Granted he said this before the Lightning blew a three-goal lead in Saturday night's 4-3 overtime loss to the Hurricanes. But owner Len Barrie said he is not panicking and neither should fans.

"I would say be patient," he said. "We've got a good hockey team. There's nothing won in September. The only thing won in October is baseball, so that's what I'll say. we really believe in our group. We believe in our guys."

I'll have more of Barrie's comments in Sunday's paper, but just as a primer, he said the extenuating circumstance this season are valid: the 13 new players trying to find chemistry, the hectic and shortened training camp, the coaches also trying to find a comfort zone with each other and Vinny Lecavalier continuing to try and round into shape after April shoulder surgery.

Actually, Lecavalier's one-timer goal on Saturday speaks volumes about how far his shoulder has come.

Anyway, Barrie said he is not going to judge the team until the end of November.

"You have to remember, we were in 30th place, so we've made a lot of changes we really believe in, so we're going to be patient with them," he said. "There's no panic here, for sure. ... I said to (hockey ops chief) Brian Lawton, 'If this team isn't a good hockey team, then we should do something else.' I really believe it's a good hockey team."