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Quick Strikes: Lightning win over New Jersey, Brayden Point hits another milestone

The results, plus a giant hodgepodge of hockey information and news.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were in New Jersey last night, taking on the Devils. Pregame never changes much, it seems, and always must include some warming up:

The Lightning were dominate throughout the whole game, and the final score - 5-1 - reflected the even-handed effort.

The number for Point keeps going up. Milestone goals and points won’t help with Julien BriseBois’ upcoming negotiation with the leagues most underrated player either.

What I will say to Bolts fans is to not worry about his future cap number, not to begrudge Point as he keeps putting up incredible numbers, not to want him to score less. This is an incredible roster. This is an incredibly fun roster. This is a STANLEY CUP contending season. Let’s appreciate this moment and cheer on these players. Worry about the salary cap in July.

Interesting observation about Taylor Hall from last night’s game:

Prior to the game, Bolts forward Nikita Kucherov, Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (ugh, that boot), and...some other dude?...caught up with former organizational player Vladislav Namestnikov in New York City. (I miss you, Vladdy!)

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NYC

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Meanwhile, I think Yanni Gourde has trust issues.

Is the William Nylander contract a starting point for Brayden Point’s negotiations when the time comes? Geo thinks so!

But Nylander’s new contract will have to serve as a starting point for Point in any long-term contract talks. Especially if he continues to score as he has through the first quarter of the season. Nylander had two straight 61 point seasons with 22 and 20 goals. Point has started with 40 and 66 point seasons with 18 and 32 goals. His goal scoring pace of this season is unlikely to continue due to his unsustainably high shooting percentage, but he’s still looking like he’s on his way to an 80 point season.

If you’re Point and you want to sign for six to eight years, it’d be hard to accept taking less than Nylander with this kind of production.

Speaking of signing players, it’s predicted that the salary cap will be going up for next season:

Lightning games are exciting! (...I think?)

This might go too fast for it to be really informative, but it looks neat, anyway:

According to Craig Custance of the Athletic (paywalled), the Lightning and their prospect system will result in a 10th place result in the standings in three years.

The AHL named Cory Conacher the Player of the Month for November yesterday.

During November, the Crunch went 9-0-2-0, a period of games that has totally turned their season around. During that span, Conacher played in all 11 games, scored 8 goals, netted 15 assists, and had eight multi-point games. Two of those goals he scored were power play goals. He also scored two game winning goals, one on the 11th and another on the 16th. Clearly, much of the Crunch’s current success can be directly traced to Conacher, and his performance during the month of November was certainly award-worthy.

The Syracuse Crunch named forward Boris Katchuok their Player of the Week.

The LA Kings claimed Brendan Leipsic off waivers from Vancouver yesterday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired forward Michael Carcone from the Vancouver Canucks in a minor league trade, in exchange for Josh Leivo.

Another trade that went down was the Anaheim Ducks trading D Marcus Pettersson for F Daniel Sprong.

The Orlando Solar Bears had a good-news-bad-news kind of weekend. In addition, they are having their Teddy Bear toss December 21st.

Joel Hanley is an example of the ultimate AHL journeyman. He currently plays for the Texas Stars, and is one of the guys keeping that team afloat.

Hanley, the Stars defensemen, is used to the nomadic lifestyle of an AHL player on constant one-year contracts. The summers are filled with uncertainty and nerves and moving trucks. In his career, Hanley has never signed a multi-year contract. Only once in his career has he played back-to-back seasons in the same organization.

Texas’s Erik Condra, the Crunch’s former captain and the former Lightning forward, was named the CCM/AHL Player of the Week for this week.

With the announcement of both Conacher and Condra’s awards yesterday, Crunch forward Daniel Walcott had to get his two cents in:

Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon has moved into 9th place on the AHL’s all-time wins list.

The Czech U-20 national team roster for the World Junior Championships was released yesterday.

Here’s a fun stat from the NWHL and the Metropolitan Riveters:

I don’t know what’s going on here, but Geo wanted it in, so...

Have a great day, everybody!

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