That certain something

It lost a lot more games than it won. It didn't come close to the playoffs. And it played in front of an average home crowd of 10,013 in a livestock pavilion.

Still, there was something about that first Lightning team -- something Terry Crisp wants to see emulated as the franchise embarks on its sixth season.

"I've thought a lot about this. A lot," said Crisp, coach of the Lightning then and now.

""I want my first-year attitude back. I want my first-year team's attitude back, where everybody came in here with one thing in mind."

Two, actually: "To make this hockey club," Crisp said, "and to make this hockey club successful."

The Lightning team that debuted with a 7-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 7, 1992, at Expo Hall on the Florida State Fairgrounds was a cast of castoffs, an expansion club that put hockey above all else.

Fast forward to 1997, and it becomes apparent how different things are.

Roman Hamrlik was a pup in '92, and no one dreamed of criticizing the franchise's 18-year-old No. 1 draft choice from the Czech Republic.

Chris Gratton was in juniors then, his three-year career with the Lightning and subsequent five-year, $16.5-million contract offer from Philadelphia a thing of the future.

And Dino Ciccarelli? The future Hall-of-Famer was beginning his first of four seasons in Detroit and not even imagining he would be in Tampa Bay causing a ruckus in the turbulent summer of '97.

"You'll recall, every game of the first year we were here, we were in every game," Crisp said. "We bit. We gouged. But you know what we did? We were together. You never heard one ounce of grumbling, one ounce of b-------, one ounce of griping. From anybody. You didn't.

"It was the most fun I've had here, in the Expo Hall, from the point of view of togetherness, closeness. ... We weren't here for anybody's glory. We weren't here for anybody's contract. We weren't here for anybody to use us as a platform to go wherever they wanted to go. We were all here as one thing: a first-year team. Make the Bolt proud. Make our fans interested, and proud of it, and make them want to come out for more hockey.

"That's what I want back this year. I want my players back, that they become part of this community, that when our PR department comes to them, they have everybody to chose from to send out like they had the first year (and) not (hear that) because you're making $2-million, or $1.3-(million) or $900,000, you can't be bothered doing it anymore. I want my first-year attitude back on this hockey club, and that's what I'm going to demand we have back. From Terry Crisp. From his coaching staff. From management, and from the team. That's what I want. That is my goal this year."

It is a valiant goal.

* * *

But is it realistic to turn back the clock, to expect '97-98 players to recapture '92-93 innocence?

"A lot has transpired in a very short time in the game of hockey," said retired defenseman Rob Ramage, a leader of that first team. "It's still a great game, and the guys playing it are great people, but the business part of it has become much bigger.

"You look at the game itself, and the economics of the game, and how dramatically they've changed since that time," continued Ramage, a stockbroker in St. Louis who moonlights as the radio analyst for the Blues. "I guess I was the highest-paid (Lightning) player at that time, and I was making $300,000 -- maybe ($325,000). The lowest-paid was maybe $150,000, so it wasn't a big separation, pay-wise, for all of us.

"Now you have Poops (Lightning goalie Daren Puppa) and Hamrlik (both making more than $2-million), and everything in between. You hope it isn't a factor, but it is, plain and simple."

Retired Lightning original Basil McRae, also a stockbroker in St. Louis, agrees.

"It's more than hockey (today). It's business," McRae said. "We were all making the same: peanuts. I don't think there were the money issues."

Crisp wants today's Lightning players to put economic reality aside and play for the same reasons they did as kids in Canada ... and Russia ... and Sweden ... and Massachusetts ... and the Czech Republic.

He wants them to care about winning, not banking. He wants them to play as if they have something to prove.

"I've got to be honest: I've gone through a little bit of in-and-outs, and what-not, as a coach," said Crisp, who despite seemingly being close to having the plug pulled on him is the longest-tenured NHL coach. "And maybe like the players ... as a coach you lose focus on what is really important versus all the extraneous BS that's out there and swirls around you -- and around "Crispy and management' and "Crispy and player' and this and that, and all that crap.

"That wasn't here the first year. That was nowhere to be seen. You know why? EVERYBODY was on the same page."

Perhaps because everybody was in the same boat.

* * *

"We were there because our teams didn't want us," Ramage said of a Lightning team built around players left unprotected in the expansion draft. "For many of us it was a chance to prove that there was still some gas left in the tank, and for the younger guys a chance to kick start a career.

"We were very determined and, I found, a very proud group. ... We had to work for anything we ever attained -- up to that point and including that point. There was a feeling we didn't want to be embarrassed."

Echoed McRae: "I think we all sat in that little locker room and said, "We're all here for the same reason.' We didn't fit. That was facing reality in the eye, and instead of dropping our heads, a lot of us looked at it as a second chance.

"I guess the best way to describe it: Guys played with desperation and urgency, and I think it showed. ... I think we realized the only way we were going to win was with a lot of hard work, grit and determination."

That is how the first team, which finished 23-54-7, played. It may not have been very good, but it cared.

"(Lightning general manager) Phil (Esposito) says he drafted character," Ramage said. "Well, he drafted a bunch of characters. You know, it was hard work, but we had a heck of a lot of fun through it all."

"The Fairgrounds had atmosphere, and it was kind of our barn," McRae said. "Can that be replaced in the new building? Hopefully."

Tampa Bay's first season at the Ice Palace fizzled. The Lightning did not make the playoffs. Hamrlik was criticized. Gratton eventually bolted. And Ciccarelli was unhappy.

"That first year we did have a great attitude," said Rob Zamuner, one of four originals who still plays for Tampa Bay, along with Hamrlik, Mikael Andersson and Brian Bradley. "We had some real character guys, like Rob Ramage and Basil McRae, and they rubbed off on all the other guys.

"A lot of things have happened in the course of the five years I've been here," Zamuner added. "But I have to believe we have a new attitude this season, and it's one of optimism. ... I don't know if you can sense it, but things are definitely different."

* * *

Crisp is optimistic this year's team will win more than it loses and rediscover a pride lost along the way.

"If you remember the first year, people didn't know shinola about hockey," Crisp said. "But you know what they did know? Hard work, and effort. You couldn't fool them on that. You could fool them on some of the rules ... and you could fool them on the vernacular, but you didn't fool them on when it comes to pulling on your jersey and (working) hard.

"And when you lost 3-2 (but) in the last three minutes you were pounding on the gate but couldn't get it done, but you were there, they could understand that and go away happy and say, "Boy, I can't wait to get back to Expo Hall. Because those guys work. Did you see them hit? Did you see them gouge?' Then when you win one 3-2, it was like, "Whoa.' That's what I want, and anybody who is not willing to do it is gonna have a long season with me."

Sounds reasonable to Ramage.

"Everyone needs a theme, and that's not a bad one at all," he said. "And Crispy has enough fire and brimstone in him to get their attention."

Sounds reasonable to McRae, too.

"It is a huge business today," he said. "But management has to draw a line and say, "This is the business side, and this is the hockey side.' The people on the hockey side have to know that when you drag the business part of hockey into the locker room, that is when you find yourself playing as individuals and not playing with the desperation and pride that team in '92 played with."