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Quick Strikes: The search for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s coaching staff has begun

The Bolts

Ryan Callahan suffered a shoulder injury during the season and played through it, injured it again in the playoffs against the Devils and played through it again. Now that the season is over, Cally is going under the knife to have shoulder surgery. He will be out for five months. [Raw Charge]

The expected recovery time for Callahan has been announced as five months. That would put him ready to play in the first few weeks of the 2018-19 season. Entering the 2016-17 season, Callahan had undergone hip surgery in the off-season. The initial time table was for him to return about a month into the season, but he made his debut just a handful of games into the schedule. In retrospect, he seems that he may have rushed back from the injury and never played at 100%. He eventually ended the season early with another surgery. The timing allowed him a full off season to recover.

The Tampa Bay Lightning made some moves to their coaching staff, relieving associate coach Rick Bowness of his duties, and mutually parting ways with assistant coach Brad Lauer. The hunt is now on for Jon Cooper and Steve Yzerman to find replacements. [Raw Charge]

If they do decide to name an Associate Coach, current assistant Todd Richards is an option. He has revamped a putrid power play into one of the league’s best and rewarding him for that would make sense. The team could also bring in a new Associate Coach to lead the defense and penalty kill similar to Bowness’ role but that might be tough to swallow for Richards given his seniority on staff.

JustinG. made some predictions at the start of the season. He has now gone back and looked at what he got right and what he got wrong. It’s a very good introspective of not only how the season went, but what the expectations were for certain players and milestones. [Raw Charge]

Woo-hoo. I was pretty spot on with this one. Sergachev appeared in 79 games while being a healthy scratch right before the All-Star break. The rookie exceeded all expectations as a 19-year-old playing his first full season in the NHL. He ended up with 40 points on 9 goals and 31 assists (only 6 fewer points than Jonathan Drouin) while finding time on the second power play.

It’s Lightning Appreciation Day today!! Make sure you appreciate the Lightning in everything you do today! DO IT! [Raw Charge]

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce announced on Wednesday that Friday, June 1st will be Tampa Bay Lightning Appreciation Day. A day to recognize the organization that did so much to help grow the feeling of community in Tampa.

“The team shared its successes this season with the Tampa Bay community with watch parties and home games that drew thousands of fans to support the team,” the statement said.

The Prospects

With two coaching positions opened up at the NHL level, is Benoit Groulx a candidate to become an NHL assistant coach or should he remain with the Crunch and help develop a young team? [Syracuse]

Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman and assistant GM Julien BriseBois are huge fans of the job Groulx has done developing young players and winning in his two season in Syracuse. The Crunch reached the Calder Cup finals two years ago and this season finished with the fourth-best record in the AHL and reached the league quarterfinals before losing to Toronto. Groulx has one year left on his coaching deal with Syracuse. At the end of this season, he said he expected to return as Crunch head coach.

AHL President and CEO, and generally great human being, David Andrews is returning to his post for two more seasons. It was widely known he was going to retire at the end of the season, but it looked like the AHL board of governors convinced him to stay on for at least one more year. [The AHL]

“In his 24 years at the helm, Dave Andrews has proven to be a tremendous leader for the American Hockey League,” said Howard Dolgon, owner and governor of the Syracuse Crunch and chairman of the AHL’s executive committee. “His vision, strategic thinking and ability to bring people together for a common good have been major factors in establishing the AHL as the second-best hockey league in the world. On behalf of the Board of Governors, I can state with great pleasure that we are all delighted that Dave will continue to serve as league President. He has our utmost confidence and respect.”

The Game

Five leagues, including the NHL, have registered to have floats at this year’s NYC Pride Parade. The NWHL will have staff and players marching as well. [Out Sports]

Returning to the NYC Pride March is the National Hockey League, which is marching for the second consecutive year. The league front office will also participate in the Toronto Pride Parade on the same day, and in the Montreal Pride Parade Aug. 19. In addition, various teams will march in their local parades.

The success of the Vegas Golden Knights could spur change to how the league plays. Really wish we had Marchessault right now. [The Hockey News]

The Golden Knights’ roster is built around speed, and listen to half a dozen seconds of any interview, media scrum or press conference with a member of the Vegas roster in which they have to talk about the way the team plays and you’ll hear the words fast, quick, up-tempo or some variance of that idea. That said, what the Golden Knights do differently than other teams who play with speed is aggressively forecheck and force split-second decision-making.

Highlight of the Night: not hockey, but I think you’ll forgive me.

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