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Lightning Round

Quick Strikes for Sunday, June 18

The Magic’s Man’s act in Detroit is over, and the man that John Tortorella wanted with him a decade ago in Tampa.

  • Pavel Datsyuk’s retirement was really two years in the making. Get the details. [NHL.com]
  • How the Wings are spinning the story for the fans. [Winging It In Motown]
  • Goaltenders who played against Datsyuk, from Marty Turco to Roberto Luongo, discuss what was so dangerous about him. [NHL.com]
  • Datsyuk followed his heart and for that, he can’t be blamed. [Detroit Free Press]
  • Brad Shaw, who was hired by the Blue Jackets to assist John Tortorella, was actually a guy Tortorella had eyed during his tenure with the Lightning. [Puck-Rakers]
  • The Coyotes’ AHL affiliate in Tucson has a name. Beep beep./
  • Former Buffalo Sabre Mike Robitaille, who’s also the team’s longtime announcer, says getting through the day, physically, is “hell.” He needs help getting out of bed, put his socks on, walk down the stairs or drink his coffee. Robitaille is one of 103 other former NHL players suing the league for its concussion protocol, or lack of it. Robitaille’s wife says the league’s doctors “treated everybody like cannon fodder.” [Buffalo News]
  • Some parents can spend $20,000 for their kids to travel and play hockey, especially living in a non-traditional hockey market like Arizona. Brian Matthews wouldn’t. So his son, the projected No. 1 pick in June 24-25 NHL Entry Draft, played on smaller sheets against all different competitions. To say Auston Matthews has taken the road less traveled would be an understatement. There’s more where that came from. [Globe and Mail]
  • Speaking of the draft, Adam Kimelman of NHL.com redrafted the 1991 class. Guess who went first overall? Hint: Not Eric Lindros. [NHL.com]
  • The Anaheim Ducks locked up Sami Vatanen for four years at $19.5 million, and yet the work is far from complete. The Ducks still the futures of Frederik Andersen, Rickard Rackell and Hampus Lindholm to address. Vatanen, who led the Ducks’ blueline in scoring last season, was arguably the most important to keep. [O.C. Register]
  • A 16-year-old Brooks Laich wasn’t messing around when he wrote that he’d be in the NHL, with the Toronto Maple Leafs, one day. /

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