This week the Lightning are on a Western Canadian road trip, so get ready for some late nights this week. Saturday’s game against the Canucks has gotten even later as the Canucks have announced a change in start time to 10:30 ET.
On Saturday night, the Canucks are going to retire Markus Naslund‘s jersey, #19, to the rafters. And so to accommodate the airing for the ceremony, the game start has been pushed forwards by 30 minutes. This is only the third jersey to be retired by the Canucks organization.
It will be special for Naslund because some of the players he played with are still with the team today (the Sedins, Ryan Kesler, Sami Salo, Alex Burrows, Alex Edler) but also because former Canuck, Mattias Ohlund be there on Saturday night albeit in a Lightning jersey. The two players played together for many years on the Canucks are were part of the leadership group on the ice. They are both soft spoken calm individuals but were true leaders for the club over the years. And in addition to being on the same NHL team, these two Swedes also played together in international games representing Sweden together. So before you groan about the late start time, just think how much this will mean to Naslund to have Ohlund there.
Your Lightning links:
- Meredith Qualls over at Creative Loafing writes that the Lightning are winning despite having a goaltending slump
- In the Calgary Sun today, comparisons between Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos isn’t fair as they’ve got very different style, but Stamkos is flattered by the star comparisons
- Did you know that Guy Boucher is colourblind? ABC Action News asks Boucher 10 questions you probably didn’t know the answers too
- What Nolan Whyte would sell for better goaltending for the Lightning
- Cassie writes over at From the Rink that Steven Stamkos is a more organic star than either Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin
- Ian Walker of the Vancouver Sun interviews Cam Janssen of the St. Louis Blues for his Gross Misconduct series. Janssen who played with Steve Downie in juniors offers his thoughts on what he thinks of Downie as a person
- Mike Corcoran has two interviews this week, one with Cedric Desjardins and one with Brett Connolly
- Twenty years ago yesterday, the NHL granted a conditional franchise to Phil Esposito and the Tampa Bay Area (St. Petersburg Times)
Your links from around the NHL:
- The salary cap could go up by as much as $3 million next year
- He didn’t play this well in Tampa last year, but Alex Tanguay has found his stride with the Calgary Flames with nearly a point a game this year (Toronto Star)
- The Toronto Star goes behind the scenes at Hockey Night in Canada
- Elliotte Friedman’s 30 Thoughts this week: motivating players in a salary cap league is challenging since it’s really hard to make a trade these days. Also three thoughts covering the Lightning, one of which is that teams have begun to figure out Boucher’s 1-3-1 style.
- Chris Kontos of the Royal Half has his latest edition of Pundays: 28 Pundays Later
- In Puck Daddy, NHL gets the Vanity Fair treatmentt in a Winter Classic article
- Mike Chen at From the Rink interviews former blogger Jes Golbez
- Charlie Pelnik a player born and raised in North Carolina is getting a full-ride scholarship to go play hockey for the Univ. of North Dakota Fighting Sioux
