Good morning and Happy Boxing Day! We’re back from the holiday break and the Tampa Bay Lightning are back in action at home tomorrow night. There are sure to be plenty of shiny new jerseys, hats, and other Lightning swag being shown off at Amalie Arena that were sitting under the Christmas tree yesterday.
As for us, there was one present under the tree:
That’s a BGS 9.5 Nikita Kucherov rookie card right there. God bless those that indulge us in our childhood hobby.
So what did y’all get from Santa this year?
NHL News:
Lightning reassign Sean Day [NHL.com]
The Bolts made a move that might have been a paper transaction on Christmas Eve as they reassigned defenseman Sean Day to Syracuse. It’s possible that they recall him today if Mikhail Sergachev isn’t ready to go for the game against the Panthers tomorrow night. Coach Cooper was hoping that Sergy would be ready to go after the break, but will likely be a game-time decision.
IIHF Men’s U20 World Championship begins [IIHF]
The best men’s hockey tournament outside of the Stanley Cup playoffs kicks off today in Sweden. Isaac Howard and Team USA open up against Norway at 11:00 am on the NHL Network. Through the two preliminary games (both wins) Ike had 3 assists.
Every NHL prospect at the World Juniors [Daily FaceOff]
While Howard is the only Lightning prospect in the tournament Blues and Sabres fans will need programs to keep track of all of their youngsters as they each have 7 players spread among the teams.
Kirill Kaprizov named number one star of the week [Minnesota Star Tribune]
It’s been kind of a lost season for Dollar Bill Kirill as he “only” has 12 goals in 32 games after putting up a total of 87 in the last two seasons. The 26-year-old showed that he might be on track as put up 7 points (4 goals, 3 assists) in the last week before the break to nab the league’s top star honors. Mika Zibanajad was the second star and Patrick Kane was the third.
Lets hand out some awards [Deadspin]
Sam Fels hands out some Christmas awards with Nikita Kucherov as his front runner for the Hart Trophy.
