Friday night could not have gone better for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their AHL affiliate. The Lightning won a hard-fought game against the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1. Nikita Kucherov had a hat trick and recorded four points as he moved past Vinny Lecavalier into third place all-time in points for the franchise. Meanwhile, the Crunch defeated the Utica Comets, 5-0, behind goals from Niko Huuhtanen, Max Groshev, Dylan Duke, and Dyllan Gill (x2). Brandon Halverson stopped 26-of-26 for the shutout.
For Duke, Gill, and Huuhtanen, the goals they scored were their first AHL goals. Steven Santini, Joel Teasdale, Derrick Pouliot, and Jesse Ylonen all picked up their first points as members of the Crunch with assists.
Lightning News
The Lightning have spent almost a week in North Carolina as they flew up early to avoid Hurricane Milton. One of the unintended consequences was that they were joined by their families. Among those that traveled a bit farther than Florida was Courtney Ketola, fiancé of Mitchell Chaffee, who had been deployed in Japan.
Some thoughts on the upcoming season [Raw Charge]
The focus for the season is 5v5 play. So, of course the Lightning win their first game with two power-play goals and two empty-net goals. Still, they held Carolina to “just” 48 shot attempts at 5v5. That’s actually not too bad against a shot-happy team.
Conor Geekie Rookie Lap!
Three Bold Predictions for the Lightning [Tampa Bay Times]
“This is the season Nikita Kucherov scores 50 goals”. Eddie is looking good so far.
Lightning Forward to play bigger role in 2024-25 [The Hockey News]
It’s hard to believe that Anthony Cirelli is entering his eighth year in the league, but he is. The Bolts will be relying on him more than ever to provide secondary scoring.
The Younglings
Joona Saaralainen picked up his first goal of the season in the Liiga in a KalPa loss.
Michigan State drops home opener to Boston College [Michigan State Athletics]
In a possible preview of a Frozen Four match-up, BC drew first blood as they shut out Isaac Howard and the Spartans. Howard did have four shots on net in the loss.
Ethan Gauthier scored in Drummondville win [QMJHL]
The Voltigeurs defeated the Val-d’Or Foreurs, 2-0 with the Lightning prospect picking up his second goal of the season. It was an empty net goal, but he also assisted on Sam Oliver’s power play goals in the second period. Gauthier is up to 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 2 games.
Connor Kurth leads Minnesota to a blowout win [University of Minnesota]
Kurth had a hat trick of his own as the Golden Gophers took down Air Force, 7-1.
The Game
Macklin Celebrini questionable with lower-body injury [NBC Sports Bay Area]
He had two points in his NHL debut, but missed practice the next day as he is being evaluated with a lower-body injury. Head coach Ryan Warsofsky didn’t offer any information other than the fact that his young star is “being evaluated”.
PWHL releases training camp rosters [The Ice Garden]
With training camps opening next month, the six teams of the PWHL released their rosters. According to the folks over at The Ice Garden there aren’t many surprises. Amanda Kessel, aka The Best Kessel, was not on Montreal’s roster, which is understandable as she is busy with her other job as manager of minor league operations and assistant general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Rangers working on long-term extension with Alexis Lafreniere [Forever Blueshirts]
Once considered a bust, Lafreniere seems to be on the verge of signing a long-term deal to stay in New York. He is set to be a RFA with arbitration rights so it makes sense that they want to wrap him up now.
32 Thoughts: How Shesterkin’s contract will change the market [Sportsnet]
Speaking of Rangers’ contracts, goaltender Igor Shesterkin needs a new deal. There are rumors that he turned down an 8-year, $88 million offer, which is a bold move. As usual, there are no thoughts about the Lightning outside of some references to former Lightning players like Tanner Jeannot.
Why steamy hockey romance books are having a breakaway moment [CBC]
This has been going on for about a year it seems. Have we read any? No, not yet. We’re waiting for Dr. Lexi LeFleur Brown’s book to be released before we review one.
