Raw Charge
Summary
Lightning News The Lightning were once again at Madison Square Garden and once again faltered courtesy of the New York Rangers. The Lightning will fortunately not be returning to MSG again this year after being outscored 9-2 in the two games. The Rangers come to Tampa on March 27th to wrap up the season series. [ Raw Charge ] Yesterday morning the Lightning announced that they called up goaltender Mads Sogaard from Syracuse which caused quite the alarm amongst Lightning fans. Fortunately Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn’t the impacted goaltender in Tampa Bay, but Dennis Hildeby did not suit up against the Rangers last night. Hildeby’s injury doesn’t appear too serious. [ Tampa Bay Times ] Lightning radio broadcaster Dave Mishkin dropped his latest weekly article which had some pretty good tidbits. He broke down the Mikheyev-Girgensons-Holmberg line with Yanni Gourde’s absence and also had a pretty interesting metric on regular season point pace broken down in 10 game increments which just about guarantees a playoff berth. [ NHL ] League News It was another Frozen Frenzy in the NHL last night that featured lots of busy barns with all 32 teams playing across 16 cities. The Florida Panthers played in Columbus in one of the earlier games and Brady Tkachuk finally recorded his first points with the Panthers with his 2nd Period hat trick. The Panthers won the game 7-3. [ Jackets Cannon ] Sidney Crosby finally netted his first goal of the year and then added another in Chicago but it wasn’t enough as the Penguins fell 5-3 to the Blackhawks in Connor Bedard’s first game of the season after getting injured in July. Bedard recorded one assist. Patrick Kane also recorded his 894th career assist which ties him with Phil Housley in first place among American-born players in the NHL. [ Pensburgh ] Another highly touted prospect made his NHL debut last night when Roger McQueen played his first game with the Anaheim Ducks against the Calgary Flames. McQueen, hilariously wearing #95 in honor of Lightning McQueen (Ka-Chow!), was drafted by the Ducks with the 10th pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. [ Daily Faceoff ] Former Stanley Cup winning coach Dan Byslma breaks down the impact a shortened preseason may have created in the NHL. Bylsma points out that two teams are allowing over 5 goals per game and three more are allowing 4 or more goals per game. It’s still early, but Byslma correctly asserts that a slow start could make a big difference at the end of the season. [ NHL ] Let;s end with some good news. The Tampa Bay Rays evened up their series against the Cleveland Guardians in typical 2026 Rays fashion – speed, a timely hit, and solid pitching. They now head to Cleveland with the series knotted at one game each. [ DRAYSBAY ]