Pucks sent to box, replaced by taped-up tennis balls

By EDUARDO A. ENCINA, Times Staff Writer
Published December 29, 2007

TAMPA - Lightning coach John Tortorella has tried yelling. He has tried meticulous tape reviews, anything to get his team out of its recent funk.

But the day after his club lost its sixth in seven games, Tortorella decided Friday it was time to try another way to boost the morale of his struggling team.

He put away the pucks for a day. Instead, the Lightning practiced with tennis balls wrapped in tape. For the first half of practice, players had to shoot from their opposite side - the left-handed shooters shooting righty and vice versa. And in the second half of practice, they had to catch a pass with their hand before shooting on net.

"The last two weeks, everybody's been down," forward Vinny Lecavalier said. "When you're losing it's not fun. ... I think today, even though we didn't play with any pucks, it's going to help us in the long term. ... It put a smile on our faces."

Tortorella broke out the tennis balls around the same time last season, when the team was struggling under .500 around the holidays before a run to the playoffs.

"We're trying everything," he said.

[Last modified December 28, 2007, 23:01:39]