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Quick Strikes: The Lightning wins, Syracuse signs defenseman Nolan Valleau to a PTO.

The defenseman should be a solid signing for the ailing Crunch.

The Headline

The Lightning were back at Amalie Arena last night, taking on the New Jersey Devils. The night started out strong, with Krystof making the ol’ pipes sing one of the most recognizable tunes everywhere to young (and young at heart) witches and wizards still hoping for their Hogwarts letter.

Things then took on a sober tone, as the Lightning held a moment of silence for those senselessly and heartlessly killed in Pittsburgh this past Saturday.

Pregame, the focus of the night shifted around a bit, but it often landed on Devils’ forward Brian Boyle, whose cancer is now in remission.

Boyler is certainly one that will be hard to forget, and we’re so happy he’s doing well.

After all that, a game still needed to be played. By the end of one things were tied at two apiece. Braydon Coburn was the hero of the period for the Lightning, scoring both goals.

From there, the Lightning roster exploded with points, with Brayden Point leading the way:

At the end of the night the final score was 8-3 Lightning and the Bolts had another victory!

The other news of the day was that the Syracuse Crunch added defenseman Nolan Valleau to the team via a professional tryout contract. Valleau had been with the team’s ECHL affiliate in Orlando.

Other Lightning News

Mmmmmmmm. Tacos.

Other Crunch News

The Crunch is struggling. Justin breaks it all down for us in this week’s installment of the Crunch Corner.

All in all, Syracuse drops to the bottom of the standings and the season continues to mirror last season. The coaching staff is continue to preach that it’s a long season, but the reality is that the team needs to find their game before it gets away from them.

Struggles, injuries, and PTO’s....within it all is an opportunity to seize the day.

Today is the last day to bid on Mike Angelidis’ home opener 25th anniversary jersey.

The Crunch will be honoring active military members and veterans this Veteran’s Day weekend.

Hockey News

Fear the Fin, the San Jose portion of SB Nation, has a podcast called Blood, Sweat, and Teal. Their newest episode is simply entitled The Erik Karlsson Appreciation Hour. Give it a listen!

Hockey was not well known in France when Vegas Golden Knights forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was young.

France, a country better known perhaps for its soccer, cycling and basketball, didn’t place a high priority on hockey and the sport was foreign to Bellemare until a sudden inspiration to take it up struck his sister.

”My big sister ... somehow she wanted to start hockey. Why? I have no idea why, where she heard of it, but so my big brother and I were like, ‘if she plays hockey, we want to also.’”

Why, yes, it is still only October. But, you know, first overall pick chances because, man. Because.

This gesture was nice. It’s a lovely design.

This is nicer:

Snot and balls and the Philadelphia Flyers. Yup.

Over the past week or so there’s been a lot of talk about the team needing a spark. We’ve heard terms like “sack up and play” and “snot and balls” thrown about, so it should come as no surprise that the Flyers have taken that literally and brought up Tyrell Goulbourne to the NHL to provide these absolutely crucial characteristics to the big club.

Josh Ho-Sang is rather unhappy in the New York Islanders organization.

“They tell me they want me to be a top-six forward up there, but I’m not a top-six forward down here, so it’s confusing,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s like you’re sprinting with a rubber band on. You constantly have tension. You run until you’re exhausted and then the band is going to pull you back. If I was going to say anything, it would be just watch. I’m just pointing it out.”

I don’t know what’s going on here, but some of you probably do, so...enjoy!

Hardev hung out with The Shades of Hockey podcast yesterday:

The Laval Rocket of the AHL have a jet. A JET.

Most hockey teams do nights where they raise funds to fight against cancer. Some of those nights, though, hit home a bit harder than others.

This week’s free AHL game is the Lehigh Valley Phantoms vs the Binghamton Devils:

The AHL put out a “caption this!” tweet and some of the responses were gold:

But to me, this was the winner:

Happy Halloween!

Steve Yzerman is partially the focus of this article about team Halloween parties. It’s by Katie Strang of The Athletic and therefore behind a paywall, but the picture on the article is worth a click regardless.

The Tampa Bay Times then kept up the Halloween spirit with their own article about the holiday, one that specifically referenced Lightning players and their favorite costumes.

Clowns. Ugh.

The shade here is kind of funny, gotta admit.

I’m...just...going...to...leave...this....here...

...and...this...

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I got a shirt guy

A post shared by Connor Brent Ingram (@connoringram) on

Here’s another from the Syracuse crowd:

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Groovy, Baby ✌🏻

A post shared by Mitchell Stephens (@stephens2727) on

This is just wonderful:

And an awwww from last night:

To all of our readers out there who will be celebrating today: Happy Halloween! Have fun, be safe, and we hope you all don’t get too many rocks in your bags.

To those not celebrating, have a great day, too!

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