Insurance might help with Boyle salary

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published November 20, 2007

ATLANTA - It will depend on how long Dan Boyle is sidelined, but the Lightning could be compensated somewhat for the defenseman's wrist tendon injury.

Under the Temporary Total Disability Program administered by the league, teams receive 80 percent of an insured player's salary for every game missed after the season's 30th.

Boyle's base salary of $3.625-million breaks down to roughly $44,207 per game. Tampa Bay would get back 80 percent of that, or $35,365, for every game beginning with No. 31, Dec. 11 at Montreal.

Boyle is out indefinitely after a second surgery, Nov. 9, to repair complications from a procedure to repair three tendons in his left wrist severed by a skate that fell from his locker. The first procedure kept him out five weeks.

The TTDP requires teams to insure five players. Premiums are determined by the amount of salary covered. The Lightning insured Boyle, Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Marty St. Louis and Filip Kuba, the team's top five salaries.

STARRING ROLE: Lecavalier was named the league's first star for the second straight week. He is the first Lightning player to do the double and the first player since Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg in February.

The center led the league with eight points four goals, four assists in two games. Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov was the second star. Predators left wing Martin Erat was third.

"I'm just happy with the consistency of our play," Lecavalier said. "We're playing well as a team, and we have to keep it going."

Thrashers coach Don Waddell said Tampa Bay's success starts with Lecavalier.

"He's a dominant player and going as good as I've seen him go," Waddell said. "The way he's going, the whole Tampa Bay team feeds off him."

NEW ITINERARY: The Lightning still is expected to open next season in Prague, Czech Republic, but now apparently against the Rangers. The Penguins, whom Tampa Bay was supposed to play, appear headed for Stockholm, Sweden, to face the Senators.

Nothing is final, but Lightning left wing and Prague native Jan Hlavac said the plan is "something like a dream. Just the idea to bring the NHL to my hometown is unreal."

MINOR TRADE: In a swap of minor-league defensemen, the Lightning sent Bryce Lampman to the Stars for Mario Scalzo. In his third season with AHL Iowa, Scalzo, 23, a 5-foot-9, 190-pounder, had one goal, nine points and 10 penalty minutes in 15 games.

ODDS AND ENDS:Lecavalier's streak of eight multipoint games is the league's longest since Jaromir Jagr's 10-game streak from Feb. 18 to March 9, 1996. ... The Thrashers are 5-0 in overtime. Tampa Bay is 0-2. ... Norfolk has been so starved for offense that after just four games, wing Mathieu Darche, with 10 points on three goals and seven assists, is the team's second-leading scorer and was named AHL player of the week.

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

[Last modified November 20, 2007, 01:21:24]