Sports: To: Rick Dudley Subject: What the team needs

To: Rick Dudley Subject: What the team needs

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

TAMPA -- If you're a Lightning fan, you like what Tampa Bay did this season once it realized a young team with a young goaltender was not exactly the right mix.

General manager Rick Dudley added veteran defensemen Adrian Aucoin and Stan Neckar, and in what so far seems a great move, All-Star goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.

You like those moves, but they are not enough.

Dudley must keep dealing, whether it is for free agents or trades, and owner Palace Sports & Entertainment must give him reasonable financial freedom to bring in the next pieces of the puzzle.

What the Lightning needs is no secret: two players (expect Tampa Bay to get one) who can score on the wing, and a gritty forward who can win faceoffs. You are always on the lookout for defensemen, but Dudley seems happy with what he has.

"We're going to be looking," Dudley said Monday. "We're so much closer to being a complete hockey team that we have a much simpler task."

Dudley likely will add through trades because the potential unrestricted free agent pickins' are slim.

If he does go the free agent route, two potential unrestricteds he should look at are Detroit's Martin Lapointe and Ottawa's Mike Sillinger.

Lapointe fits Dudley's mold so perfectly he must have been consulted when it was constructed. He is 27, 5 feet 11, 208 pounds, can score (25 goals, 30 assists) and is feisty (127 penalty minutes).

Sillinger, a former Lightning forward, is 29, can win faceoffs and can score. He has 16 goals this season with the Panthers and the Senators, and had 23 last season with the Lightning and Florida.

Lapointe is problematic. Because of his age and upside, he is expected to command much more than his current $1.25-million salary. He also is expected to stick with the Red Wings or go to the Rangers.

The Lightning could take a crack at him anyway. But because making the post-season is not guaranteed, the team may have to pay even more to persuade any high-profile player to come aboard.

The Islanders, who in that sense are in the same boat, are expected to offer $7-million a season to Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick. That may not seem out of line considering the low base payroll with which Tampa Bay is starting. But the Lightning rightly must consider future expenses because Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Fredrik Modin one day will cost a bundle.

Sillinger, at about $2-million, is more reasonable.

And where does Nikita Alexeev fit in? The 19-year-old is still in juniors and unsigned. But Tampa Bay's first-round draft pick last year (No. 8 overall) is 6-5, 215, can skate and has 31 goals and 41 assists in 64 games and is plus-37 with the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League. "Great, big players who can score 30 goals, they don't just fall from the sky," Dudley said. "That's why Nikita is so important. ... Players come out of junior much more prepared."

DUMB AND DUMBER: The Lightning killed itself Sunday against the Sabres with bad penalties that sapped whatever momentum it had after a fine first period.

Cory Sarich and Richards were called for hooking, John Emmons for holding the stick, Modin for tripping and Nils Ekman for high sticking.

Ekman's penalty was especially bad because it was behind the play. The others were symptomatic of lazy plays. The Sabres got two power-play goals.

"Stupid penalties and you don't kill the stupid penalties off," coach John Tortorella said. "It will be addressed, and it can't happen next year. Our discipline has to change. Hooking and holding has to get out of our repertoire."

KHABIBULIN II: If the goaltender plays again this season, it may be Thursday against the Rangers in the Lightning's final home game. Khabibulin's first game, Friday against the Panthers, was the second of back-to-back games, and Tortorella said Kevin Weekes will start Wednesday at Pittsburgh.