'Young Star' Stamkos to sit tonight

January 9, 5:09 PMTampa Bay Lightning ExaminerKen Carpenter

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Steven Stamkos, drafted No. 1 overall by the Lightning last year, got some good news/bad news today.

First, the good: He was named to the Young Stars Game, to be played during NHL All-Star Game weekend in Montreal, Jan. 24-25.

The bad: Stamkos will likely be a healthy scratch tonight when the Lightning visit Anaheim. (Sun Sports, 10 p.m.)

Stamkos has been getting fewer and fewer minutes of late, and has been skating on the fourth line. He has four goals and 14 points, and has played in all 40 games thus far.

Goaltender Karri Ramo is expected to make his first start of the season versus the Ducks in relief of Mike Smith.

TOUCHY TOCCHET: Interim head coach Rick Tocchet ripped into his team after the 3-2 loss at Phoenix on Thursday night.

"I'm really disappointed in the team right now," Tocchet said to The Associated Press. "It's unacceptable. . . . Obviously we never showed up, so the culture's going to be changed. That's terrible.

"It's the most disappointed I've been as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning after seeing that effort.

"If guys can't be men you have to treat them like kids," Tocchet said. "We're gonna have to start tying the knot to them even more. Maybe I'm the idiot for giving a little too much rope, but it's going to be reeled in now."

He said it, we didn't.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE: Goaltender John Grahame, who racked up 53 wins in 103 games with the Lightning and played on the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning team, was released from his contract with a Russian team after an alleged alcohol-related incident in December.

Grahame, 33, is expected to return to Russia next week to appeal his situation with Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League. (Full story at ESPN.com)