Has it been that long?
October 3rd, 2009 was the day that Victor Hedman made his NHL debut. Rick Tocchet was the coach, Mike Smith was in net, Vinny Lecavalier was still a Bolt. Heck, if you want to feel really old, the game was against the Atlanta Thrashers. The Lightning lost 6-3, but an 18-year-old Hedman played 26:27, including 3:37 on the penalty kill, and assisted on the first Tampa Bay goal of the season, which was scored by Marty St. Louis.
A seasoned, second-year Steven Stamkos also had an assist, while Hedman’s future coach, Jeff Halpern played 13:39. Along with Stamkos there were two players in the game that are still in the league, both playing for Atlanta. Future teammate Zach Bogosian scored a goal and played 20:38 for the Thrashers while an 18-year-old Evander Kane made his NHL debut.
Tonight, 999 games, 23,347 regular season minutes, 677 points, 2 Stanley Cups, 4 Stanley Cup Finals, 1 Norris Trophy, 1 Conn Smythe Trophy later, Hedman will become just the third player, and first defenseman, to play 1,000 regular season games in a Lightning uniform.
Congratulations, Heddy!
Lightning / NHL News
Lightning get back to work after ugly loss to Dallas [Tampa Bay Times]
Sunday was originally a planned off day for the Lightning, but instead they found themselves practicing at Amalie Arena. Sometimes, a team just needs to get back to basics to tight a wayward ship.
NHL Player Cards [The Athletic]
The folks over at The Athletic have crunched the numbers and posted their first set of player cards for the 2023-24 season. As with everything, these numbers aren’t the end all and be all, but they do provide a decent snapshot of a players season. They also assign a market value to their production so far this season. Despite his high salary, Nikita Kucherov’s contract is actually a deal based on his market value.
Ross Colton fined $5,000 [NHL.com]
Colton was hit with the maximum fine for his trip of Leo Carlsson in the Avs game versus the Ducks on Saturday. It’s the second time Colton has been fined this season as he was also docked $5,000 in November after crosschecking Timo Meier. Good thing he signed that big contract.
Bruins sport Pride Tape during Hockey is for Everyone night [The Score Twitter]
Several Bruins sported the colorful tape during warm-ups and a few players were spotted with it during the game. The NHL’s ban on the tape continues to be as effective as single-ply toilet paper.
NHL Fighting Rate increased through first quarter of the season [The Hockey News]
It isn’t a large increase, but the league is on track to have 11 more fights this year than they did last year. Most of it is taking place out in the western conference, but the Lightning are doing well to represent the eastern conference with 8 (they had 37 last season according to Hockey Fights).
