Quick Strikes: Livin’ on a prayer

ICYMI

The Syracuse Crunch claim two big wins against two in-state division rivals. [RC]

The Bolts

Cory Conacher was recalled late Sunday night. Welcome back, again...and again...and again! [Today's Slapshot]

Why are the Bolts slow starters this season? Nobody's sure. "The first 20 minutes were again trouble­some. Another slow start led to another scoreless first period for the Lightning, which was down a goal at the first intermission." [Tampa Bay Times]

The Fancy Cats are in town tonight, but news about the team is grave. They've come out to a division-worst start to the season after losing three of their important players before the season started. We'll hear more about this later from Todd Little in the game preview, but for now, you can read about the player's only meeting after the Panthers' last loss. [NHL]

Do you play fantasy hockey? I play in Greg Wyshynski's fantasy league, and made the mistake of whimsically re-creating World Cup Team USA. I'm...not doing so well. Sportsnet.ca gave some hints for fantasy hockey that included this one, and a further thought about Palat:

7. Andrei Vasilevskiy is probably ready now. He has been actively stealing starts from Ben Bishop earning the small chunk of a 7-4 split in starts. Vasilevskiy should see a third of the action this year, or just shy of 30 starts. Bishop isn’t going anywhere this season so the only hope for an early jump for Vasilevskiy is injury. He could definitely see a full workload next season. [Sportsnet]

The League

In hilarious news, the band Bon Jovi noticed that Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews were singing along to their music on the bench (during a line brawl, no less), and tweeted their approval. [PPP]

Speaking of the Leafs, our favorite friend of a friend of the site, Steve Dangle, made one of his hilarious reaction posts to the Leafs vs. Canucks game that had over 100 penalty minutes. [Sportsnet]

"No suspension for Leafs’ Nazem Kadri after leveling Canucks’ Daniel Sedin, but league’s detailed explanation doesn’t satisfy Canucks or critics of NHL head hit rules." What do you guys think? [Toronto Star]

Nucks Misconduct summed up their own reaction to this game by asking why player safety seems so inconsistent. [Nucks Misconduct]

Lighthouse Hockey took exception to a Damien Cox column about the Islanders. "While he might sound like a deranged maniac writing to The Hockey News from his Unabomber cabin in the woods, Cox does highlight the big picture problem for the Islanders right now: Namely, they’re still the Islanders." [LHH]

Nobody who lives in the south is at all shocked that Shea Weber is a good player, right? USA Today reports that he's playing really well for the Habs. [USA Today]

Is John Tortorella racist for calling Ryan Reaves “that animal”? [The Color of Hockey]

It is tough to see the news that a young man born in 1982, a former Colorado Avalanche player, has died at age 34. Marek Svatos leaves behind his wife and two children who live in the Denver area. [Global News]