"One 45-minute practice into the Lightning's development camp Saturday at the St. Pete Times Forum, and Brett Connolly was a better skater. Skating guru Barry Karn said Connolly simply maintained a straighter posture as he drove forward. Connolly said it was about "using all the power you can." Whatever the formula, the No. 6 overall pick of the 2010 draft went from (as best Karn could recall) 2.9 seconds for a sprint from goal line to blue line to 2.3, and from 12 strides to eight. "Yeah," Karn yelled as he clicked his stopwatch as Connolly crossed the blue line, and Connolly said later, "To gain that much speed was pretty cool." It also was a step, a small one to be sure, but a step toward Connolly proving his injured hips, which limited him to 16 games last season for Prince George of the junior Western League, are healed. An MRI exam on Friday also was clear, the team said. "Absolutely not," Connolly, 18, said when asked if he had any doubts about his fitness. "I can't wait to get out there again and show what I can do." To some, Connolly, 6 feet 2, 181 pounds, could be the steal of the draft. E.J. McGuire, head of NHL Central Scouting, said if the right wing, who scored 30 goals for Prince George as a 16-year-old, had not had flexor injuries to both hips last season, he would have been considered one of the top three players available." http://www.tampabay.com/sports/hock...y-in-more-ways-than-one-for-tampa-bay/1108227
