that add to it."
Goaltender John Grahame got his redemption Saturday when he beat his former team, the Bruins.
"It really feels good when you can stick it (to them)," he said. "If they traded you, they feel they're better off without you, so it's good to show them."
This could be a good time for a game with high intensity, contrived or otherwise. After a 2-0 home loss to Anaheim on Monday, the Lightning has one win in its past seven at the Times Forum and was shut out for the sixth time. A power play that has been stopped in its past 23 opportunities has contributed to a streak in which the Lightning has gone 4-11-3 and scored 30 goals in 18 games.
The Lightning has three more games - two against teams (Florida and Columbus) with losing records - in a five-game homestand before a long road trip.
"I think this game, it's good for the fans and good for the guys," Dingman said. "You look at the game in Philly, it was feisty but not stupid feisty. There were a couple fights and hits, and that kind of game is good for the team, where you're not going through the motions."
While Fredrik Modin insists the game he cares most about is the next one on the schedule, he seemed almost guilty not to feel the proper rage for the Panthers.
"It's tough to say we don't have any rivalry when the fans are very excited," he said. "It's not fair for me to say we don't feel any rivalry at all. But this one is very important."
