As bad as the Lightning looked against the Thrashers, I'm willing to give them a pass because of the ridiculous scheduling coupled with the rules of the CBA that forced Tampa Bay to play a game after literally not skating for almost three days.

Consider, the team was, by rule, not allowed to skate Sunday or Monday. It wasn't even allowed to fly to Atlanta on Monday because it was Christmas. So the team flew Tuesday morning, checked into a hotel (has no morning skate) and then played a game against a team resting at home and which skated that morning. Unfair.

Anyway, let me talk a sec about Eric Perrin. Talk about a guy with his feet on the ground. Since he is making $450,000 this season, about double what he made last season in Switzerland and more than he ever has as a pro, I asked him if his kids (Alyssa, 5; stepson Austin, 11; and Alexandre, 6 weeks) would reap the Christmas rewards. Perrin laughed and said, "You know, you can't spoil them too much.''

No surprise then he said this about the success he is having as he is (for the most part) playing on a line with Vinny 4 and Marty (his childhood friend). "Sure it's a good time because I'm here in the NHL doing what I want to do, doing what I've worked hard to do in my career. But I also have to stay focused and do what got me here and what it takes to stay here. It's not like I'm at home and saying, 'Yay, yay, yay.' I'm still a ball of nerves. I've got to stay focused on every shift. You can't take one shift off and that's what I've been doing, going shift by shift, limiting my mistakes and trying to be creative out there.''

Nice.