Like stories of UFO sightings and Wilt Chamberlain's love life, it's hard to know where the truth ends and fiction begins with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

If you believe half the things you hear around the hockey world, you'd be convinced the ownership group led by Oren Koules and Len Barrie is holding its operation together with food stamps and returns from empties.

You'd also believe the franchise will revert to original owner William Davidson at the end of this season, that the house of cards Koules and Barrie have constructed will collapse and the NHL will be left with yet another public embarrassment.

That, at least, is the big story. But the other intrigues surrounding the Bolts are just as entertaining. There are the ongoing rumours concerning franchise icon Vinny Lecavalier. There are stories about financing and payrolls and papered houses and Barrie's personal finances and Lightning employees being charged for parking -- all of which creates the impression that this isn't an NHL franchise so much as it's the reincarnation of a WHA franchise.

"I saw a lot of firsts this year; things I haven't seen in 20 years," says Mark Recchi, the estimable veteran of 1,470 NHL regular season games. "There were definitely a lot of firsts."

Like firing first-year head coach Barry Melrose 16 games into the season. Like the 43 players who've played for the Lightning thus far. Like giving Radim Vrbata $9 million for three seasons, then watching him jet off to the Czech Republic after 18 games.

And that's just the stuff on the ice.

"Are we making money?" Koules recently told ESPN. "No. But are we bleeding like most people think we are? Of course not.

"It's hard because the only thing you get from the fans is you're an idiot."

But based on what they've seen out of this franchise this season, what other conclusions could they draw?

Just four years after winning the Stanley Cup and establishing themselves as a model franchise for Gary Bettman's NHL, the league's travelling circus rolled into Vancouver for tonight's game against the Canucks hoping to escape the final six weeks of this madcap regular season with their dignity intact.

Much of what's happened to the Bolts -- from goalie Mike Smith's ill-advised attempt to play his way through a concussion, to losing defencemen Paul Ranger and Andrej Meszaros for the season with identical torn labrums in their left shoulder -- has been beyond their control. But it's the other stuff that isn't as easily dismissed and that stuff is eroding the franchise's credibility.

Barrie and Koules were the NHL's first new owners in the aftermath of the Boots Del Biaggio fiasco in Nashville and, therefore, were supposedly vetted within an inch of their lives. We don't know if that means the NHL looked at their Blockbuster cards and said, 'Good enough.'

We do know that, based on history, the league's process could be more rigorous.

Barrie, of course, is the golden boy real-estate developer from Victoria responsible for the Bear Mountain project and Koules is, among other things, the producer of the Saw movie franchise. Together, they seemed solid, but just five months into their ownership, there is an unmistakable odour about the Lightning.

As mentioned, it's hard to pin down. But it's also hard to miss.

It starts with the $70 million in financing the new ownership group arranged with previous owner Davidson to close the sale and that loan has since been restructured.

The St. Petersburg Times has also reported that employees are being asked to pay $30 a month to park in a lot across from the St. Pete Times Forum to help pay down a $250,000 annual lease. And the Times has reported the Bolts are giving away an average of just under 2,500 tickets per home game.

It all creates the impression of a franchise in distress and that's sad considering the state of the Lightning when Dave Andreychuk hoisted the Stanley Cup in the spring of 2004. Then, they had the most exciting group of young players in the game. Then, they seemed to be the one Sun Belt franchise poised for long-term success.

Now, they're just another trouble spot in a league that has enough trouble spots. But don't worry. At least they're not alone.