On Friday, the Lightning re-assigned forward Waltteri Merela to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. It’s the second time he’s found himself on the Crunch’s roster in recent days, having been assigned two weeks ago before being recalled following Conor Sheary’s injury.
For Merela, it’s a chance to get some playing time in Syracuse and could be an indication that either Sheary or Andrei Vasilevskiy are ready to come back from their injuries. Vasy did accompany the team on their recent road trip and has been practicing on the ice. He is right in the estimated recovery time for the surgery that he had and there have been no indications that he’s had any setbacks.
It’s also a hopeful sign that Anthony Cirelli isn’t going to be out long term after being knocked out of the game on Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Lightning did have some extra forwards with Austin Watson and Alex Barre-Boulet, so they shouldn’t be shorthanded up front.
Lightning / NHL News
Lightning announce two for 2024 hall of fame induction [Raw Charge]
Congrats to Richey and Captain Dave. Can we stop for a moment and remember this version of young Brad Richards?
Nikita Kucherov….still good at hockey:
Crunch 5, Wolf Pack 3 [Syracuse Crunch]
Max Groshev is on a heater, folks. The rookie opened the scoring with his sixth goal in his last 3 games while Daniel Walcott and Gabe Dumont had multi-goal efforts in the 5-3 win.
Chaffee leaving nothing to chance with Crunch [Inside the AHL]
Mitchell Chaffee is healthy and scoring. If he keeps this up, the NHL could come calling pretty soon.
Did the Seattle Kraken’s Winter Classic sweater get leaked by the Utah Jazz? [Davy Jones’ Locker Room]
Not going to lie, those are sweet.
Luke Prokop becomes the first openly gay player to appear in an AHL game [The Athletic]
Nashville selected Prokop with the 73rd pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. After finishing his junior career with the Seattle Thunderbirds last season he appeared in 8 games with the Norfolk Admirals in the ECHL. In 9 games with the Atlanta Gladiators this year, he has 2 goals and 3 assists. He finished with 2 penalty minutes and no shots on goal in the Milwaukee Admirals 5-4 win over Rockford.
ESPN Power Rankings [ESPN]
Bolts at 18 seems a little harsh. They may not be a top-five team, but should be in the top half of the week.
