When Vincent Lecavalier was announced as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 NHL entry draft, it was the highlight of his young career as a professional hockey player. The sky was the limit, especially given then-owner Art Williams' flabbergasting pronouncement that the 18-year-old center was going to be the Michael Jordan of hockey.

	CHIRPIN'
	"You can't replace John LeClair anyway. If you go through the league and want to try to get a big scorer, then you are adding $5 million or $6 million to your payroll. Nobody can afford that anymore. Nobody has a player to trade. Look at Jaromir Jagr. Who can afford his $11 million, and he's not even helping Washington.'' -- Flyers' general manager Bob Clarke on the prospect of making a blockbuster deal
	THE NUMBER
	1,200 That's the milestone number of assists reached by Carolina center Ron Francis. Only Wayne Gretzky's 1,963 is above him.
	WHO'S HOT
	Heading into Friday's game against Calgary, Toronto forward Alexander Mogilny had eight points in his last four contests.
	WHO'S NOT
	Washington's Robert Lang went 7 games without a point until scoring Monday night against Tampa. So far, he and Peter Bondra have yet to click.
	THIS WEEK'S SIGN ...
	... the Earth is off its axis: It seems strange that with their talent and their payroll, the Rangers are the only team in the NHL without a win in their division (0-3-2-1).

Just four and a half years later, Lecavalier is just starting to tap into his potential. After the pressure of being named captain -- a burdensome responsibility which has since been taken off his shoulders -- after hearing critics say he was a bust as a No. 1 pick and after all the losing the franchise gone through since his arrival, both player and team are thriving.

Coach John Tortorella, who joined the Lightning as associate coach prior to the 2000-01 season and was named head coach on Jan. 6, 2001, said he's seen a much different Lecavalier from the past.

"He's matured," said Tortorella. "He's 22. It comes back to that idiot owner here calling him the next Michael Jordan of hockey. Then the entourage gets behind him and he's on this magazine and he's here and there. It's tough for a young kid to understand and handle all that stuff. We wanted to take him away from all that, bring him in within his teammates, understand the game a little bit better, and then have a foundation. I just felt he was without a foundation and that's what we tried to build. Now you can see some of the benefits that are going on with this kid. I think it's terrific what he's doing. You're not going to get me predicting what he does, but he's just starting. He's still a baby in this league. The things that this guy has gone through, I don't blame him for some of the struggles he's gone through."

Tortorella said his biggest objective he had when taking over the team was to turn it into one. He wanted everyone to play within a team framework. He said Lecavalier started to understand the message during the last 15 games of last season. But the biggest change came when training camp began.

"This young man has come in with a different attitude," he said. "He's come in with an attitude that he's pissed off. It may be with me, it may be with [the media], it may be with anybody, but he came in focused. He came in with the right focus. I think when you have a pissed off athlete and you have a focused athlete together, that's a great combination. No matter where it's venting to. He's carried that through. I think it's terrific. It's a process. He's still in the middle of the process. How he's handling it is head on and he's saying 'I'm going to prove to you.' I'm not sure who it is, but he's trying to prove to people who second guessed him last year what type of player he is."

Lecavalier said he's enjoying the game more than he ever has. He's playing with confidence, unlike last year, and the addition of veterans Dave Andreychuk and Tim Taylor and growth of younger players such as Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis, as well as the goaltending of Nikolai Khabibulin, he's got more support than in previous years.

"Obviously, when you come in at 18, it's a big step," Lecavalier said. "It's been a rollercoaster ride, especially last year, which was a pretty rough year. This year, it's starting to get a lot better especially with the team winning. If the team wins, everything is so great. The expectations are always going to be there. If the team loses everyone gets pointed at. It's not only one person. The expectations are always going to be there for me going first in the draft. It's going to be there your whole career. I'm just happy things are turning around for the team. Myself, also, I've been more consistent this year. I've been scoring a little bit more and I've been more confident and it's really paying off."

Lecavalier admitted his confidence was eroded by the difficulties of last year. After a long contract holdout which caused him to miss all of training camp, the captaincy was taken away from him. And, again, the team was losing. For the first time in his career, there were rampant trade rumors. Every other day it seemed he was going somewhere else.

"I don't think I'd ever had a tough year like that," Lecavalier said. "I've had some times where I've gone 10 games without scoring, it always happens to everybody, but last year was overall a bad year. Mentally, it was tough. This summer, I focused on being consistent and to be ready every game. It's such a big difference. When you have a slow start, it's always tough to get back. When you have a good start, even though you can have five or six games without playing as well, but you know you're ahead and your confidence is there. Last year, I didn't have any confidence the whole year. This year, I started off good and I've been playing pretty good. Everyone has been producing. Everyone is having good years. It's night and day from my first four years where everyone was kind of pointing fingers at each other. No one was having fun on the ice in practice. This year everyone is having fun."

Heading into Friday's game against Boston, Lecavalier was third on the team in scoring with 15 goals and 17 assists. In 33 games, he had 111 shots. The most shots he's had in a season is only 166 and that was in 80 games.

"I know when I was an assistant here, and when we first took over, we did a lot of work with him on his one-timers," Tortorella said. "He really struggled with it. I think he took a little bit of onus on himself this summer, he even talked about it with our guys here, on how much time he spent on trying to one-time a puck and improving on that. He scored a couple of goals on one-timers and I think that gets you into the mindset of shooting more. I'd like to see him shoot even more. Everybody is saying he's shooting more. This year when he's been on the ice, he's been a threat. I still think he can be even more of a threat if he thinks shot first. But you kind of have to let him go and feel his way through there. He likes making plays. Those creative, gifted people like to make plays, but he's improved tremendously as far as understanding the areas of the ice where he has to shoot from. I think he still has a ways to go. I still think he can shoot a hell of a lot more than he is right now."

Lecavalier said he's gotten the message.

"I try to shoot as much as possible," he said. "What I tell myself this year is that a shot is never a bad play. You shoot on net and guys can get the rebounds. I don't know, this is the first year I'd really shoot like that. Usually, I'd always look for the pass and look too much. My whole career, I've been looking too much. I guess it's a learning process."

Depth chart

	Satan

	Gratton