Kessel back; Lecavalier demoted…

Phil Kessel has been cleared to play his first game in a Maple Leaf uniform. And it looks like he couldn’t have planned a better time in terms of the opponent. The Lightning, one of the softest teams in the league to play against despite coach Rick Tocchet’s constant imploring that he needs more team “grit”, more “ugly” play from his stars. Apparently, the message has fallen on deaf ears.

Hence his biggest star, Vincent Lecavalier, was demoted yesterday to the 4th line;  shaking things up so much that the team proceeded to go out and get thrashed by the Flyers 6-2.  This prompted a “players only” team meeting after the game with more of the same rhetoric Lightning fans have been hearing the last 3 years.  “We can all play better,” sophmore Steven Stamkos said. “we’ve got to play as a team.”  The kid learns fast, as this has been the mantra during his first 15 months with the organization.

There is also the obvious question, who called this players only team meeting?  Was it the Captain, Lecavalier, who took his demotion in stride yesterday, posting a minus 3 on the evening? 

Coach Tocchet singled out two of Vinny’s problems, “defensive responsibilities and finishing checks,” continuing, “we’ve got to clean him up.”   Clean up your Captain?

And this is the guy who wears the “C” and may have called the meeting? 

Should be an interesting one at the ACC tonight as both teams fan bases may need to “hide the shoe laces” if their losing ways continue.

Posted by Jon Gabrielle on Nov 3 2009. Filed under Bits & Pieces. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.