Raw Charge
Summary
Lightning News The Lightning extended their franchise record 8-0 start at 401 Channelside Drive last night as Zemgus Girgensons returned and the Lightning took down Chicago by a 4-1 score. Chicago scored in the final minute to spoil a shutout for Andrei Vasilevskiy in his 600th career start but Ilya Mikheyev scored twice and looked great reunited with Girgensons and Pontus Holmberg. The Lightning now hit the road with a tough back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday night. [ Recap ] Dominic James was sent down to Syracuse to get more playing time after his return from a presesason injury. James hasn’t played poorly but his ice time and consistency has been lacking the last few games. Playing a big role for the Crunch should help his confidence and scoring touch. [ Raw Charge ] Another reason to send James to the AHL was to accrue cap space with the approaching return of Yanni Gourde. Gourde has been skating with the team for a while and coach Jon Cooper said he may be in the lineup on the upcoming road trip. [ Tampa Bay Times ] Kucherov News Nikita Kucherov verse Julien BriseBois was perfectly penned by Eduardo Encina as hardball meets hardheadedness a few days ago. Kucherov’s agent, Dan Milstein, isn’t afraid to speak freely on podcasts and was on Wednesday’s episode of DFO Insider with Jeff Marek and David Pagnotta and said “it’s time to move on” for Kucherov in Tampa. That could just be a negotiating tactic, but it certainly sounds ominous. [ Daily Face Off ] I hope this hypothetical article written by ESPN stays hypothetical for the rest of time. Greg Wyshynski lists seven hypothetical landing spots in a hypothetical trade. If any of these hypothetical trades happens to happen, hypothetically, I wouldn’t hate seeing Kucherov with Sergachev back in Utah. Hypothetically. [ ESPN ] While a black cloud seems to be following Kucherov around, things appear bright and sunny regarding Andrei Vasilevskiy even before his 24 save 4-1 victory over Chicago last night. Dan Milstein, who also represents Vasilevskiy, says in the same FDO Insider podcast he hopes Vasy plays his entire career in Tampa and hopes to reach 1,000 games with the Lightning. I’d be okay with that.[ Raw Charge ] League News The Hockey Hall of Fame will be inducting Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Patrice Bergeron, Keith Tkachuk, Cindy Curley and Brian Burke on Monday. The NHL put out a list of the active players with less than 500 games with paths to the Hall of Fame. Hard to argue with this list. I was unaware that some of these younger players (Hughes, Bouchard, Robertson) had been putting up such great numbers. [ NHL ] Montreal, fresh off the worst loss imaginable, got good news with the return of Nick Suzuki last night. It wasn’t a four-goal comeback, but the Canadiens evened the scored at 4-4 in the 3rd Period with just over five minutes left to force overtime at home against Utah. Cole Caufield scored the game-winner 30 seconds into overtime, with the secondary assist going to Suzuki for his third point (1G, 2A) in his return from a 7-game absence. [ Habs Eye on the Prize ] Connor Hellebuyck addressed the media in depth for the first time about his trade request out of Winnipeg. I’m not sure if Jets fans are going to forgive and forget very quickly, but Hellebuyck cites challenging circumstances involving his family specifically for his trade request. He seemed to have found a home in New Jersey with four wins in four games with the Devils. [ yahoo! ] Sean McIndoe takes a look at the five times a player had a monster season and was then traded. A couple of familiar names pop up in the discussion. Yup, we get to be reminded of the Marty St. Louis saga from a decade ago. Also, Joe Juneau. You know that guy once pretended to be on a cell phone call to avoid signing an autograph for me (Justin G.) once? [ The Athletic ] The PWHL is getting ready to fire up their season and they announced some rule changes that might be interesting to keep an eye on moving forward. All players have to wear a cut-resistant neck guard, which is becoming pretty standard around the sport (the NHL requires all incoming players to wear one). Pucks can be batted down with a stick above the shoulders and play can continue. With the players all wearing protective head gear, the threat of a stick to the eye is minimal, so this, in theory, should eliminate some stoppages in play. They redefined the body-checking rules. And finally, if there is a penalty in overtime, the non-offending team has a choice between a power play and a penalty shot. That should be fun. [ The Ice Garden ]