Quick Strikes: Goalies galore

The Bolts

Radim Salda was ranked 18th by our masthead and the readers. Check out our profile on the young defenseman who is in the middle of deciding which league he wants to play in next season. [Raw Charge]

Salda is a 6’1”, 185 pounds left-handed defenseman. He’s mostly known for his offensive skills and good skating. He has spent already the last two seasons in North America, playing mostly as top-pairing defender. His biggest issue is probably decision-making. When he was drafted, scouts noted his at times high end offensive ability but also flagged that he had a tendency to make such bad decisions that they wouldn’t even consider drafting him.

Happy belated 813 day to the great city of Tampa Bay. I have been informed by my local colleagues that 813 is your area code so August 13th is a day to appreciate your city. Don’t worry, I do the same with 905 (Mississauga, Canada) and 416 (Toronto). I hope y’all hugged a street lamp or something.

Sport brings everyone together. Here’s a quick video from the folks over at the TBS Commission showing all the work sports teams do in the community.

Who would make an all-time Tampa Bay Lightning roster? Joe Smith at The Athletic takes a look. I love this kind of stuff, especially in the summer, hope you give them a click. [The Athletic]

This was an extremely interesting (and fun) exercise. With writers across The Athletic creating hypothetical lineups all month — the All-Minnesota team, All-Michigan Team, etc. — I thought it would be fitting to put together the best team from Lightning players throughout the franchise’s 26-year history. This wasn’t just about picking the 23 most skilled guys or the highest scorers, but more the best combination of four lines (with two extra forwards), three defense pairs, two goalies and a head coach.

The Prospects

Bolts prospect Mikhail Shalagin is training in Moscow, Russia in some sweet blue and white threads. Hopefully one day we’ll see him wear the same uniform in an NHL game.

Down the road, the Orlando Solar Bears signed forward Ryan Tait to a one-year ECHL contract. Tait comes from college where he played for Providence.

The Game

This is a goalie-heavy edition of The Game links.

First, Mike McKenna’s podcast is once again churning out new episodes.

The Carolina Hurricanes have made a goaltending coach hire and InGoal Magazine weighed in on the signing.

John Gibson opens up about the tough season in front of him in Anaheim and what he’s doing in the summer to improve even more. I’m not sure what more he can do, he’s already the best goalie in the league. [NHL dot com]

The way we finished last year, we proved to ourselves, with the guys we have, we can still go out there, compete and win. I think it gave everyone confidence to hopefully come into this year and get off on the right foot. Make sure we get ahead of everybody and do the opposite of last year. It seemed like we fell behind early. Hopefully we can use what we did at the end of last year to get off to a good start this year. The main thing is making the playoffs. Last year was the first year where we had the taste of us not being in the playoffs and having the long summer. That’s the goal for everybody, to make the playoffs and do whatever it takes.

And finally this might be a little old, but Cat Silverman wrote about Philipp Grubauer over at our sister site Mile High Hockey. Is he ready for the increase in games played and minutes? Will he still be able to keep up the pace? These are the questions she tackles. [Mile High Hockey]

Based on the statistical success of the team at the end of the 2018-19 season, it wasn’t exactly a blind gamble. Backup Philipp Grubauer had carried the team, by and large, through a rough offensive patch on the ice and into the playoffs with some of the best play in the league during the team’s spring campaign — and then he managed to shine as their playoff starter, all but cementing his spot as their future in net.