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Quick Strikes: The Solar Bears earned their first win of the season

Posted on by Igor Nikonov

The Bolts

The Tampa Bay Lightning players spent Friday night at Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens Tampa.

Jon Cooper, Victor Hedman and Brayden Point shared their thoughts after first nine games of the season.

The penalty kill has been a concern for the Lightning at the start of the season. Joe Smith of the Athletic did a detailed analysis of their problems [The Athletic, paid content]

But take a deeper look, and you’ll notice a prime example of the perfect storm of problems plaguing the Lightning penalty kill. Their unit, ranked No. 1 in the NHL last year, has fallen to 28th at 71 percent. Tampa Bay did kill the Penguins’ only power play in their 3-2 win Wednesday (which we’ll get to later in the story).

We’ve also published new edition of our Power Rankings, check it out [Raw Charge]

The team that we cover here at Raw Charge, the Tampa Bay Lightning, continue to sit in the middle of the pack just as they did last week. That’s to be expected as they’ve been inconsistent mixing strong showings with stinkers nearly in perfect alternating fashion. They look better in terms of goals thanks mostly to their shooting talent but also to a couple of good games from Andrei Vasilevskiy.

As you might know, Dan Girardi launched a new podcast with the Tampa Bay Lightning. It will feature conversations with current players and some stories from his long career. [NHL.com]

“It’s something different that I didn’t think I’d be doing, but it’s good to stay in the game, stay busy,” Girardi said during a media availability session at AMALIE Arena Wednesday morning to announce the podcast. “The first one is just me making fun of myself, being who I am. We did a nice one with (Lightning founder Phil) Esposito, and I think that’ll be pretty funny. And now the guys are back from the road trip, going to grab a couple guys and it’s mainly just to talk to guys in a different (way), not just say, ‘Hey, how’d the game go last night? What went wrong? What went right?’ More away from the rink. ‘What do you like doing?’ Funny stories about me. My stories about them. Kind of just a different side of the guys that sometimes (media) can’t get out of them. That’s just the way it is. I think it’ll be something cool, and I’m super excited about it.”

The Prospects

The Orlando Solar Bears have defeated the Florida Everblades 4-2 and earned their first victory of the season following three consecutive losses.

Sammy Walker scored for the fourth game in a row.

Walker added an assist on Ben Meyers goal, but the Gophers lost to the Minnesota Duluth on Friday’s night.

Syracuse Crunch goalie Scott Wedgewood joined Lukas Favale on the latest episode of Crunch Weekly.

Both were seen at the sports bar in Syracuse.

The Game

The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded defenseman Erik Gudbranson to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Andreas Martinesen and a seventh round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.

Randy Carlyle and Thomas Steen will be inducted into Winnipeg Jets Hall of Fame.

Gemel Smith’s younger brother has been recalled by the Detroit Red Wings.

Amerks and Monsters jerseys for Military Appreciation Night on November 15th.

The Washington Capitals were down by four goals at the end of the second period, but won in the shootout against the Vancouver Canucks thanks to two goals by each of Evgeni Kuznetsov and Michal Kempny.

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Talking Points