It's Monday and I've had a few links put together since there was no game tonight.

This week we're going on a roadtrip: Montreal to face the Habs tomorrow, in Toronto for the Leafs on Thursday and in Washington for the Caps (again) on Friday.

• I got sent a link from Paul who runs a website called Stadium Journey. One of their writers was in Tampa for Saturday night's game against the Thrashers and reviewed the St. Pete Times Forum. I've personally never been to watching a Lightning home game at the Forum, only seen them when they've been on the road, so it was actually kinda interesting to read what you home fans get at your rink. They say you fans are "as hockey-knowledgeable as any in the North" and the Forum ranks way higher than BankAtlantic Center where the Panther's play according to their reviews
• Interesting read from Justin Bourne on how the call-up of AHL players affect their bank roll of NHL teams. Most interesting part of it is how much the players get for their meal allowances
• Steven Stamkos was named NHL's Seconds Star of the Week after getting his 40th goal of the season and extending his point streak to 16 games. With 18 more games, how many goals do you think he's going to finish off the end of the season at?
• The Puck Daddy asks "Can Steve Downie really be part of the NHL's best line?", as hard as it is to believe it, he is. I'll give him props for being hardworking and reining in his douchebaggery this season, but he still has his moments where he loses his head
• Lecavalier talks about the hit from Cooke on Savard to Cristodero, yes that's the same Cooke that ended Lecavalier's season with a hit that dislocated his shoulder

Actually I'm a week late with this post, but since this is what happened last Sunday on this blog's actual birthday:

I think it's understandable that I didn't want to write a post about my blog's first anniversary when there was clearly bigger things happening, like Canada winning GOLD!

Once year ago, after many weeks of thought, I decided to begin blogging. After overwhelming and perhaps annoying my friends and family with my talk about hockey, I decided to channel my desire to talk about the sport through a blog. To read about the reason I started blogging you can read it at a contribution I did for CLS' Odd Woman Rush. Instead of being logical and starting just one blog, I started two: Vancity Canuck and The Hockey Bay. I figured that it would be fun and that if I hated it, I could just quit after a few posts. I didn't really care or have any expectations that anyone would actually read what I wrote.

After twelve months of writing and 487 posts later (between the two blogs), a lot of things have changed. The most obvious is that I have moved from my old home on blogspot over to join the Bloguin family here, moving both of my blogs over to the network. The Hockey Bay retained the same name, whereas Vancity Canuck got renamed Benched Whale.

One of the great things about being a hockey blogger is getting to know other bloggers through which, I have also been able to write at such fab sites like Cycle Like the Sedins, Raw Charge and most recently as a writer for the Olympic Hockey Blog.

And the most important, is that I got readers! Yes readers, and sometimes even commenters, which proves that it's more than just my brother (and Sharks fan) reading what I'm writing. I'm sure my writing quality has gotten better over time, which you, dear reader, I'm sure is grateful for.

That's right, Steven Stamkos scored two goals tonight to get his 40th goal of the season. He also has 36 assists, giving him 76 points in the season so far with still 18 games to go in the season. Niittymaki scored yet again another win over the Atlanta Thrashers which makes him 17-0-0 over the Thrashers, and most importantly, the Lightning walked away with two points. Stamkos' first goal broke a 1-1 tie in the first period on the powerplay, and Paul need-another-freakin-vowel Szczechura put in his 3rd of year to make it 3-1.

The second period, Colby Armstrong tried to mount a comeback with a goal, but on a werid slashing penatly from Afinogenov (awarded by Kerry Fraser of course), Purcell was awarded a penalty shot which he got past Hedberg for his first as a Lightning.

The third period, which included Downie being an asshat and St. Louis getting injured after the jump

Two losses in a row since coming back from the Olympic break, 5 game losing streak. Huge game tonight. HUGE

Enemy Blog: Check out Thrashing the Blues

Line-up Notes:

• Niitymaki to start
• David Hale is out with a lower body injury on injured reserve
  
• Matt Walker has a lower body injury, day-to-day
  

The Lightning are holding a special Lightning "Unplugged" event on Friday, March 5th from 5-7pm. Instead of having two players of the Lightning, today the Lightning will feature new owner Jeff Vinik and Steven Stamkos in a Q&A session that is open to the public. It will take place on a stage set up in the lower bowl of the St. Pete Times forum.

For full details visit the Lightning website here for the info. There's also an open skate for season ticket holders and a locker room tour.

Holy hell. Lots of action, but disappointing outcome. After tying up the game in the third period, the Lightning could only hold on for 41 seconds before former Carolina Hurricane Scott Walker scored his second goal to take the lead

Here are your game thoughts:

• We didn't get scored on by the likes of Ovechkin, Backstrom or Semin tonight
• We were scored on by Mike Knuble and Scott freakin Walker with a pair each
  
• Lecavalier did get two goals tonight, this could be a good thing
• Teddy Purcell got his first point tonight on the assist to Lecavalier's goal
• There was no one from the Lightning that was had a plus stat tonight
• Stamkos did extend his point streak another game, his 38th goal of the year
  
• As a positive the Lightning did come back from a two goal deficit to tie up the game, but then couldn't hold on or make something out of their effort

The Caps were one of the most active teams at the trade deadline yesterday. They added Scott Walker, Joe Corvo and Eric Belanger to their roster, and took back Milan Jurcina from CBJ. They rid themselves of Brian Pothier and Oskar Osala and a bunch of picks during the exchanges. Jurcina, who this year alone I have watched live 5 times in Vancouver (1 Caps game, 1 CBJ game, 3 Slovak games) has a really weird skating stride, like his top half of his gangly body can't seem to figure out how to balance on his legs, anyways he's injured for the next 4-6 weeks with a sports hernia, so his acquisition is more for the playoffs.

Enemy Blog: Check out Rock the Red for your Washington perspective

After Tuesday night's abysmal loss to the Flyers, I can only hope that the Lightning have brought at least some game to tonight's meeting. In a 7-2 loss, they let in 5 goals in the third period with three of them being powerplay goals. This is our fourth game against the Caps (42-13-8), and after tonight we'll play them again in 8 days and then again another 8 days after that game. The Lightning have lost 4 games in a row and really need to start getting some wins, especially against SE Division opponents. The Caps won their last game against Buffalo 3-1.

Last game the boys took an assortment of hooking, slashing and fighting penalties. Tonight the Lightning really need to focus on not taking dumb penalties. Stamkos kept his point streak alive with 2 goals against the Flyers, he now has 12 goals and 13 assists in his last 14 games.

New acquisition Teddy Purcell will play tonight wearing #16. Don't get too excited about him because it sounds like he's terrible, Chris from The Royal Half called him The Royal Half Whipping Boy™

Line-up Notes:

• Mike Smith is getting the start
• David Hale is out with a broken leg
  

Even though the Lightning said they would be buyers at this year's NHL trade deadline, not much really happened

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NHLI via Getty Image

The Lightning traded 33 year old center, Jeff Halpern to the Los Angeles Kings for RW Teddy Purcell and a 2010 3rd round draft pick. Teddy Purcell is younger at 24, but has severly underachieved in LA this year having scored only 3 goals and has been a healthy scratch 18 of the last 22 games this season. It will be interesting to see if he can find his game with the Lightning or like many Lightning players, get lost in the AHL. In the 2007-08 season he was the AHL's rookie of the year, scoring 25 goals and getting 83 points in 67 games. He also seems to make a lot of stupid looking faces when pictures are taken of him, and not stupid in a good way.

Purcell makes significantly less money than Halpern did at $600,000 and is an RFA after this season.

As the title says, even bigger news than Halpern getting traded (which I will get to in the next post), is that the NHL's Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of the Lightning to Jeffrey Vinik.

His welcome letter to the fans:

Dear Lightning Fans,

As the new owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, I would like to express my appreciation to the entire community for welcoming me as caretaker of your hockey team and the St. Pete Times Forum. I pledge to you that every one of us at the Lightning will work our hardest to create a world-class organization, both on and off the ice. My goal is to return to the days when the entire Tampa Bay area proudly cheered together for its hockey team.

I know that the Lightning, under our ownership, will be judged on its actions, not just on its words. Accordingly, our organization will do its utmost to build a winning team on the ice, make your fan experience even more exciting at the St. Pete Times Forum and increase the presence of the Lightning and The Lightning Foundation across the Tampa Bay community.

I look forward to meeting and personally thanking each of you for your continued support. I know that together we can bring back the winning spirit to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Thank f-cking god. Now as I've said previously when we were just waiting on the BOG's approval, this is a step in the right direction for the Lightning. He won't be able to fix all the problems (and there is many) with the team right away, but if he is able to hire the right people to run the team, our team should be in good hands. Time will tell if this happens, but today I have more confidence in the longevity of the team in Tampa than I had yesterday.

(h/t to James O'Brien at ProHockeyTalk)

Heyyyyyy I'm back! After 2 weeks of no NHL hockey, we getting back to the playoff push in March. We'll try to pick up where we left off, oh wait we lost 3 in a row didn't we? Well maybe we won't pick up where we left off, and intead just try to improve going into the home stretch.

Enemy Blog: Check out Flyers Goal Scored By

We are currently sitting 1 point out of a playoff spot with 64 points. Ryan Malone returns from Team USA to face the Philadelphia Flyers in the last game in the season against them. I may have begun a hockey crush on Mike Richards while he played for Team Canada, though I couldn't suspend my hate for Chris Pronger. In the past few weeks, the Lightning have gone through ownership changes and coaching switches (easy there, just assistant Wes Walz) as we head into the last few hours before the trade deadline.

Going in to the Olympic break Jeff Carter was on a four game goal scoring streak, with 5 in his last four games. He made the trip out to Vancouver, but was told to go back home after Ryan Getzlaf proved he was ok to play (and thank god he was). Stamkos on the other hand has had 10 goals and 13 assists in his last 13 games.

Line-up Notes:

• Niitymaki to start
• Walker is out
• Both Matt Smaby and Mark Parrish are in
• Zenon Konopka is day-to-day
• David Hale is out with a lower body injury