It is an interesting question given the hair-trigger benching. One game? Seems sudden, doesn't it? Perhaps coach Barry Melrose saw O'Brien play so badly he believed he had to sit him. On the other hand, he also went out of his way to defend him, saying he was taking too much heat from the media (see previous post). Seems a bit of a mixed message, which begs the question, Is O'Brien on the bench so he doesn't get hurt before a trade?

It is no secret the Lightning wants to upgrade its blue line. It recently inquired about Mathieu Schneider. Tampa Bay also wants to save some salary and O'Brien has a $950,000 cap hit. There also is evidence the Lightning is at least peripherally interested in Bryan Berard, who recently was cut by the Flyers but has the offensive instincts Tamp Bay covets.

Berard's agent Tom Laidlaw only would say his client would try to work within any team's salary structure.

With the Lightning coming back to North America after Sunday's game, it will be interesting to see if anything happens.