He's not only the Little Engine That Could; he's the Little Engine That Is.

	Martin St. Louis leads the Lightning with 39 points.

"Everybody likes to see themselves on the TV highlight packages once in a while,'' muses Tampa Bay Lightning sparkplug Martin St. Louis. "I'm no different.

"I've been lucky. I've scored some goals that have gotten a lot of play.

"It's kind of funny but people just assume I've come out of nowhere. Well, this is my fourth NHL season and I had to completely shift gears a couple of times already. I had to learn to play defense in order to stick around.

"When I first got to Tampa Bay, I wasn't playing much. My minutes were down. Four games I was a healthy scratch. When I played, it was strictly fourth line.''

Confused, frustrated, St. Louis met with then-Tampa Bay coach Steve Ludzik and requested a chance on the top three lines to display the offensive capabilities that had racked up 267 points in four years at the University of Vermont.

He hasn't looked back.

Far from the glare of the hockey media spotlight, St. Louis is enjoying a largely-unheralded monster season. His emergence as a consistent point producer is the biggest surprise on a surprising Tampa Bay team. With 39 points and 19 goals, he ranks 11th in the league in both categories. His next point will tie a career seasonal best. He's become the catalyst for the Bolts' best line, which also includes Brad Richards and Fredrik Modin.

Not bad for a guy that went undrafted, unwanted. A guy whose lack of size (he's rather generously listed at 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds) has always led to discrimination from the hockey establishment. A guy who kicked around such hockey hotbed as Cleveland and Saint John, Newfoundland. A guy considered nothing more than a spare part, a decent call-up, an easy send-down.

A guy who was cut loose, free of charge, by the talent-deprived Calgary Flames, for cryin' out loud.

"If Brian Sutter and (then-general manager) Al Coates were still in Calgary, I probably would be, too,'' reasons St. Louis. "Who knows? You can't live in the past. But at the time, they told me they were happy with what I was doing, that there was no problem in picking up my option.

"Then, there was a change at the top.''

Out with Sutter and Coates, in with Don Hay and Craig Button. St. Louis' contract option was not renewed, and he wound up signing in Tampa.

Fortunate Tampa.

Right now, poster boys the caliber of Modano, Guerin, Jagr, Kariya, Demitra and Iginla are having to look up the league scoring table at a sawed-off runt of a right winger with no fashionable NHL pedigree.

Right now, Martin St. Louis as easy to pin down as a drop of mercury sliding downhill on a linoleum tabletop.

First, he was an energy guy. Then he was a momentum-changing guy. Then he was me-and-my-shadow guy. Always, he seemed to be an easy-to-overlook guy.

Now, he's an all-around guy. A Player (note the capital P), someone the other team worries about, rather than vice-versa.

"It takes some for a lot of players to find themselves in this league. This is not an easy league to break into. It's like when I started in Calgary ? I wanted more offensive responsibility, but I also wanted to make sure I could play here. So I played on a line mostly with Jason Weimer, checking the other team's top line. I didn't care. I'd have run the Zamboni if it meant staying in the NHL.

	“	I went up down between the Flames and the minors and it's difficult to find a rhythm when you're just trying to survive. ”
		— Martin St. Louis

"I went up down between the Flames and the minors and it's difficult to find a rhythm when you're just trying to survive.

"Turns out, learning the defensive side of the game was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me a base to work from. If you can play defense, the rest of the game opens up for you. In the back of my mind I knew I could score points at this level. I watched how Craig Conroy blossomed last year in Calgary. He was just like me -- a scorer in college who was turned into a defensive specialist when he got to St. Louis. Given a chance, though, in the right situation, he showed he could also make plays and finish them off, too.

"I figured 'If he can do it, why can't I?'"

And, to be honest, St. Louis was on his way to doing just that when he suffered a broken leg 53 games into last season. This camp, he came in better shape than ever, determined to build on what he'd fashioned before the injury.

And the league's early-season emphasis on eliminating the hooking and holding, allowing the skill players to strut their wares, helped the diminutive St. Louis to a big start.

"What's encouraging is that the new rules have allowed players with speed -- big players, little players and in-between players -- to get up a head of steam coming through the neutral zone. That's where scoring opportunities for guys like me are generated.''

So the can-he-play? questions have been replaced with can-he-keep-it-going? queries.

"I'm no overnight sensation,'' scoffs St. Louis. "I guess I'm a lot-of-nights sensation. Because I've put in a lot of nights, learning, progressing, to get to this point in my career.

"It's all about confidence and having great linemates ? there a lot of guys in this league who'd be thrilled to have Modin and Brad Richards out there every shift with them. I know I am.''

That thrill, obviously, is reciprocated. The Martin St. Louis story is a great one. Too bad more people haven't heard it.

This is someone even the most jaded media cretin can cheer for. A prohibitive underdog, an articulate person and generally nice guy, who's proven the geniuses wrong.

"Sure it's a business, a big business,'' says the game's best-kept secret of 2002, "but when you're growing up you're taught that hockey is supposed to be fun.

"And right now, I'm having a ball.''

George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.