(This month, Puck Daddy asked bloggers for every NHL team to tell us The Essentials for their franchises — everything from the defining player and trade, to the indispensable fan traditions. Here is Bolts blog Raw Charge, giving us The Essentials for the Tampa Bay Lightning.)

By Raw Charge



Player

No player, past or present, epitomizes the Tampa Bay Lightning better than Martin St. Louis.

Everyone said he couldn't make it, he was too small. Passed over in the NHL Draft, cut from more than one team, Marty exemplifies more than mere perseverance.

Like the franchise itself, St. Louis wasn't supposed to succeed. The thing is, though, Marty's a true warrior, a believer in hard work, in showing up, in making the most of what you have. He's a skill player with the heart of a grinder, a guy who has missed only seven games in nine years. He has stuck with the franchise in good times and bad. And it's practically kismet that it was this particular player, the guy who fought the odds and won, who scored the essential Lightning goal in franchise history (see below).

Just like the franchise and its fans, St. Louis is easy enough to overlook in the media driven world of hockey stardom. But just commit to watching for a little while and you'll see why Tampa Bay fans relate to Marty so powerfully. He's the heart and soul of this team. He is the engine that drives everything. He is the Lightning.

Season

It would be easy to anoint the 2003-04 season as the essential season in the history of the club. It was their first time they'd won the Stanley Cup, the game's ultimate prize. Clearly, that's the greatest season in the team's history. But how "essential" was it? The next season was lost to the lockout, which didn't do them any favors in maintaining momentum. That was just one factor preventing perennial contention...

Cut to 2010-11. After another ownership change, the Lightning saw themselves with two core players remaining from the glorious '04 championship (Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis), a budding superstar in Steven Stamkos, and not much else. But the hiring of Steve Yzerman as GM marked a decided change in the approach to things in Tampa Bay. Bringing Yzerman aboard and the hiring of hot property Guy Boucher as head coach signified major philosophical changes for the club, and raised expectations for the fans.

The assembled on-ice product responded, playing at a higher level than anyone had expected in the first season of a rebuilding. Stamkos started hot, suffered a nasty slump and finished strong. The mercurial but talented Teddy Purcell seemed to finally show signs of learning how to best utilize his skills. St. Louis raised his already consistently solid game and earned a Hart Trophy nomination in the process. They got contributions from role players like Sean Bergenheim, Nate Thompson and Adam Hall. To cap it off, Yzerman brought in Dwayne Roloson to address the dilemma that threatened to ruin the season. Roloson brought stability to the crease and thus stability to the team.

As a unit, the Bolts came out of nowhere and got all the way to a one-goal loss in the seventh game of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Granted, in 2011-12 the team fell far short of high expectations, but 2010-11 brought back hope to a team that had been lost to mediocrity for so long, and whet fans appetites with the promise of continued contention.

Game

June 5, 2004. Saddledome's C of Red was at frenzy and the city of Calgary was ready to erupt in celebration. Down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, the Lightning belayed the city's championship celebration plans by going toe-to-toe with the Flames for 80 minutes and 35 seconds.

Though Game 7 was itself monumental to the franchise, and though there are other games that could very well be mentioned as essential in Lightning history, it's this Game 6 victory that enabled Game 7. It's not securing momentum through a crucial victory, but gaining another chance at life. You do or you die in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Lightning staved off death and put them in the driver's seat — playing at home for the right to hoist the Cup.

Goal

St. Louis' goal 35 seconds into the second overtime of that game, putting a rebound past Miikka Kiprusoff.

Trade

When we talked to fans about the essential trade in Lightning history, most responses hinged on deals that were crucial to the Bolts winning the 2004 Stanley Cup. Obtaining goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin in 2001 was a game changer for the franchise, and the trades that brought in right wing Ruslan Fedotenko and defenseman Brad Lukowich (during the 2002 NHL draft) were vital to rounding out the eventual championship roster. What those deals lack is a lasting impact on the Lightning that long preceded and succeeded the 2004 championship.