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Quick Strikes: I miss the Tampa Bay Lightning already

The Bolts don’t play again until JANUARY 30TH.

The Bolts

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Erik Karlsson-less San Jose Sharks in a nice bit of closure before the All-Star break and Bye Week. [Raw Charge]

One game was all that stood between the Tampa Bay Lightning and a much needed week-long reprieve due to the All-Star break. The Lightning took care of business by defeating the San Jose Sharks 6-3 Saturday evening to improve their January record to 6-3-0. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves in the win and Steven Stamkos had a three point night. The Lightning also improved to 11-1-0 after a loss this season.

Speaking of the week-long break, many believe that it can’t come at a better time. [Tampa Bay Times]

It has at least gotten the hardest of its travel out of the way. Of its 24 road games, 17 have been in a different time zone. Only one more game in St. Louis will take Tampa Bay outside of the Eastern time zone for the rest of the regular season. That means less time on a plane and more time at home.

The numbers also back this theory up. Just check out Sean Tierney’s tweet. Tampa Bay’s expected goal numbers (a measure of chances created) have fallen off a cliff. Taking a week and change to reset will definitely help the team reset and return to that insane form at the end of 2018.

The Prospects

Lightning prospect Sammy Walker has been slowly building his resume in the NCAA. Here is a nice highlight from Friday’s games. Is there something here?

The snow storm has hit New York State and pretty much the entire north east coast hard. As a result, the game between the Syracuse Crunch and Binghamton Devils has been postponed. [Syracuse]

The game has been rescheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Feb. 26. All tickets for today’s game will be honored at that date. Fans who cannot attend that game may also exchange their tickets for any remaining 2018-19 regular-season game.

Syracuse hosts the Devils at 1 p.m. Monday.

The Orlando Solar Bears won on Friday night in an eventual 7-4 victory over the South Carolina Stingrays.

The Game

Henrik Lundqvist officially holds #6 spot in all-time wins. Seriously. [NHL dot com]

It took Lundqvist (446-287-90) 840 games to pass Sawchuk, who played his entire 971-game NHL career without benefit of regular-season overtime or the shootout, both of which Lundqvist has had since joining the NHL. Sawchuk went 445-336 with 171 ties. Lundqvist has 102 wins in extra time (41 in overtime, 61 in the shootout).

Kyle Palmieri is headed to the All-Star Game instead of Taylor Hall. Guess Hall had a conflict with his yearly boating test.

Nice baseball-hockey crossover, Dallas Stars! Very nice!

Phil Kessel is a 20-goal scorer for the 11th straight season. Pretty impressive considering his workout routine.

To quote one the RC chat: “My, how things...haven’t changed?”

Highlight of the Night: The KHL had a lot of fun on Saturday.

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