TAMPA - Vinny Lecavalier said he is determined on his first few shifts of every game to take the puck to the net. Whether he gets a shot or takes a hit really doesn't matter.
"It gets you into the game," he said. "I try to focus on the first couple of shifts to make sure right away I'm into it."
Lecavalier said that's the way it has been since that January day in Vancouver when he admitted he was playing badly and vowed to turn his season around.
It has worked.
Lecavalier had 32 goals, 34 assists and was plus-24 entering Saturday's game against the Thrashers. Nineteen goals and 23 assists came in 36 games since his declaration. In 45 prior, Lecavalier had 13 goals and 11 assists and was in a five-goal, 33-game drought.
What changed? Effort, basically. Lecavalier said he is skating harder and is more committed to his defensive game, specifically backchecking, than ever before. But there also is maturity, and that brings us back to Jan. 21 in Vancouver and Lecavalier's eye-opening video session with coach John Tortorella and associate coach Craig Ramsay.
"Sometimes when you're in a slump and you keep going for so long, you kind of get into a rhythm," Lecavalier said Saturday. "It had been a month and things were going the same way.
"I knew I needed to have a better second half. If I said that, I would put pressure on myself. It motivated me even more to take it to another notch."
Lecavalier, 23, admitted he would not have spoken out two seasons ago or maybe even last season.
"Probably not," he said. "I was younger. I believe more in myself now and how I can play."
"I give him a lot of credit in stepping up and saying those things and following through with them," Tortorella said. "He didn't lie in the weeds. The team was successful and he wanted to be part of it. It's another step in his maturity."
Since Lecavalier had a goal and an assist Jan. 22 in a 3-2 victory over the Oilers, he has not gone more than three games without a point. He has 123 shots in those 36 games. In his previous 45 he had 114.
"He made statements that he was going to be better and he took it upon himself," linemate Martin St. Louis said. "And props to him. Not everybody can say that and back it up. He's a major reason we've had the success we've had in the second half."
He might not be the Michael Jordan of hockey, as former owner Art Williams dubbed him when he was drafted No. 1 overall in 1996. But Tortorella said that's not the point.
"He's grown up mentally," Tortorella said. "I don't think it's fair to Vinny sometimes with some of the baggage he has to come with; from that idiot Art Williams talking about when he was drafted to all the entourage that follows him around saying this that and the other thing to him. It's a lot for him to handle.
"I think he has grown up tremendously mentally in putting that stuff away and trying to concentrate on his game. But there's more to him and he has to realize that and I think he does. Everybody wants everything out of him right away because of the word "potential.' Potential is garbage unless you go through the steps to get there, and now I think he has a full understanding of that."
