Quick Strikes: In need of some home cookin’

The Lightning begin a five-game homestead tonight beginning with the Canadiens. To say these games are important is an understatement. [Tampa Bay Times]

The Canadiens will be mixing up the lines to see what works. [Montreal Gazette]

Tampa Bay Times photographer Dirk Shadd shares the story behind the re-creation of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover that featured Ben Bishop, Tyler Johnson, Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, in a gallery of Shadd’s favorite images he captured. [Tampa Bay Times]

With so many regulars out of the lineup, Jonathan Drouin has had a December to remember. [The Hockey Writers]

Your captain, our GM.

Lexi LaFleur Brown shuts down Twitter again.

The Game

Bruce Boudreau remembers longtime Kings employee John Wolf, who died Monday from cancer. Wolf is the one who changed Boudreau’s schedule on 9/11 that kept Boudreau from one of the planes that crashed in the World Trade Center. [Star Tribune]

The Blues have a giant hole down the middle of their lineup, “so Hitchcock keeps shuffling his forwards to create a smoke-and-mirrors effect. He puts centers on the wing and he plays wings at center. He moves third- and fourth-liners up and he moves first- and second-liners down.” Excuse us if this sounds pretty familiar. [Post-Dispatch]

The Stanley Cup and some old friends got a tour of the new Red Wings arena, which is in the process of being built, in case you couldn’t tell by the image.

Down Goes Brown’s 10 ways of a goaltender’s reaction after letting in a goal, like the teammate stare-down or the corner skate. [Sportsnet]

Rangers goaltender Antti Raanta spend the holiday break walking his dog — a lot — as his wife is expecting their first child in January. [New York Post]

Pierre-Édouard Bellemare of the Flyers’ five New Year’s resolutions. [NHLPA]

Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand: The odd couple that works for the Bruins. For instance, Marchand likes to hunt and Bergeron would rather retreat to the lake. Bergeron is beloved while Marchand... isn’t quite. [The Boston Globe]

WJC

Lightning prospects played a big part in Team Canada’s 5-0 win over Slovakia. Connor Ingram pitched the shoutout (though he made a whopping six saves), and Taylor Radish and Anthony Cirelli both had a goal. [Habs Eyes on the Prize]

Mitchell Stephens didn’t play in the third, however.

Oh heeeey.

The prime minister has spoken.