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Lightning is Tampa Bay's last hope for an elite franchise

 
Lightning center Steven Stamkos skates out onto the Amalie Arena ice after Monday night's game as he's intruduced as the No. 1 star of the game. [DIRK SHADD   |   Times]
Lightning center Steven Stamkos skates out onto the Amalie Arena ice after Monday night's game as he's intruduced as the No. 1 star of the game. [DIRK SHADD | Times]
Published Oct. 14, 2014

TAMPA — Now that is how you do it.

Big early season game against the previously undefeated team that knocked you out of the playoffs last season and you run them out of the building.

Lightning 7, Canadiens 1.

Your superstar scorer (Steven Stamkos) posts a hat trick and 12 (!) shots on goal. Your star goalie (Ben Bishop) makes a bunch of big-time saves. Your workhorse defenseman (Victor Hedman) scores for the third time in three games and adds three assists. Everyone showed up.

"I thought we earned that win," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I thought we played pretty well."

Pretty well? More like total domination.

That's an effort you can be proud of. That's a team you want to see. That's who you want representing Tampa Bay.

Hey Lightning, you're it. You're the last hope around here.

Look around the Tampa Bay sports scene, would ya? What do we have?

The Bucs are a mess. Did you see that junk on Sunday? It was 35-nothing before the coals on the tailgate grill were put out. Fans had just enough time to find their seats before deciding they no longer wanted to stay in those seats.

The mad dash for the exits began midway through the second quarter. The traffic jams started at halftime. By game's end, you could have played a touch football game in the middle of Dale Mabry.

Then there's the Rays. Good owner. Good front office. Traditionally, they are a good team. Not this season. The Rays had a losing record for the first time since they were the Devil Rays in 2007. They couldn't hit for power. They couldn't hit with runners in scoring position. They couldn't hit, period.

In the games where they did muster a few runs, the bullpen became a revolving door of trouble. One reliever would toss up softballs while the next would toss gasoline on the fire. The result was a next-to-last-place finish in the American League East.

Now there are rumors that other teams might be interested in the team's architect, Andrew Friedman, and I'm still waiting for the day when underpaid manager Joe Maddon grows tired of managing an underpaid club.

Shall we continue?

USF football hasn't been around long enough to have glory days. The Bulls had a glory week. Remember when they were ranked second in the country for about 45 minutes? Now coach Willie Taggart is playing a game of Jenga after previous coach Skip Holtz knocked down all the blocks. Willie T is driving the bus in circles around Tampa Bay, trying to convince local kids to play here.

Drive up the road to Gainesville. The Gators are on their way to what looks like could be a six-win season. Now comes word that head coach Will Muschamp, who can't sit down at work because his seat is so hot, will play two quarterbacks this weekend. That means the offense should be bad at least half the time, or twice as much.

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Drive a little farther up the road to Tallahassee, where it seems the Seminoles' Heisman Trophy quarterback, Jameis Winston, can't get through lunch without doing something stupid and there being a federal case — literally, a federal case — being made about it.

Actually, the whole state of Florida seems to be a lost cause for sports. The Jaguars and Magic are starting over. The Dolphins and Marlins down in Miami are so-so, the Panthers draw about six people a game. The Heat just lost LeBron James. The University of Miami football program has slipped off the map.

That leaves the Lightning.

And, at this point, the standards are pretty low.

Just don't be like the Bucs. Just don't fall behind, say, 9-0 in any of your games. Don't be like the Rays. Score more than once or twice a game.

Just keep doing what you're doing, which is turning in performances like Monday night's.

The Canadiens swept the Lightning in last year's playoffs when the Lightning was without Bishop. And so Monday night's game was something of a litmus test and statement victory for Tampa Bay.

Of course the third game of the season in mid October in no way can make up for last spring's playoff sweep, but you know the Lightning wanted to prove, at least to itself, that it is an elite team in this league. This is the kind of game that can set the tone for the early season.

"It definitely can, especially when you do it against a team like that," Stamkos said.

They buried the Habs, a good (albeit tired) team and a division rival that the Lightning could face again in the playoffs next spring.

How about that? We're already talking about the playoffs with a Tampa Bay team.

That's certainly more than you can say about any of the other teams around here.