Linking over to SB Nation baseball site Bleed Cubbie Blue here, we'd like to make you aware of profound and exciting changes that are forthcoming fro Raw Charge and the rest of the sites on the SB Nation sports network.

It's official. NHL training camps will not start on time. In fact, the NHL has already taken down any pictures of current players on their website. The Tampa Bay Lightning have done the same with the players on their roster. (AHL players are fair game still, apparently.)

As we stare into the abyss of uncertainty, we c lose out the 2012 off-season with the final update to the Lined-Up Update, which was tracking some of the moves by the club this past summer. Not every move and signing is listed, but the majority of them are.

It's getting crowded at Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, where player workouts are happening (and open to the public) from 10 AM til 12 PM daily. Goalie Anders Lindback has made his debut while defensemen Victor Hedman and Brendan Mikkelson have joined the fray as well. We link to an Instagram photo of Lindback here.

Its not the NHL, or even a professional sport but the NZIHL (New Zealand Ice Hockey League) has raised enough money through fan support to stream the NZIHL Grand Final over the internet. To manage peoples expectations; the stadium holds 600 spectators and I expect the players have day-jobs. Still free, live hockey is far better than no hockey.

"At this point, talks are recessed." -- Donald M. Fehr. That's paraphrased, as we've seen it in variations on Twitter. This post links over to Defending Big D and provides a better glimpse at the breaking news that NHL Ownership adn the Players Association are at an impasse.

Very inspiring!! Best wishes to Declan and all others playing this sport. Put the CBA nonsense behind for a moment and enjoy a special story! Courage at it's best!

The Eastern Conference's 2012 off-season is mused about by SI, with a grading system of A to F. Lets just say the Bolts get passing marks. CLick to view the results.

Puck Daddy has been doing a series on the essentials for each team, and we were asked to put together an essentials post for the Tampa Bay Lightning a while back. We all contributed to this, and there will be some additional "essentials" that we'd like to add on top of this. So stay tuned for some more Lightning essentials here on Raw Charge.

Regardless of what the NHL will or won't do in September, the American Hockey League will still be playing. The AHL just released their schedule, and here is the Syracuse Crunch announcement. Link to the actual schedule is within the article. They will play the Norfolk Admirals eight times this coming season.