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Quick Strikes: The Lightning after ten games

Alan broke down what’s going on with the team

The Lightning

-The Tampa Bay Lightning have hit the 10-game mark, so Alan’s grouped game reports have started back up again! The most current group of stats is telling a story of a team performing at a mediocre level that has a lot of potential.

We see several players right where we’d expect to find them. Nikita Kucherov has been dynamic offensively at a slight cost to their defense. Anthony Cirelli and Ondrej Palat have been the opposite. Brayden Point has been just wonderful as always.

The player that interests me most here is Kevin Shattenkirk. He seems to be finding some early success despite bouncing around from pair to pair after a start to the season where he made several obvious mistakes. If he can be this good in terms of shot impacts and marry that with his contributions on the power play with his shot, the Lightning would be thrilled with that.

-One of Tampa’s most telling struggles are coming on their penalty kill. Penalties are proving costly this season, and the team’s PK hasn’t been up to the task yet.

Tampa Bay has been shorthanded 36 times this season and has given up 11 power-play goals for a 69.4 percent penalty kill percentage that is fourth worst in the League, ranking just ahead of units from Detroit (69.2%), Montreal (68.6%) and Winnipeg (64%). The Lightning have given up multiple power-play goals in four of 10 contests so far this season.

-Victor Hedman continues to play well, thankfully.

-Dave Andreychuk will be at happy hour at the World of Beer Tampa International tonight!

-Need something to do Friday?

The Crunch

-Justin jumped in with his own recap of the Syracuse Crunch’s 4-3 overtime victory against Toronto on Sunday.

For two nights in a row the Syracuse Crunch had a two-goal lead in the third period. For two nights in a row the Syracuse Crunch surrendered a two-goal lead in the third period. For two nights in a row the Syracuse Crunch were forced to play extra hockey due to their inability to maintain a two-goal lead.

For one night, the Crunch emerged victorious.

-A big player behind the Crunch’s scoring this past weekend was forward Gemel Smith. Coach Groulx had nothing but praise for him following Sunday’s victory.

-Organizational goalie Louis Domingue is keeping it stylish during his time with Syracuse.

McKenna later gave his nod of approval.

-The Crunch gents got their Halloween on Monday night.

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The Solar Bears

-Tracey reflected on the week that was for the Orlando Solar Bears.

Appleby managed to stop any further Orlando goals, but the Everblades could only get one more against the Solar Bears, cutting the lead to two with less than a minute to go in regulation. With that, Orlando finally broke into the win column after starting the season 0-3.

The Game

-Larry Brooks waded into the fighting in hockey debate, coming out on a side that some might find surprising.

This is not about manliness. It is about evolution. We are nearing the 2020s and fisticuffs are still sanctioned and sold as part of the pro hockey entertainment experience. Enough. Enough, already.

- Devante Smith-Pelly has signed a one-year deal with Kunlun Red Star of the KHL.

-The St. Louis Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko were delivered some bad news yesterday.

-The Chicago Blackhawks acquired prospect defenseman Alec Regula from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for forward Brendan Perlini yesterday.

-Some wild news regarding Evgeni Malkin was revealed yesterday. Honestly, we aren’t even pretending to know all the details behind this one, but the thread attached to the following tweet is certainly intense:

Here’s a follow up:

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