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Lightning Round: The beautifully dumb game of hockey

If anyone ever asks you what it means for a team to get “goalied” at the NHL level. Please do not hesitate to pull out the video from the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 1-0 shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes last night. There have been few games against the Lightning over the last few seasons in which the team put together as much offense as they did to walk away with a technical loss.

To add even more saltwater to the eyes of the Bolts, the goalie who goalied them was old friend Connor Ingram. Yes the one-time Lightning prospect who was shipped out in 2019 for a mere 7th round pick (that the Lightning used to draft Robert “Cooper” Flinton) was the one doing the goalie-ing. Ingram stopped all 47 shots that he faced in regulation and overtime and then denied Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the shootout to pick up the win.

If you were to look at the game page on Natural Stat Trick you would wonder how the Lightning not only didn’t win this game, but didn’t win it by three or four goals. In all facets of play the Lightning generated 82 shot attempts, including 12 in just 5 minutes of overtime. NST credited them with 55 (!) scoring chances with almost half (22) registering as high-danger. In OT they had 5 high-danger chances alone, none more so than the shot Nikita Kucherov rang off the post with roughly 3 seconds to go.

Overall, the Lightning generated an expected goals of 5.00, yet nary a single puck crossed the goal line behind Ingram until the shootout. Even on that one it looked like the young netminder had made the save on Steven Stamkos, but the puck took a weird bounce over Ingram and into the net.

Anytime a player sets a record against your team on their way to their first career shutout you know it was a tough luck night.

Down at the other end of the ice, Brian Elliott was on his game as well. He might not have had the volume of shots directed at him that Ingram did, but Arizona found some quality in their limited chances posting an expected goals of 2.59 on their own. In short the goalies had a good night and the Lightning picked up a point on a tough back-to-back.

Lightning / NHL News

Lightning lose in shootout to Coyotes [Raw Charge]

Hardev was a bit harsher in his criticism of the team in this very “dumb” game. Granted, he’s also had to watch the Leafs lose to the Coyotes twice this season so he may harbor a bit of a grudge against the Mullet Arena Maestros.

What Bally Sports’ financial woes mean for local Rays, Lightning broadcasts [Tampa Bay Times]

So Diamond Sports Group (which owns Bally Sports) isn’t going to make a $140 million interest payment that was due yesterday. It’s pretty much the first step to them filing bankruptcy. The good news for Lightning fans is that nothing should happen for at least 30 days, so there shouldn’t be any interruption until the middle of March. After that, who knows?  MLB has announced their prepared to handle broadcasts for any team affected by the proceedings should it come to that. One has to assume that the NHL is making plans as well.

Top 10 goaltenders of 2023 [ESPN]

A familiar name topped the list:

As previously noted: He’s the king right now, and he’s been the king for a while. Vasilevskiy topped this ranking in 2021 as well.

The Lightning goaltender won the Vezina Trophy in 2018-19 and has been a finalist for the award four times. He’s led the NHL in wins for the past five seasons. He won the 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, leading Tampa Bay to its second straight Stanley Cup. In the process, he established himself as one of the greatest postseason goaltenders of all time.

Vasilevskiy was ranked first on 17 ballots, one more than he was the 2021 survey.

Alex Ovechkin announces the passing of his father, Mikhail [RMNB]

Mikhail, a former professional soccer player, passed away in Moscow at the age of 71. Alex returned to Moscow on Wednesday to be with the family and will be away from the team for an indefinite amount of time.

Kings sign Mikey Anderson to an 8-year extension [LA Kings Insider]

In a bit of a surprise move, the Los Angeles Kings locked up their 23-year-old defender to an 8-year extension with an annual average value of $4.125. A defense-first blueliner, he’s been averaging 21:43 of ice time this month while posting 2 goals and 11 assists.

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