Ouellet is getting on the right road

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
Published November 10, 2007

Tampa Bay Lightning's Michel Oulette, right, hugs goaltender Johan Holmqvist, of Sweden, after the team defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 during a hockey game Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007.
	[AP]

WASHINGTON - Had Lightning coach John Tortorella graded the "homework" he recently gave his players, Michel Ouellet would have gotten an A.

Asked what he wanted to accomplish this season, Ouellet wrote, "I do not want to think about scoring goals. I just want to work on playing away from the puck."

That, Tortorella said, is when he knew Ouellet, struggling at the time through a goal drought, would be all right.

"That's half the battle when a player understands how you get going and become a good offensive player," Tortorella said Friday. "We knew we were on the right road with him."

Ouellet, 25, has four goals and five assists, including two goals and three assists in his past four games. All his goals came in his past nine.

The numbers are a relief given the right wing signed last summer as a free agent who would bring scoring punch. More important is how Ouellet pronounced wah-LET is creating scoring chances.

He is forechecking, backchecking, battling for pucks, and even skating better.

The knock on Ouellet always was his skating, and Tortorella agreed, "He's not the greatest in the world. But with his determination, he has picked up a stride. He's one of our top players as far as getting on pucks."

"When I do that," Ouellet said, "I play confident."

Ouellet, who last season scored 19 goals for Pittsburgh, began tentative.

The Penguins played the trap, which can be like playing on another planet compared with Tampa Bay's puck-pursuit system that requires players to keep their feet moving.

Add the pressure of expected goals, and, well, things went a little haywire.

"I was always, 'I need to score. I need to score,' " said Ouellet, who needed eight games to finally do so. "When you think like that, you're not doing the little things like getting the puck out, getting the puck in and forechecking. I had to change the way I was thinking and go after the puck."

He said the light went on during Tortorella's frank video sessions: "I was watching and wasn't seeing the way I was supposed to play."

The change has been startling, and the 6-foot-1, 193-pound native of Rimouski, Quebec, has been rewarded with ice time that increased from 9:36 on Nov. 1 against the Islanders to 20:21 in Thursday's victory over the Hurricanes.

Ouellet played on Vinny Lecavalier's line, had two assists and created two scoring chances, one with forechecking pressure and one with a vigorous backcheck.

He will start there tonight when the Lightning faces the Capitals at the Verizon Center.

"He's really on the puck," Lecavalier said. "He makes their D make a lot of mistakes because he's on them and playing physical. And he's a natural scorer."

"The release of his shot is his strength," Tortorella said. "Now that we're talking about him, we'll jinx him and he'll fall off. But he's played very well."

He also has a new nickname, Mike.

"I think Michel in the United States is a little feminine, so I don't mind," Ouellet said.

As long as they call him a goal scorer.

Damian Cristodero can be reached at cristodero@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 9, 2007, 19:32:04]