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Quick Strikes: What if Erik Condra was a Bolt all along?

Plus: Syracuse wins their afternoon matinee.

Geo took a look at the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2006 NHL Entry Level Draft yesterday, and played around a little with the Lightning’s picks. His conclusions? Erase  Riku Helenius from the organization’s history (ow, my heart!), and nab Erik Condra as a young’un.

The rules for this Mulligan are that I can only select a player that was drafted within the next 20 draft picks after the Lightning’s selection. This is to give some reality to the possibility of having made the “right” pick according to who was available and who might have been on the draft board at the time. That means that I can’t turn a bust of a first round pick into a super star long shot seventh rounder.

The Lightning’s point pacing in the Atlantic Division seems to be a-okay.

Victor Hedman and Antron Stralman are back in the kitchen. This time, they made burgers.

Former Lightning player Martin St. Louis has been hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets:

Could this pave the way for Marty to one day be behind the Bolts’ bench? Maybe!

“Marty St. Louis made himself into a Hall of Fame player through sheer determination, hard work and a great understanding of how to play the game the right way,” said Blue Jackets Head Coach John Tortorella, who coached St. Louis in Tampa Bay from 2000-08. “We’re still developing his role, but he has so much knowledge about our game and what it takes to be successful, both individually and within the team concept, that he’ll be a great asset to our players.”

The Syracuse Crunch will be collecting coats for the remainder of the month. All coats and gloves collected will be donated to We Rise Above the Streets, a local nonprofit organization assisting the homeless in Syracuse.

The Crunch were victorious in their afternoon game against Binghamton yesterday, adding to the good news of the week before when the Crunch stopped their skid in its tracks.

With their scoring so balanced, there shouldn’t be too many games where they struggle to find goals (which makes their recent losing streak so perplexing), and it’s a good sign that there won’t be too many more losing steaks on the horizon. It’s also a byproduct of Coach Groulx’s search for depth. If he has six or seven forwards scoring on a consistent basis, he can flip them between lines to keep things fresh without any player dragging another down.

Monday, Cameron Gaunce, Alex Barre-Boulet, and Martin Ouellette saw career and/or organizational milestones during the game.

The Crunch is also gearing up for their annual poker tournament this week.

The Orlando Solar Bears had a tough week, but there’s some good news: Jonne Tammela is continuing to do well, and Oleg Sosunov scored his first goal of the season with them on Saturday.

The Carolina Hurricanes agreed to terms with Teuvo Teravainen on a five-year, $27 million contract extension yesterday. The forward is now contracted through the 2023-24 season.

“Teuvo has improved every year of his NHL career and has established himself as a cornerstone forward for the Hurricanes now and into the future,” said (GM Don) Waddell. “He has shown that he is capable of adapting and expanding his role with our team, becoming a key penalty killer for Rod this season. He’s still just 24 years old and we believe he will only continue to grow as a player.”

The Edmonton Oilers extended Mikko Koskinen yesterday.

Are the Dallas Stars actually following head coach Jim Montgomery’s plans? Sean Shapiro asks that question, but I don’t know the answer because it’s behind The Athletic’s pay wall.

Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers has worked with John Stevenson for over a decade. Stevenson is a sports psychologist, and he maintains that the difference in the players who succeed from those who don’t leans heavily on the mental side of things.

This is just my personal thought, but what’s the difference between the No. 1 goalie in the National Hockey League and the 60th? Well, really at the end of the day they all can make a blocker save. As (Islanders goalie coach) Mitch Korn says, “Everybody’s flexible. Everybody’s got certain strengths here and there, but they can all stop the puck.” When you get to that level, I think a lot of it has to do with the mental part of the game.

Josh Healey is a Calgary Flames prospect who worked to help out hockey players with a common question: Just how good is this agent/coach? (pay wall)

The NHL released their mid-season rankings for the 2019 Draft yesterday.

If you’re like me and pronouncing names isn’t a forte of yours....man, do I have the website for you!

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