Quick Strikes for Thursday, April 16

• FYI: Tampa Bay Lightning fans in New York City, there is a Game 1 watch party planned tomorrow at the Three Monkeys Bar in Manhattan. Come one, come all. If anyone else has a Bolt’s playoff watch party planned anywhere in the world, drop us a line and we’ll try to get the word out for you. [Raw Charge]
• Hockey players regularly bleed for the teammates, but would you bleed for your favorite team? reddit is having a playoff blood drive. There are also individual team donation pages set up, to help keep track of who’s doing what. [reddit hockey]
• Are you ready for the multitple articles, anecdotes, interviews, and such surrounding the Steve Yzerman storyline in the first round? If you’re not, prepare yourself. Because likely, this will be the overwhelmingly dominate narrative for the national hockey media for the next week or two – especially from the Detroit Red Wings side. [Detroit Free Press]
• Speaking of Yzerman, have you gotten your t-shirt yet? [Game Day Depot]
• If you end up missing any of the Lightning playoff games for whatever reason, the Lightning Power Play station has you covered. They rebroadcast Dave Mishkin called games after the games are over. You can also check out the Bolt’s SoundCloud page for games and podcast features as well. [iHeart Radio]
• From creator Alexis Boucher comes a story of superheroes, intrigue, playoffs, and hockey. [Lightning Shout]
• Here are the final standings for the NHL uniform tracker. And, no surprise here, the blue home jerseys of the Lightning beat out the rest of the league for most wins. Naturally. [SportsLogos.net]
• The big news coming out of Boston yesterday was the firing of their general manager, Peter Chiarelli. Tampa Bay assistant general managers Julien BriseBois and Pat Verbeek’s names were being tossed around when the Toronto Maple Leafs did their house cleaning earlier. So it’s always possible they’ll get consideration with the Bruins as well. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]
• Everyone I’ve talked to here expects the San Jose Sharks to do some house cleaning on a Toronto sort of scale. So for people to be dragging their feet on the firing of head coach Todd McLellan suggest that the person they want to replace him with is still in playoffs and/or hasn’t committed to anything yet. But, he’s pretty much as good as gone. [San Jose Mercury News]
• Here’s your playoff bandwagon guide – one of many, I’m sure. Still, apparently the Lightning are very likeable. Who knew, right? [The Active Stick]
• The Canadian hockey media darlings of the moment is are apparently the Winnipeg Jets. Which baffles me, but alright. Whatever makes them happy…? [The Globe and Mail]
• Oh, yes. The refs definitely hate your team. Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps-ish? Then again…maybe not. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]

Who will win the Tampa Bay / Detroit opening round series?