MONTREAL - Vinny Lecavalier's relationship with the Montreal media is friendly.
The Lightning center, who comes from the suburb of Ile Bizard, said he has known most of the hockey reporters since he was a 17-year-old phenom in juniors. So when 25 surrounded his locker after Thursday's morning skate to ask about his Dec. 23 benching in Boston and his criticism of coach John Tortorella's decision, he indulged them.
But he chided them, nicely, for bringing up what he considers old news.
"I'm past that," Lecavalier said later. "It was two weeks ago. I don't even know why we keep talking about it."
Lecavalier said he "loves" playing in Tampa and with his teammates. He said he did not agree with Tortorella's decision to sit him through most of the second period against the Bruins, but
"He's the coach. I can't say, "Well, I'm going to go on the ice.' But it happened on one night. ... It's over. We still talk. If I do something wrong on the ice, he's still going to communicate to me because he's trying to help me."
But the questions kept coming.
"Can you accept coaching?"
"Are you happy in Tampa?"
"It's just tough because we have to talk about something that happened two weeks ago," he said. "Obviously when you come to Canada, this resurfaces.
"But it was over that night it happened. I'm not going to come to the rink and cry about it. I'm going to work hard every single night. We have a great bunch of guys here and we believe in each other. I'm going to work as hard as I can to become a better hockey player."
LINING UP: Has the Lightning found something with the line of Lecavalier and wings Martin St. Louis and Ruslan Fedotenko? The trio, which Lecavalier figured has been together five games, had three goals and three assists.
"We made great plays out there," Lecavalier said. "I really like playing with Marty and Feds. They're two guys with a lot of speed and they're easy to play with."
The line would give Tampa Bay two stable offensive threats. Center Brad Richards with wings Fredrik Modin and Cory Stillman has been the other.
"We'll see where it goes," Tortorella said. "But they played very well tonight."
ODDS AND ENDS: Montreal television analyst and former Lightning coach Jacques Demers predicted if the Lightning lost big, Tortorella would be fired. "Ridiculous," general manager Jay Feaster said. ... Right wing Shane Willis, left wing Andre Roy and defenseman Darren Rumble were scratched.
