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It's time of year for Lightning to get its shots

Tampa Bay has been outshot 16 times in 18 games. The remedy isn't complicated, and players know it.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 22, 2000

TAMPA -- Shoooooooot!

If you have attended a Lightning home game this season, no doubt you have heard that cry from the Ice Palace crowd.

Guess what? Tampa Bay is hearing the same thing from coach Steve Ludzik, though he doesn't hold the "oooooo" quite as long.

"We don't shoot the puck nearly enough," he said. "Anywhere they get it, they should shoot."

Tampa Bay has been outshot in 16 of 18 games and by a total of 605-436. Only once has it outshot the opposition, Oct. 15 at home in a 5-2 victory over the Thrashers.

Tampa Bay tied the Capitals with 26 shots in a 5-2 victory Nov. 5 at the Ice Palace.

Why doesn't the Lightning shoot more? It certainly has firepower with Fredrik Modin and his 104 mph slapshot, Vinny Lecavalier and his limitless talent, and Mike Johnson, who has scored on a healthy 20.7 percent of his 29 shots. A variety of factors are at work.

Johnson said the Lightning's dump-it-in style doesn't lend itself to as many shots as teams that "shoot from all over the place."

"You don't want to be outshot two-to-one, but if it's 32-25, you don't worry about it," he continued. "There's a bigger picture. I think Grade A chances would be a more telling stat."

Sometimes the team is outplayed, such as when the Devils outshot Tampa Bay 44-15 during a 7-2 rout.

Other times, the Lightning hampers its shot totals by trying to make the perfect pass. That is particularly true on the power play, during which, players and coaches will tell you, the best thing to do is get the puck on net and pounce on a rebound.

Forward Ryan Johnson theorized that the Lightning in that case may be too team-oriented. The team is close-knit, and he said teammates may be trying too hard to set up each other rather than to take an available shot.

"There is a lot of unselfishness here," Ryan Johnson said. "We talked about it in preseason that we have to be more selfish as individuals and shoot the puck. But if our worst problem is we're unselfish, that's not a lot to worry about."

Ludzik agreed.

"They're young," he said of the NHL's youngest team. "It'll come."

The coach would just like to put the process on the fast track.

He has spoken to Modin -- "You've got to start thinking "shoot all the time,' " Ludzik told him -- and the left wing has increased his shots per game average from 2.1 last season to 3.3 and has shot a team-high 59 times. Still, that is well below the four- or five-shot average the Lightning wants from the player who has scored some goals this season that goaltenders are still waiting to see.

"Maybe that's what we do," Modin said of passing first and asking questions later. "I had a couple of chances (Friday against the Maple Leafs) I probably should not have passed. I should have shot myself."

Especially, Lecavalier said, if two players on opposite sides of the ice have the same shooting angle.

Why risk a pass that can be intercepted, he said. Why leave anything to chance?

"Just shoot the puck," Lecavalier said. "Sometimes we try to do the fancy play. Just shoot it on net."

Intellectually, the Lightning knows what it must do. Now would be a good time to put it into practice.

Tonight's game against the Thrashers at the Ice Palace starts a stretch in which five of six games are against Southeast Division teams.

And after Monday night's 6-2 thumping by the Stars, it is important for Tampa Bay, 4-2-1 in its past seven games, to rebound against a team it should beat and nip any downward spiral in the bud.

"You're going to see a solid 60-minute effort from our team (tonight)," forward Brian Holzinger said.

"Shoot the puck," Ludzik said.

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