Lightning Is Still Loaded

Much has changed in the NHL since June 7, 2004, when the Tampa Bay Lightning skated off with the Stanley Cup after a seven-game victory over the Calgary Flames.

Owners locked players out for 310 days, leading to a new collective bargaining agreement, a salary cap, and rules designed to promote offense. Those changes launched a flurry of player movement, including goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin’s decision to leave the cap-strapped Lightning for the Chicago Blackhawks before he could collect his championship ring.

“I think it’s a big loss for the team,” said Martin St. Louis, the NHL’s scoring leader and most valuable player in 2003-04, “but with the new CBA we’re one of the teams that was struggling to try to keep everybody, and obviously Khabi was a guy they let go to keep everybody else.”

St. Louis’ return and Vincent Lecavalier’s new, long-term deal ensures the Lightning will contend again. But St. Louis isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Obviously, we are the defending Stanley Cup champion, but how far that’s going to take you is going to reflect on your play on the ice,” St. Louis said. “So it’s nice to have that with us, but at the same time, we have to follow up with hard work and good performance on the ice.”

The performance of 18-year-old rookie Sidney Crosby for Pittsburgh could scramble the East playoff rankings.

Philadelphia, which signed free-agent center Peter Forsberg, and Ottawa, which acquired Dany Heatley from Atlanta for Marian Hossa, join Tampa Bay in a cluster of elite teams. Nothing is certain after that, except that the New York Rangers won’t reach the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season and that Crosby, a compact 5-foot-11, 190-pound center with great instincts and vision, gives the Penguins playoff dreams.

“All the veterans are going to have to really make sure we protect him and make sure that he understands that he doesn’t have to be the guy right away,” Mark Recchi said.