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Tampa Bay’s new regime wants to remember the past, particularly the ’04 Cup

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When you look at the list of the last 10-or-so Stanley Cup champions, there are two teams who stick out for the wrong reasons: the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning. Pardon the pun, but the two squads seemed like they just caught lightning in a bottle for a summer when they won their championships. Such flippant commentary is given a dab of credibility when you consider how fleeting their post-Cup successes have been, especially for the cellar dwelling Lightning.

That being said, it’s clear that change is circulating through the moribund franchise. Obviously, adding one of the great captains of the 90s in Steve Yzerman to your front office doesn’t hurt, but much-ballyhooed AHL coach Guy Boucher might be putting his sports psychology degree to use already as their new bench boss.

Damian Cristodero of the St. Peterbsurg Times reports that while the past regime seemed to disavow all memories of the 2004 Stanley Cup, the new group plans on adorning the locker room with mementos from the team’s run. (When you consider that two of the biggest pieces from that run - Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis - still skate for the Lightning, it makes a lot of sense).

That is the plan, said coach Guy Boucher, who wants those images where players can see them; a design makeover for those common areas he made sound like a history lesson, a tutorial and even a symbolic papering over of a culture of losing.

The pictures have yet to be selected, but they will feature Lightning players mobbing each other while celebrating the Cup victory. If Boucher’s history is any indication, expect companion photos of players blocking shots and throwing checks.

“It’s making sure the players that are new know that this organization has had success in the past, and we can tap into that experience,” Boucher said. “I’ve always done that, gathered positive things to look at and look up to and strive for.”

Mathieu Darche, a former Lightning player who last season played for Boucher at AHL Hamilton, said it sounds exactly like what the 2007 Calder Cup champions had in their locker room.

“As soon as you walked in the dressing room, there were all different pictures kind of mixed up together,” Darche said. “Guys winning the Cup, guys scoring goals, a couple of guys fighting, guys diving to block the puck. It’s a reminder of what you have to do. I liked it.”

Of course, the glass-half-empty crowd will say that putting up photos of old glory is akin to living in the past.

No doubt about it, it’s up to this new group to write the next chapters for the still-young franchise. While Lecavalier and St. Louis are holdovers, the future will depend just as much on relative newcomers such as Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Dan Ellis. The team is starting to build something interesting there, but it never hurts to remember what helped them win in the first place.