FanHouse MarcDenis

When the Tampa Bay Lightning faceoff against the New Jersey Devils in Game One of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup tomorrow night, they'll do so without the goalie that started (and won) for them on Opening Night way back in October. Marc Denis won't dress tomorrow night, and not because he's injured or suspended, but because Coach John Tortorella is making Denis a healthy scratch in favor of Karri Ramo, he of the 70 career minutes played in the NHL.

Now, Johan Holmqvist has backed into won the starting goalie job in Tampa, despite a 2.85 goals against average and an .893 save percentage, so Ramo likely won't see any action. But the benching is worth noting because Denis was the player the Tampa brain-trust brought in to be the team's number one goalie this year. In fact, Bolts GM Jay Feaster traded away a pretty good winger in Fredrik Modin, as well as goaltender Fredrik Norrena last June to acquire Denis from Columbus.

The deal has, to put it mildly, been a disaster. A quick look at the goaltenders involved:

• Marc Denis -- 17-18-2, 3.19 GAA, .883 SV%
• Fredrik Norrena -- 24-23-3. 2.78 GAA, .904 SV%

As if dealing a guy who ended up with a winning record and very respectable numbers for the seventh-worst team in the League isn't bad enough, Modin wound up with 22 goals for the Blue Jackets while his former center in Tampa, Brad Richards, never found a winger with whom he was comfortable and ended up with his lowest point total since 2001-02 (his second year in the League) and a woeful minus-19 rating, transforming the Lightning into basically a one-line team.

But I'm sure Denis won't be in civies for too long for Tampa. After all, he's signed through 2008-09.

In a late entry for Understatement of the Year, Tampa Bay Lightning captain Tim Taylor said of last night's 7-2 loss at home to the Florida Panthers, "Obviously we overlooked this game." Um, yeah.

The deuce that Tampa was able to tally after the Panthers had put a touchdown on the board (and kicked the extra point) was purely and ineffectively cosmetic, and now instead of tonight's game against the Atlanta Thrashers deciding the Southeast Division Champion, it may well decide who the Bolts will face in the first round of the playoffs -- the Thrashers or the New Jersey Devils.

In his postgame presser, Lightning coach John Tortorella said of his team's melt-down, "Write what you want to write. I know what this team is. And I know what this team is going to do when the playoffs start."

With the coach's permission, then, here's what I want to write -- Tampa's number one goalie, Johan Holmqvist, has a 2.88 goals against average and a .891 save percentage, which puts him 30th out of 44 goalies in the NHL in the former category and 38th out of 44 in the latter. Oh, and he's never played a minute of postseason hockey in the NHL. Neither, for that matter, has Holmqvist's backup, Marc Denis (who is 38th in the League in GAA and dead last in save percentage).

But here's the kicker -- this season against thir possible first-round opponents, Tampa is 5-2-0 against Atlanta (outscoring the Thrashers 25-14 in those games) and 3-1 against New Jersey (outscoring the Devils 10-6). Maybe that's why Tortorella isn't too worried. Or maybe he knows that last year's Conn Smythe winner as playoff MVP, Cam Ward of the Cup Champ Hurricanes, had the League's 49th best GAA and 45th best save percentage heading into his first playoffs last year. Either way, it seems Coach Torts might know something the rest of us don't ... but we'll all know soon enough.

The NHL's best and brightest stars get lots of press, adoration, and their share of the league's awards.

How about the worst of the lot? How about a little bit of attention for these poor folks? I'm sure, after having such poor seasons, that these d00d's need a little love, too.

So, here are the 'best' of the worst:

+/-

R.J. Umberger -30
Joffrey Lupul -28
Patrice Bergeron -27
Kyle Calder -27

Shot %

Stephane Robidas 0% (104 shots)
Niklas Kronvall 0% (104 shots)
Martin Skoula 0% (90 shots)
Steve Montador 1.1% (87 shots)

Missed Shots
Simon Gagne 174
Alexander Ovechkin 145
Ilya Kovalchuk 135
Olli Jokinen 134
Brian Rolston 134

Save Percentage
Marc Denis 88.3%
Mikael Tellqvist 88.5%
Alexander Auld 88.8%
Curtis Sanford 88.9%
Brent Johnson 88.9%