Elliotte Friedman posted his 32 Thoughts yesterday evening, with point #20 talking about Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers getting his first chance to play in the NHL playoffs, 500 games into his career. The forward was asked about the Tampa Bay Lightning, who beat the Panthers in the first round en route to their second consecutive title last spring. This is what he said:
How much does everyone in that room hate the Lightning? “Quite a bit, I feel like every team should hate the Lightning”, said Reinhart, with all the success they’ve had. [Sportsnet]
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As far as NHL player quotes go, this is strongly on the mild side, but it’s nice to hear the Panthers have a real problem with the Lightning. Not like it should come as a surprise considering how all the games between the two teams this season has gone. Sam Bennett definitely gets the red mist every time.
After last night’s win, the Lightning passed the Panthers for first in the Atlantic Division and second in the NHL, making them the second team in the league to hit 70 points.
It required a wake-up call from the Lightning to beat the New Jersey Devils last night, after falling down 1-3 in the first half of the game. Thankfully, the Lightning heard that call and spouted five unanswered goals to take home the win. New member to the team, Bojarinov, has the recap. [Raw Charge]
“Patrick Maroon, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Nikita Kucherov, as well as Hedman each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay (32-11-6). Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn notched a goal each. Dawson Mercer led with a goal and two helpers for New Jersey (15-23-5). Jack Hughes and Yegor Sharangovich added a goal and an assist for the home team. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for the Lightning, while Jon Gillies stopped 22 for the Devils.”
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on the #Bolts slow start: “Individually, we were not ready … we were way too slow and, unfortunately, we had to get three in to kind of get a kick in butt and finally wake up so we put that in the unacceptable category”
— Gabby Shirley (@Gabby_Shirley_) February 16, 2022
“When you see your coach changing the lines it’s maybe a little bit of a wake-up call.” #TBLvsNJD
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 16, 2022
On this month’s sporadic schedule: “It’s kind of tough … I gotta give the guys credit, you know, we got four of the six points and were a whisker away of maybe getting one in Colorado. We’ll take that.” #TBLvsNJD
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 16, 2022
Alex Ovechkin earned his 16th 30-goal season last night, putting him one back of Mike Gartner and ahead of Jaromir Jagr. He would’ve had 17 seasons of 30 goals in a row if not for last year when he scored 24 goals in 45 games — a 43-goal pace. Ovi was able to out-score on shortened season at 27, but not at 35. I’d still count it for him.
Alex Ovechkin extends the Capitals’ lead to 3-1 with his 30th goal of the season. It marks Ovechkin’s 16th 30-goal season, which is the second-most in NHL history. pic.twitter.com/l9TyyPR868
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 16, 2022
Sidney Crosby scored his 500th career goal last night, becoming the 46th player in the league to hit that mark. He’s only one of two active players (Ovechkin) to hit this mark. [Sportsnet]
“Perhaps it was fitting the primary assist went to Malkin – the franchise’s other pillar for the better part of the last two decades – and that it came against the Flyers. A full 10% (50) of Crosby’s career goals have come against Philadelphia.”
The Colorado Avalanche lost their 19-game point streak last night in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.
Stars beat the Avalanche 4-1 tonight in Denver.
Dallas has now won five-straight road games.
Stars end Colorado’s 22-game home point streak and their 19-game overall point streak.
— Owen Newkirk (@OwenNewkirk) February 16, 2022
And Marisa Ingemi, who was dubiously fired by the Seattle Times last week, has been hired by The Hockey News. Good people don’t stay unemployed for long.
I’m excited to keep covering hockey. Grateful to The Hockey News for being one of the places to let me do that. https://t.co/ePY3adf7gn
— Marisa Ingemi (@Marisa_Ingemi) February 15, 2022
