Lecavalier said he was surprised he recovered fast enough to play. He said he is "not 100 percent" and still has discomfort but "even the first night to (Monday night) was a huge improvement."
At Tuesday's skate, Lecavalier wore a tinted visor to shield his eye from the light. "But when I stepped on the ice, I felt fine," he said, and had a clear visor fitted.
Lecavalier tried to sneak into a drill. Boucher said no until the new visor was attached.
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Jones skated with the team for the first time since his March 7 injury. Boucher said he might be ready for the playoffs. Jones said playing before that "would be difficult to do."
casual observer here. how important is it that Randy Jones suits up in Round one?
all i remember from last year was that Kings fans *****ed about him quite a bit
He was our #1 defenseman on the PK and playing very solid hockey right before his injury (he was even leading the team in total ice time a couple of games). Not sure how much of a factor, if any, he'll be in the 1st round though, coming back after such long time etc.
Jones isn't that important. If he breaks up a potential Ohlund/Kubina pairing, that's fine. Otherwise, I don't give a crap if he doesn't play another game. I could also handle him over the atrocity that is MAB, but Jones isn't too important to our success, imo. His PK "abilities" are hugely overrated, as is his defensive play. Was he better than advertised? Absolutely. That said, I will never understand the praise he's gotten here.
Jones isn't that important. If he breaks up a potential Ohlund/Kubina pairing, that's fine. Otherwise, I don't give a crap if he doesn't play another game. I could also handle him over the atrocity that is MAB, but Jones isn't too important to our success, imo. His PK "abilities" are hugely overrated, as is his defensive play. Was he better than advertised? Absolutely. That said, I will never understand the praise he's gotten here.
P.S. Please save the "you hate Jones" crap.
How about I don't save the "statistics say you're wrong about your opinion of him"? Like it or not he has been very good this year.
How about I don't save the "statistics say you're wrong about your opinion of him"? Like it or not he has been very good this year.
This is like arguing religion or politics. Very good compared to a pilon maybe, but this guy is the epitome average at best. He's mediocre to crappy most of the time, and I can't believe some people don't see that. He's better than his rep, because his rep made him seem like he didn't deserve to be in the ECHL. I don't dislike Jones one bit, but it's downright laughable to say he's very good. Even though Boucher has a bit of an infatuation with Jones, I doubt he's back next year even if it comes dirt cheap. It's a shame too, one would think we'd have already extended someone who's such a rock like Jones
Whatever though. You know your stuff and I think you're a great poster, but it's pretty clear this won't go anywhere. I will say I have no problem with Jones playing over MAB and Ohlund if it breaks up a pairing with Kubina.
This is like arguing religion or politics. Very good compared to a pilon maybe, but this guy is the epitome average at best. He's mediocre to crappy most of the time, and I can't believe some people don't see that. He's better than his rep, because his rep made him seem like he didn't deserve to be in the ECHL. I don't dislike Jones one bit, but it's downright laughable to say he's very good. Even though Boucher has a bit of an infatuation with Jones, I doubt he's back next year even if it comes dirt cheap. It's a shame too, one would think we'd have already extended someone who's such a rock like Jones
Whatever though. You know your stuff and I think you're a great poster, but it's pretty clear this won't go anywhere. I will say I have no problem with Jones playing over MAB and Ohlund if it breaks up a pairing with Kubina.
Listen, I think highly of you as well but I just give credit where its due. I saw a lot of poor decisions in Philly and LA with Randy and admittedly I was rather uncomfortable with the signing at the start of the year. I thought we were going to have that same guy here, but that hasn't been the case. Something has clicked for the guy, hes mobile and efficient here. He has his moments where he has a mental lapse but those have been few and far between. On many nights he has been our best defender. Great shot blocker. Hungry.
I'm not saying hes going to be a norris candidate or even a top pairing guy but if he keeps at this pace with our coaching staff he could be a fairly consistent number four. I've seen Ohlund make far worse decisions and have poor footspeed this season.
His shot block rates have been fantastic and has had big minutes (not to mention the fact that his minutes if you look closely at the stats and have access to it he had been eating the tougher minutes against teams top lines, only topped by Lundin). Hes been... good enough. MAB is awful.
Listen, I think highly of you as well but I just give credit where its due. I saw a lot of poor decisions in Philly and LA with Randy and admittedly I was rather uncomfortable with the signing at the start of the year. I thought we were going to have that same guy here, but that hasn't been the case. Something has clicked for the guy, hes mobile and efficient here. He has his moments where he has a mental lapse but those have been few and far between. On many nights he has been our best defender. Great shot blocker. Hungry.
I'm not saying hes going to be a norris candidate or even a top pairing guy but if he keeps at this pace with our coaching staff he could be a fairly consistent number four. I've seen Ohlund make far worse decisions and have poor footspeed this season.
His shot block rates have been fantastic and has had big minutes (not to mention the fact that his minutes if you look closely at the stats and have access to it he had been eating the tougher minutes against teams top lines, only topped by Lundin). Hes been... good enough. MAB is awful.
I completely disagree with the bold statements, especially the "number four" and "best d-man on many nights". If he's a number four, that's telling me you think he's better than one of Lundin, Brewer, Clark and Hedman. Randy isn't even close to any of them.
Randy's attitude and undeniable work ethic make him a very likable guy to a coaching staff, and he is fortunate to be in a situation where the defense is quite poor and hugely lacks mobility. I wish him all the best in the playoffs, but I think we should just agree to disagree here.
I completely disagree with the bold statements, especially the "number four" and "best d-man on many nights". If he's a number four, that's telling me you think he's better than one of Lundin, Brewer, Clark and Hedman. Randy isn't even close to any of them.
Randy's attitude and undeniable work ethic make him a very likable guy to a coaching staff, and he is fortunate to be in a situation where the defense is quite poor and hugely lacks mobility. I wish him all the best in the playoffs, but I think we should just agree to disagree here.
I think we have a misunderstanding, i'm not saying hes better than Brewer or Lundin, Clark is questionable and Hedman is silly. I'm saying he could be a number four at this pace. I've been lucky enough to play with some of the metrics and he has been eating some of the hardest minutes every night pre-injury. He has also had some fantastic nights where he was our best defender, there was a span of about six games around the allstar break where he was our best defender. His positioning is much better than the last two years and hes trusted to control the breakout more, although at times his decision making flops.
We need more shot blocking from the blueline, i'd love to have him back.
I think we have a misunderstanding, i'm not saying hes better than Brewer or Lundin, Clark is questionable and Hedman is silly. I'm saying he could be a number four at this pace. I've been lucky enough to play with some of the metrics and he has been eating some of the hardest minutes every night pre-injury. He has also had some fantastic nights where he was our best defender, there was a span of about six games around the allstar break where he was our best defender. His positioning is much better than the last two years and hes trusted to control the breakout more, although at times his decision making flops.
We need more shot blocking from the blueline, i'd love to have him back.
I'm not sure what pace he's on to make him a number 4, and I won't even bother following up my points. We've both made ourselves quite clear.
At this point of the season, I think it should be unanimous that everyone even remotely associated with the Lightning should agree that they would rather have Jones out there every day of the week and twice on Sunday over MAB in the playoffs. Everything else can just be settled on as opinion, but this is one true fact.
Eh, alright I can't sway ya. I didn't want to budge until a few people showed me some things about his play where he broke out of his mould. There is a certain level of shock there for me too, still, but hey i'd still rather him than MAB.
Tampa Bay Lightning coach Guy Boucher on Tuesday said defenseman Randy Jones, out 16 games with a high ankle sprain, is available to play in Wednesday's Game 1 of the playoffs against the Penguins but is "more likely" a scratch.
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Most vulnerable seems to be Matt Smaby, who did not practice Tuesday because of a lower-body issue, and Marc-Andre Bergeron, who has just one point in his past 16 games and is minus-10.
Randy Jones has been okay for us, much better than his reputation around the league says. However you slice it though, okay is much much better than whatever the hell you call MAB play.
Randy has only had a few practices with the team since his injury. I'm sure, as long as they're winning, Boucher won't want to take a chance until he's more game ready. It takes a while to get back into form coming off an injury and Boucher would be taking a chance unless some of our defence don't play well. I personally would like to see Jones on the ice though. Jones has playoff experience with the Flyers and played extremely well in them.
war·ri·or (ˈwɒrɪə) [wawr-ee-er, wawr-yer, wor-ee-er, wor-yer]
–noun
1.
a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier.
2.
a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics.
3.
Lightning D Brett Clark took a puck to the face during the third period of Friday's game, but he was showing no ill effects from it at practice Sunday.
"I was lucky there because it got mostly my chest and my visor,'' Clark said. "I saw it coming, so I kind of buried my head in my chest a little bit and so it wasn't too bad, so I'm good to go.''
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D Randy Jones (ankle) is good to go as well, but Boucher said he plans to use the same lineup tonight that he used in Game 2, so it will probably be Game 4 at least before Jones returns to action.
