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Quick Strikes: Youth taking over the Tampa Bay Lightning organization

The Bolts

Young stars shone in Tampa Bay’s 3-0 win over St. Louis. Brayden Point scored the game winner, Nikita Kucherov found himself a goal as well, with Tyler Johnson capping a two-point night with the empty net goal. Oh, and did I mention that Andrei Vasilevskiy got another shutout? [Raw Charge]

“23-year-old Vasilevskiy earned himself the first star of the night with a 32-save performance for his third shutout of the season and seventh of his young career. He credited his team for the shutout who, despite some mistakes, were solid in front of him.”

If you thought my recap was terrible – I wouldn’t blame you if you did – you should travel across the globe with me and read The Japan Times’ recap of, not only the Lightning vs. Blues game, but of all the games that happened last night! Seriously! [The Japan Times]

“Point put Tampa Bay in front when he lifted in a rebound of his own shot at 19:15 of the first period. From the side of the net, Johnson fed Point in the slot. His shot hit the crossbar and caromed to the right. Point alertly followed the puck and extended his point streak to five games, setting a career high.”

Every NHL team should be trying to trade for Erik Karlsson. The mere fact that a player of EK65’s calibre is on the market is simply absurd. Absurdity aside, should the Lightning actually do it? JustinG. discusses (with himself). [Raw Charge]

FOR: Oh my god! It’s Erik Karlsson! Of course you trade for him if he wants to play in Tampa. Karlsson and Victor Hedman – two beautiful, long-haired Swedes skating down the ice together wreaking havoc on rival teams? It would be the most prolific offensive-defense ever assembled on ice.”

Pete Peeters – what a name – beat Vasilevskiy by only 11 months and 8 days to be the youngest name on this list.

Before the game against St. Louis, the Tampa Bay Lightning twitter account posted this. I have two questions. Who filmed and edited this beautiful, buttery, Bolt-ful piece of cinematography. And how did I miss this until just now?!

The Prospects

Superstitions and freaky patterns are what make hockey great. This story is no different. “What’s the secret to the Syracuse Crunch win streak? It has nothing to do with the action.” [CNY Central]

“So is this superstition or super intuition?

‘It’s no coincidence, it’s exactly why we’ve gone on this’ Team C.O.O. Jim Sarosy said tongue in cheek.”

Week 9 of the Adirondack Thunders season features goaltender Nick Riopel being a dope, lit, poppin world-class home boy. [Raw Charge]

“As the weekend drew near, the Adirondack Thunder found themselves down to four healthy defensemen. Mathieu Brodeur was in Syracuse, Kevin Lough went to the Chicago Wolves on a PTO, and Dylan Olsen was off to Binghamton. A fifth defenseman, Thunder captain Mike Bergin, remained out of action due to injury.”

Carter Verhaeghe has gone from a player just trying to stick in the AHL, to a stand-out performer for the Syracuse Crunch. [Syracuse]

“Even though he turned just 22 last summer, Carter Verhaeghe has every reason to consider himself a veteran on a young Syracuse Crunch roster.”

“Some of the veterans let me know that I’m not a veteran. They’ll just chirp me a little for it,” Verhaeghe joked after practice Tuesday. “I mean, I am one of the older guys on the team.”

I like that first and third line a lot, for some reason.

Second defensive pair isn’t bad either.

Rookie centerman Anthony Cirelli was featured in The Hocckey News’ Prospect Need to Know. Hopefully they had nice words to say about him! [The Hockey News]

“A clutch two-way player who always seems to step up at the right time, Cirelli is currently enjoying his first season of pro hockey with the Crunch. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect was just named AHL player of the week in fact, on the strength of seven points in his past three games – all wins, all on the road.”

NHL arrival: 2018-19

The Game

John Tortorella probably saved himself from a pretty nasty fine, but also kept us from a much anticipated Torts rant. Although, this might be one of those times where not knowing how he really felt about the 7-2 thrashing the Columbus Blue Jackets were dealt is part of the fun. [NBC Sports]

Six Russian female hockey players were caught to be doping back in the 2014 Socchi Olympics. As a result, they have been banned from the 2018 South Korea Olympics as well as, had their sixth place finish stripped from the records. [Viet Nam News]

“The report by Canadian law professor and sports lawyer Richard McLaren found that two female ice hockey players’ doping samples contained male DNA — one of the factors that proved there had been government manipulation.”

In some sad news, the NHL world lost former Calgary, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Montreal and Philadelphia defenseman Zarley Zalapski. He was 49. [NBC Sports]

““We are proud that Zarley wore the Flames jersey, made Calgary his home following his playing career, represented our alumni executive and we will always remember him as a member of the Flames family,” Flames president and chief executive officer Ken King said Tuesday in a statement.”

Highlight of the Night: Johnny Hockey scores a sexy shootout goal… That didn’t count because the NHL doesn’t like fun, especially in the shootout. Keep doing you Johnny Gaudreau.

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