Quick Strikes: Tampa Bay Lightning players have good opening weekend at World Championships

The Bolts

Sunday was a generally quiet day in the world of hockey. The World Championships are the only real show in town and the Tampa Bay Lightning players who are playing there have not disappointed. Nikita Kucherov shares the tournament lead in points with five over two games, while Erik Cerna’s three points puts him in the top 30. Mathieu Joseph also notched a lone goal in the opening weekend. [NHL dot com]

And the reverse angle.

Here is the schedule for Monday, if you’re interested in stealing your eyes away from school or work.

The Lightning and Syracuse Crunch both wished mothers everywhere a happy Mother’s Day yesterday! ThunderBug had a great time visiting season ticket holders who are moms and wishing them a very happy day.

The Game

In a Sunday edition of the 31 Thoughts blog, Elliotte Friedman had a lot of interesting things to say about the coaching carousel in the NHL, including news about an old friend whom Lightning fans will surely remember. [Sportsnet]

2. Ottawa’s list includes Dallas assistant Rick Bowness, incumbent Marc Crawford, NCAA Providence’s Nate Leaman, AHL Belleville bench boss Troy Mann, Martin and Toronto assistant DJ Smith. GM Pierre Dorion will pare down this group over the next couple of weeks. Tippett is the favourite in the Alberta capital, with Smith and Dallas assistant Todd Nelson also possibilities. In Anaheim, I assume Dallas Eakins until proven otherwise.

Arctic Ice Hockey wondered what Jacob Trouba will return in a trade after years of speculation. [Arctic Ice Hockey]

One thing about trades is a team can shop a player around to get a package that fills their needs. When the Nashville Predators traded Seth Jones to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Ryan Johansen, they made a mutually beneficial trade because they looked around the league. Even if the Jets are dealing with a player who does not want to stay in Winnipeg, they can find a team elsewhere to trade Trouba to and Trouba has no trade protections so they are free to do whatever they want.

In the NHL playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes dropped Game 2 against the Boston Bruins on the road in a game that wasn’t close. Hopefully for them, that game got all the back hockey out of their system in time for Game 3 at home on Tuesday night. In other news, Brad Marchand continues to get away with illegal hockey on a nightly basis. [Canes Country]

The Hurricanes were behind the puck all night, getting knocked off their game far too easily and losing their composure at critical moments, and all that added up to an easy win for the Boston Bruins. Matt Grzelcyk scored twice and Tuukka Rask made 21 easy saves in a 6-2 shellacking that drops the Hurricanes into a 2-0 series deficit with the Eastern Conference Final returning to Raleigh for Game 3 on Tuesday.

Game 2 between the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues is tonight.

Highlight of the Night: This save from Denmark’s goalie Sebastian Dahm (who played 24 games for the Crunch in 2008-09).