from Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune,

So with Tampa Bay falling well below expectations to this point and the Lightning seemingly needing a jump-start to get back on track, all eyes will be on Yzerman. Does he stay the path while remaining patient with a group that has shown it can succeed, or has the time for change arrived?

“I’m not going to make a trade just to say I better do something,” Yzerman said. “You are constantly looking at ways to improve your team, whether you have won 10 in a row or lost 10 in a row. You are willing to listen and always looking at options while paying attention to what is going on around the league. Any way I can improve the team, I will try to do that.

“We assess our team, we know what we have and what areas we would like to improve on, we know what our assets are. You check around the league to see if there is anything that makes sense and would be a fit.”

There remains a strong belief that the same group of players that helped lead Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup Final, a group that led the league in scoring a season ago, is capable of steadying the ship.

“We have, I believe, good people. They are very competitive, they are competing hard and for the most part we are generating chances,” Yzerman said. “Ultimately they will start to go in for us. Obviously we hope for sooner rather than later.”

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