Game Great - Extras Not

At least the Tampa Bay Lightning had NHL jerseys on, even if many of the players in them may not skate in the show this year.

The caliber of hockey displayed on the Brandt Centre ice last night was nothing short of very good, too bad the same couldn't be said for the ice itself.

Preseason is a time for teams to evaluate what they have. Even the Pats failed to ice any of their stars in their Blue and White game in Lumsden, leaving many fans there to watch a lot of kids that will be in the SJHL this year.

I don't blame Tampa Bay for fielding a squad that they wanted to look at, but I do fault GM Brian Lawton and Head Coach Rick Tocchet for saying that their stars would be on the ice when the game was announced.

The NHL is a massive business and production. I doubt very much that the Tampa brass are concerned whether or not fans in the QC get to see their favorite player or not. To the Lightning, they need to use this game to see what they have. And as a horrible unit last year, they need all the looks they can get and I'm quite sure Vinny or Marty or Victor aren't the guys they need to evaluate.

Speaking of evaluations, here's one for the operation that hosted the event. Poor. This was supposed to be Regina's big league game, but it was quite evident that its was run by a small town group that has never been to a Pats game little lone an NHL matchup.

First off, thanks for the pre-game meal and media room. Oh, that's right, it didn't exist. Seriously. It was also nice of them to not really enforce any of their 'strict' security rules that they had in place. It looked like a rock concert downstairs after the game with all kinds of people milling around.

The press area was so stellar that minutes before the game, print reporters were trying to switch seats with TV reporters so that they could access the one extension cord provided for their laptops.

How about the 3 TV timeouts a period, or the 2 intermissions. Where was the entertainment that often accompanies such a game. Anything would have been better than the privilege of listening to Poker Face. Good song, but come on. No T-shirts shot into the crowd? Not even some kind of goofy blind folded game at the break? Nope, Nothing, Nada. And by the way, thanks for paying 'Big League' prices for a 'Little League' production. All that people seem to want to talk about is who wasn't on the ice, but I say maybe more chat should be directed at what wasn't even at the game.

It's a good thing that the Game Ops staff had a few of the fine Pats people backing them up and bailing them out. Otherwise this would have been nothing less than a complete disaster from where I sat, which was exactly in front of the drunk guy who was standing on the concourse asking me who was playing!

After all that ranting, it must be noted. The quality of the game was excellent as Kovalev, Fisher and Spezza dazzled with their speed and skill. The level the game was played at won't be rivaled until the WJHC gets here. Hopefully the level of the Operations is raised by that time.