Welcome to a little afternoon news wrap-up. It’s been awhile since we’ve put up a news post, so why not fill a Lightning-less evening with our thoughts on what is going on around the league?
First up, the Lightning reassigned Declan Carlile to the Syracuse Crunch. While this does leave the Lightning with just six healthy defensemen at the moment, it’s not a totally unexpected move.The young defenseman, who is waivers-exempt, was probably going to get reassigned tomorrow prior to the holiday roster freeze kicking in at midnight. By doing it tonight, Tampa Bay saves a couple of extra bucks on the salary cap. If something should happen in tomorrow’s game or during the back-to-back against Florida this weekend, they can always recall another defenseman.
There is a good chance that he hangs around Tampa just in case something happens at practice. Of course, if he’s in the line-up for the Crunch’s game against Rochester tonight, we’ll know he actually got on the plane. As for Syracuse, they are currently sitting in sixth place in the North Division with a 10-8-4-3 record and kick off a five-game road trip in Rochester. Their defense has been strong as they rank second in the AHL with a 2.52 goals against per game. Unfortunately, offense has been a bit of a struggle as well as they have scored just 64 goals, which ties them for 26th in the league.
They should get a little bit of a boost at the end of the season once Ethan Gauthier joins them once his season with Drummondville is over. Right now the 19-year-old is thinking about other things as he was officially named to Team Canada for the upcoming Men’s Under-20 World Junior Championships. Gauthier is having another strong season for the Voltigeurs as he has 35 points (13 goals, 22 assists) in 24 games. The second-round pick turns 20 this January and with his signature already on his entry-level contract will likely begin his pro career this spring.
It’s been a decade since Andrei Vasilevskiy played in his first game with the Syracuse Crunch, and the Lightning netminder was celebrated for his 500th game in the NHL prior to the team’s victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets last night. That led us to dig into our vast photo archive and pull out a photo of his very first NHL game, in Philadelphia. A game that we were lucky enough to attend.
Congratulations to Andrei Vasilevskiy for hitting 500 games played. How about a very blurry photo from Game Number One? #GoBolts
— Raw Charge (@rawcharge.com) December 17, 2024 at 7:13 PM
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The Big Cat faced 32 shots from the Blue Jackets last night, making it one of the rare nights that an opponent eclipsed the 30-shot mark against the Lightning. Their commitment to blocking shots is part of that reason, but so is the overall trend of teams taking fewer shots to being with. Vasilevskiy shared his thoughts on why that was with NHL.com last week. To sum up, the quantity of shots is down because shooters are holding out for better quality shots. Which does seem to be the case for everyone except the Corsi Kings of the NHL, the Carolina Hurricanes.
Another team that has been doing an excellent job of containing offense is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately for them, they will be without the services of Anthony Stolarz for the next few weeks. The free agent netminder had a “loose body” removed from behind his knee and will be out four-to-six weeks according to their general manager, Brad Treliving. He has been a steady presence in the Toronto net this year with a .927 SV% and 14.05 GSAx. Expect the oft-injured Joseph Woll to earn most of the playing time in Stolarz’s absence.
As for the Lightning’s injuries. Just about everyone was on the ice for their practice today with the exception of J.J. Moser and Anthony Cirelli. We know that Moser is currently “week-to-week” but Cirelli, who missed a stretch of play in the second period last night was a little bit of a surprise. According to head coach Jon Cooper, Cirelli was off the ice for a “maintenance day” so he’ll probably be good to go tomorrow.
With the Lightning not playing tonight, why not watch episode 3 of the Lightning’s Recharge series which covers Coop’s Catch, Vasy’s 300th win, and the siblings trip.
