The Bolts
With several Western Conference teams on the horizon for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Matthew Esteves and Satchel Price (of Second City Hockey fame) came together to give us a breakdown of the upcoming opponents on a new Charged Up: A Raw Charged Podcast. [Raw Charge]
Did you know that Tyler Johnson was mic’d up against the Winnipeg Jets? I didn’t. This is amazing. #Dotchy [NHL dot com]
“I got Point.” Gah, so awesome.
Speaking of Western Conference teams, the St. Louis Blues are the best team of the bunch and they’re playing the Bolts (looks at calendar) today! Here’s an early preview. [NHL dot com]
“On Tuesday, Tampa Bay travels to St. Louis to take on the Blues in the first game of a four-game road trip. The Blues are tied atop the NHL standings with Tampa Bay, both teams owning 21 wins and 44 points.”
Yanni Gourde is Yanni Good.
A kid with an endless amount of hustle, Yanni Gourde is our @orangetheory Player of the Week 🔥 pic.twitter.com/SvGk1SXL9g
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) December 12, 2017
The rejuvenation of Coach Jon Cooper. A losing season is hard on everyone, we like to think the players, management, and coaches are immune so such feelings, but they aren’t. [Tampa Bay Times]
“The person I had to manage the most was myself,” Cooper said. “You have to manage that you’re going through a situation that you’d never been through before. Never in my hockey coaching career had a I missed the playoffs, at any level.”
Good news on the Braydon Coburn front.
#tblightning Braydon Coburn, who missed the last four games, will be with team on upcoming four-game trip out west. Cooper said they hope he can play towards the end of it.
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) December 11, 2017
Some salt for the wounds of Montreal Canadiens fans, courtesy of our favourite former Hab. Sorry, Peter Budaj. [SB Nation]
“Sergachev has delivered offensively for the Lightning this season, as his 20 points in 29 games are more than any Canadiens player has this year. Not only that, Sergachev has been pretty impressive skill-wise in his first real season of NHL action.”
The Prospects
It’s so much more fun when the prospect report features teddy bears. [NHL dot com]
“Lipanov was named First Star with two goals in Barrie’s 5-0 blanking of Oshawa on Saturday, and scored the Teddy Bear Toss goal for the Colts. His 25 points in 28 games has him third in club scoring.”
Seven points in three games? That’s AHL Player of the Week production right there. [Syracuse]
“A third-round pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2015 draft, Cirelli has tallied six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 25 games for Syracuse this season, good for first on the Crunch and sixth among all AHL rookies in scoring.”
Two of the biggest winning streaks in the AHL clash this Friday evening when Syracuse and Boston go head-to-head.
The @AHLBruins (seven games) and @SyracuseCrunch (nine games) are cruising into this week on some impressive winning streaks!
(📸: Jacob Kupferman/CSM) pic.twitter.com/e0Gw9dFjaR
— AHL (@TheAHL) December 11, 2017
We wish we could be talking about something else, but this is just too much fun. The Syracuse Crunch are on a nine-game winning streak and here are 13 reasons why they’ve been so good. [Syracuse]
“10 points from forward Adam Erne (5-5) in last nine games, including his first pro hat trick. Erne put up seven in his first 16 games this season.”
And last but not least, “hey, I remember you!”
The forever #TBLightning prospect. He may be 72 years old, but he’s got upside. https://t.co/HJi0ek8RTZ
— Bolt Prospects (@BoltProspects) December 11, 2017
The Game
Elliotte Friedman’s 31 Thoughts is out. Need I say more? [Sportsnet]
“Here’s what we know: As per Karlsson’s contract, the Senators have the right to ask him for a list of 10 teams he can’t be traded to. He has 48 hours from the request to submit it.”
The Lightning aren’t in the hunt for the first overall pick, but someone is going to get the “next Brian Leetch,” according to Niklas Lidstrom. [Elite Prospects]
“I really don’t want to compare [Rasmus Dahlin] to players I’ve seen [in the NHL], but a player I instantly thought of is Brian Leetch and his skating, especially during his years with the (New York) Rangers”, Lidström told Swedish website hockeysverige.se recently. “(Leetch) also had the courage to skate with the puck, use his skating and take advantage of the space when he had the chance.”
Dallas Stars coach Ken Hitchcock has always been a defense-first guy. But is that a good thing to emphasize? [Defending Big D]
“I’ll overuse that word a lot: dynamic. My personal theory is that Dallas isn’t dynamic enough to offset chemistry for balance. The latter is what Hitchcock prefers. He wants the balance of rolling with four lines, which is why Faksa got buried on the 4th line early on. He wants the balance of having defensemen on the penalty kill, which is why Julius Honka gets scratched for Jamie Oleksiak and Greg Pateryn.”
For a team that was poised to break-out into one of the better teams in the league, the Carolina Hurricanes have definitely been more fustrating than fun. What’s gone wrong? Has anything? [NBC Sports]
“They have an outstanding young core of players. Jeff Skinner is one of the absolute best goal-scoring forwards in the league (that nobody ever talks about).”
“Defensively, they have been one of the four or five best teams in the league at suppressing shots against despite having one of the youngest blue lines in the league.”
“But the results in the standings have not been there. At all. They have made the playoffs just once in the past 12 years, and in their most recent seasons have seemingly hit a glass ceiling that caps them in the mid-80s for points.”
oh no haydn fleury what is you doin pic.twitter.com/R91xX8TCJd
— dylan fremlin (@DylanFremlin) December 12, 2017
Highlight of the Night: My buddy and Carolina Maple Leafs fan, Dylan Fremlin, doesn’t like John Gibson very much. I think he’s great, personally.
