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TOM JONES'Tis the night for Stanley Cup glory, but arena doors are shut; not a creature will be stirring, not even a puck.
TAMPA - First, the house lights would be dimmed. Lasers would shoot across the ceiling. Spotlights would zig-zag around the floor. Music would rattle the walls.
Ladies and gentleman, your Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
One by one, they would be introduced. MVP Martin St. Louis. Playoff MVP Brad Richards. Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. Flashy star Vinny Lecavalier. Captain Dave Andreychuk. Coach John Tortorella.
With each name, the crowd, taking time to recall some special memory about that player from last spring, would roar until 20 players were lined across the ice.
Then it would be time, the moment everyone had been waiting for since 1992. With one lone spotlight moving from the ice to the rafters, up it would go: the Stanley Cup banner. Moments later, the puck would drop between the defending champions and Philadelphia Flyers, the last hurdle before the Stanley Cup final last spring.
If the Game 7 Cup victory against the Flames June 7 was the greatest night in franchise history, then tonight, what should be the Lightning's 2004-05 season opener, could have been the second greatest.
"The night you raise the banner is just fantastic," said former Lightning coach Jacques Demers, who coached the 1992-93 Canadiens to the Cup. "It's something everyone - players, coaches, ownership, the community - shares. Everybody has been partying all summer with the Cup, but now, for the first time and the last time, everyone gets together again to remember that special thing you all went through together. It's such a special feeling. It's a great, great night."
But it won't be tonight. Instead, the St. Pete Times Forum will sit quiet and dark, the result of an NHL owners lockout that has put the league on hold. The Lightning's banner party will have to wait. Maybe until January. Maybe another year.
"Whenever it happens, it won't be the same as if it happened (tonight)," Demers said. "If it happens in January or next October, it will be nice. But it won't be the same. It's such a shame."
The Lightning is only 12 years old, but its dark days are the stuff of legend and nightmares. There were 50-loss seasons, screwy ownerships, fruitless drafts and worthless trades. Tampa Bay became a haven for old-timers past their primes and young kids who would never live up to the hype. The Lightning bounced from the too-small Expo Hall to the too-big ThunderDome to the Ice Palace.
Fans came and went.
Even counting its playoff season of 1995-96, the Lightning became a league joke and was on the short list of the worst franchises in sports. A hard-core group of hockey fans stuck with the Lightning through not too much thick and plenty of thin, but most of Tampa Bay barely paid attention as crowds of 6,000 became common.
But the 2002-03 season changed that as the Lightning won the Southeast Division and a playoff round, setting up the championship run of last season. Fans swarmed the Times Forum. Those who couldn't get in the building during the playoffs watched on big screen televisions outside the building. Hockey never was more popular in Tampa than last spring.
And now when it should be returning, it's gone. No one knows when it will come back and how many new fans will come back with it.
"I met a lot of the people who were new to hockey when they came here during the playoffs," said Jack Newkirk, co-owner of Newk's Cafe across the street from the Times Forum. "The Lightning attracted so many new hockey fans, and now you wonder what will happen if hockey doesn't come back for a long time. Will they lose those fans?"
Maybe two or three years ago when the Lightning was coming off another failed season, a lockout would not matter. But coming off a championship season?
"This could not have come at a worse time for the Lightning," Demers said. "Right now, the Lightning players are starting to get recognition. The people of Tampa Bay finally started to notice. Right now, the Bucs aren't doing so well. The timing was perfect for the Lightning to take over Tampa Bay.
"And instead, there is no hockey."
Instead of pounding Jeremy Roenick into the boards tonight, Lightning defenseman Pavel Kubina is playing in the Czech Republic. Instead of slicing through the Flyers defense, Lecavalier is hanging around the house. Other players are off in Europe. Brad Lukowich is playing minor-league hockey in Texas. Richards is traveling. Dan Boyle is visiting family in Canada and playing in a four-on-four league.
None will see a banner raised tonight.
"It's very disappointing," Boyle said. "Especially for us in Tampa because we have so much to play for. We want to see that banner go up. We want to get our rings. This is all frustrating."
Maybe fans have not jumped off the bandwagon. Lightning president Ron Campbell said the Lightning still is getting calls for season tickets but admits the timing of the lockout is especially bad in these parts, perhaps more costly than, say, Miami or Carolina.
"Sure, it's sad," Campbell said. "There is nothing we would like more than to celebrate the Cup and have the banner raised and hand out the rings. But at the same time, we have to change the economic system in our game. As much as we would love to be playing right now, it's more important for the league, and especially for a small-market team like us, to have a system in place that allows us to remain competitive.
"Hey, we want to raise a Cup banner every year, but we wouldn't be able to under the old system. That's why we have to fix it. It's vital to the health of the league and our franchise."
Perhaps the only shred of optimism for the Lightning is it likely is not a one-hit wonder. With a young core of players, the Lightning likely will be competitive in the playoffs for several years. Even if the lockout wipes out a season, the Lightning team that returns to the ice will look nearly identical to the one that left the ice with the Cup in June.
"It's not going to happen (tonight), but someday we will raise the Stanley Cup banner," general manager Jay Feaster said. "Whenever that is, I think it will take about 30 seconds for the fans to get back into it again. When we show those video highlights, everyone will remember the special thing we accomplished.
"And when that banner goes up, the fans will raise the roof off the building. We are going to have a celebration. We are going to have a banner-raising party."
Just not tonight.