Hello and good morning everyone. It’s Justin, your faithful managing editor of Raw Charge. For the fourth year in a row, we’ve come to this point a little too early in the spring. With the Lightning getting bounced from the first round of the playoffs yet again, we all face an off-season that starts in May instead of June. Which is a bummer. That means I have to come up with a few extra weeks of interesting posts to keep y’all interested and reading.
It was a good season for the website as our viewership increased as the year went on, something that hasn’t always been the case. For now, it is still a one person show, so thank you for putting up with my singular, and often Bolts-tinted view on the franchise. It was a somewhat tough spring to cover hockey as other aspects of life occupied a lot of my time. Luckily, some of that has been smoothed over and the ol’ day job schedule should be getting a little more conducive to posting here.
For the summer, I do plan on having a daily links thread up at least six days a week starting on Wednesday. It’ll be a spot to get news from around the hockey world, and to chat about things in the comments. I expect the exit interviews to be coming down the pipe in the next day or so and look forward to breaking down what the players have to say about a solid, but unsatisfying season.
That should lead into the draft and free agency. Despite not having a draft pick in the first round for the 75th season in a row, the Bolts, as of right now, have a pretty decent second round pick. Now that I’m back in the area, I’m hoping to catch the post-draft development camp in person, so we’ll see if any stories develop out of that. From there it’ll be right into the Top 25 Under 25, and the next thing you know it’s training camp season.
I am looking at a way to re-open the Fanpost section that we had many years ago back when we were part of that corporate entity that shall remain nameless. I know a lot of you have thoughts that can’t be contained by the comments section, so if you’d like a bigger canvas to paint on, I’d like to help you out.
This could be a formative offseason for the Lightning. Steady as she goes hasn’t paid off over the past few seasons, and with a little bit of cap space and a need to improve in a couple of areas, there could be some changes this summer. We’ll have the breakdowns for everything that happens, and some wishlists for what we want to happen. It should be fun.
Jason and I will continue to record episodes of Backchecking the Bolts. Not quite as often as we did during the season, but at least once a week we’ll be dropping a new one. We’re also thinking about putting together a watch party for a Stanley Cup Final game somewhere in the Tampa Bay area. If y’all would be interested, let me know in the comments and we’ll see what we can put together.
I can’t thank you all enough for spending time (and money) on the site. It’s an honor to keep it alive as the media world changes around us and some of the things we’re used to go away. We might not all have the same idea of what this team is or needs to do, but we all share a love for the Tampa Bay Lightning. If y’all will keep reading, I’ll keep writing.
Go Bolts!
