Lightning have plenty of ice dreams in Sunshine State

Up in Canada, where the back of the $5 bill shows kids playing hockey on a frozen pond, the thought of a team from Florida skating away with the Stanley Cup seemed, well, sacrilegious.

After all, when the Calgary Flames met the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2004 cup finals, the question wasn't whether the Flames would win, but whether they'd break a sweat.

In the end, it was Lord Stanley's Cup that was sweating, getting a tan after the Lightning won the National Hockey League's championship with a thrilling, seven-game series, including a two-overtime victory in Calgary in Game 6 and a 2-1 victory in Tampa in Game 7.

The Lightning, who play in state-of-the-art St. Pete Times Forum on Tampa's waterfront, are perennial playoff contenders, just a red-hot goalie away from advancing deep into the playoffs in any year.

And as they proved in 2004, all it takes is 16 wins. The Bolts are capable of putting together the best playoff ride in any sport.

So how did pro hockey end up here? Credit Hall of Famer Phil Esposito, who, during winter vacations in Florida, wondered why no one else thought of moving an NHL franchise to the Sunshine State to take advantage of year-round warm weather.

That thought eventually led to the Lightning, which began play during the 1992-93 season. Like most expansion franchises, the team suffered several losing years, broken only by a six-game loss in the playoffs to Philadelphia in 1996.

The franchise turned the corner when Jon Tortorella became the coach. Young players such as Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Vinny Lacavalier soon developed into stars, and the Lightning road them to a playoff berth in 2003.

Next came the magical 2003-04 season when the Lightning finished with the best record in the conference and rolled through the first two rounds of the playoffs. They needed seven games to get past Philadelphia in the conference finals.

They were one loss from elimination in the finals, but ruined Calgary's plans for a victory parade with two clutch victories that led to sport's most famous piece of hardware.

With Richards, St. Louis and Lacavalier still leading the way, and with youngsters Ryan Craig and Paul Ranger representing the new wave of talent, playoff hockey should once again return to the Forum this season.