Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / Lightning Beat Penguins 6-3 Boston Preview, Leafs News w/ Hardev Lad & Injury Updates

Transcript

Lightning Beat Penguins 6-3 Boston Preview, Leafs News w/ Hardev Lad & Injury Updates · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up next on back checking the bolts, we recap the lightning six three victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. We're going to preview Saturdays five o'clock tilled against the Boston Bruins. We interviewed hard dev lad from the pension plan puppets. We're going to talk a little bit about the maple leaf since they've been in the news and we're going to talk about some lightning injuries. All this and more coming up next. Welcome to back checking the bolts back checking the bolts is your cup of coffee to get you the latest on the Tampa Bay lightning. Join host Jason Linkus and the managing editor of Raw Charge, Justin Godfrey, as they break down the Lightning's most recent games and go beyond the highlights, telling you what the box scores didn't. It's time to drop the puck. Hi everybody. Welcome back to back checking the bolts. I'm your host, Jason. And as always, I am joined by the managing editor raw charge. You could see him at www.rawcharge.com. He is Justin Godfrey. Justin a six three victory last night over the penguins might've been one of the lightning's best efforts in quite some time. Yeah. It was a really great game. Well, okay. Great. Maybe overstaying it a little bit, but it was a really good game for the lady. especially considering one of your top six forwards and Brandon Hagel didn't play. They came out, I felt they, they did something we hadn't seen in a long, long time, which is actually have a lead. Granted it only lasted about three or four minutes, but I thought they played really well. I thought they came out really skinny while getting through the neutral zone really well. Both teams kind of had, had their legs under him early on and then felt like the lighting really ground out a win. They went down two to one, had the big goal coming. shorthanded to start the second period to tied up point gives him the lead and then a huge goal at the end of the period from the hammer, the Latvian locomotive himself, Zengis Gurgensen, scored his 100th career goal on a nifty little backhand play. And from there on, think they really imposed their will on the penguins to close it out and pick up that big six to three win. Justin, let's talk about early in the game. You said this game started quick. Both teams were making a concerted effort to get behind the other teams defense. You saw some long home run passes. Were you a little bit surprised in a game of this magnitude? The Penguins needed this win because they're fighting for the playoff spot, even though right now they're in second in the Metro. Are you surprised a little bit how fast and I want to say how much of a loose cannon both teams were at the very beginning of this game? was kind of surprising. A couple reasons. One, you know, it is an important game for both teams. They were both looking for that two points. So you would think they'd kind of be buttoned up a little defensively, not allow those long passes or the forwards to get behind the defense. And then second, you know, the wear and tear this long season, both teams are coming off of ⁓ months where they played a lot of games. think March, the Penguins had 17 games, Lightning had 16. You you figured that maybe the legs wouldn't quite be there. It's a non-division game. So maybe not the passion that you usually see, but yeah, both teams came out. ⁓ early on the Penguin defenders, I think had a little trouble judging the, lightning, the attack speed. Relly got behind the defense on one play. He hooked a shot wide and then Nick Paul was all alone in on, ⁓ Stuart Skinner and Skinner made a really nice save on it. And then on the other end, the The Pittsburgh goal, the Chinovov goal, he just blew by Ryan McDonough. I haven't seen the Mack truck get, get beat up, turn installed like that in a long time. And then just, you know, kind of slipped that backhand and passed Vasileski. It settled down as the game went on a little bit, but yeah, the first 10 minutes or so, I mean, that was nice, fast-paced hockey, great transition from both teams and really attacked the neutral zone and then pushed the buck down. So yeah, kind of surprised by the start as the game went on. think, I don't know if. It was more of a physical nature or just the way the lightning were played. were really good structured for most of the game. And they just kind of wore the penguins down a little bit. I think, um, especially the, after the point in the Ferguson goals, I think, uh, the penguins kind of lost a step and struggled to match the intensity of the lightning we're playing with. one thing I had mentioned going into the game was the penguins were really good at forcing turnovers in the neutral zone and turning it into a 90 foot game instead of a 200 foot game. Tampa last night was the team that was forcing the turnovers in the neutral zone. I thought they did a really good job of stopping the Pittsburgh attack. They also, as you had mentioned, got behind the Pittsburgh defense. Eric Carlson was a minus four. Now when you lose six, three, almost everyone's going to be a minus, but Carlson definitely had a tough night. It was not a good night for the Pittsburgh D overall. And I think that you're right. I think they, in a way it was like a boxer who knew they had a lead. And just pounded them into submission. They really for checked well in the third period. And if the penguins had any life, they took it immediately out of them. They were able to cruise to a six, two lead before Cheenacoff got his 20th of the year with, think it was a second and a half left in the game. Yeah. So, mean, it was for the lightning. This was a good victory. That's you have one more game left on the home stand. You're in perfect position now with Buffalo losing. You now have first place to yourself by the tiebreaker. And now if you're Buffalo, I have to say this, you have to wonder if you're going to have home ice advantage as hot as Montreal is Montreal one last night. Again, there are only two points behind the Sabres after Buffalo's thinking, Hey, we have a chance of maybe having the playoffs come through. Buffalo in the through the Eastern Conference. And are you even going to have home ice in the first round? It just goes to show how tight the Eastern Conference is right now. Exactly. Exactly. One of the things I really liked about the lightning wind last night is that you had basically three, three out of your four lines contributed. The fourth line, know, had Mitchell Chafee called up in place of Sabarin. I thought the fourth line played okay. It was actually probably one of the better games, but I don't think they were a huge factor in the game, but I think the most important line for the Lightning last night was that Yanni Gord line, that third line, especially in the second period, you were talking about their four check, especially late, but I thought in the second period that line came out. They did a lot of good things. They weren't getting rewarded early. They were getting some chances. They just weren't putting the puck in the net. But I think every time the Lightning kind of needed a momentum switch, every time Pittsburgh kind of started pushing a little bit. That Gord line came out and did what they did, which is just keep the puck in the Pittsburgh zone for a long amount of time, their entire shifts. Um, and I was just kind of looking it up. Uh, the blight, had a 14 to seven, uh, edging shots when the Gord line was out there, but the big one was they had an eight to two edge in scoring the chances. Uh, so they were getting their chances. They finally got rewarded, um, uh, the Gurgensons goal. So, you know, they basically throw the puck down low. Gord wins the battle behind the pucks, hunters it out. Gurgensons right there in the slot. takes it to his backhand and slides it past Skinner. But when that line is Galloway, especially since they're usually playing against one of the top offensive lines, that's when the lightning are at their best. So as they move forward down this stretch where they're going to play five of their six last games against division opponents with that big game against Buffalo coming up, that's going to be a key line for them. We know the top two lines are going to score. know, whatever line Kuturov is, it is all just going to score. You know, the Sorelli and Pagel combination is going to score. But if they're starting to get goals from that Gord line, that's when this team is going to be tough to beat. And as this shakes out over the next week or so, they are going to be a big key for them. So that's what I'm kind of looking forward to as a lightning hit this, this road trip coming up after the Boston game. Justin, last night, normal lightning killers, Evgeny Malkin and Sydney Crosby were pretty much non-factors for the Penguins. Most of the offense generated was from their third line. What did the lightning do? to solve the Crosby and Malkin duo. I think they really just kind of threw the Gord line out against Crosby. ⁓ you know, I was just talking about how they worked down, know, the Gord line was played down in the Pittsburgh end for most of the game. And that's pretty much what they did against Crosby. ⁓ so the matchup, Gordon was out there for more than nine minutes against Crosby and Rust really dominated the, the, ⁓ the shot advantage in that. So Good players like that, the best way you can keep them off the scoreboard, just don't let them have the puck. Malkin had a little bit more room, I think on his line, just because they matched them up like in Cirelli, which without a eagle isn't as strong of a shutdown line as they normally are. A little more offensive based with Gage, Collins, Salves and Alor York strand on that line. So it's not as strong defensively as it normally is. But even then Malkin only had, I think one really solid chance. So he took his typical. of getting Malcolm penalty late in the game. Uh, when he got into a little tussle with a Bjork strain along the boards. Um, it's funny. was listening to a preview and somebody called it the Malcolm hat trick. You know, it's a goal and assist and a done penalty. Um, and a hooking call in your, in the offensive zone. Exactly. Um, but yeah, so I think it was just, they just kept the puck away from him. And I know Crosby's battling through something now. He didn't look like Sidney Crosby last night. Uh, you can tell he's kind of playing with something. ⁓ there was a little moment on an icing. was kind of funny. Puck shot down, Chernak's about going back to get it. And he kind of pulls up short. ⁓ looks like he was prepared to try and throw it a reverse hit on Crosby and Crosby was not happy about it. You know, the whistle blew. There wasn't really any contact. ⁓ but Crosby was absolutely barking at Chernak the entire time. So it kind of showed a little frustration on his part. think it's, he just got the puck out of his hands, which is the best way just like George Costanza, he doesn't want anyone to stop short. Yeah, he stopped short on him. And like, Cherniak kind of gave him that stare, like, you really want to do this? Well, I think by the end of the game, the Penguins were pretty, a pretty frustrated team. That's kind of vintage hockey. That's vintage, like being a hockey. That's what we saw during the cup run. That's what we saw during this big run before the Olympic break. It's just, you get the lead. Yeah. It's the Cooper, you get the lead, extend the lead, the lead, protect the lead and extend the lead. And that's exactly what they did. So. Justin, before we go into the Boston game, I was looking at the Penguins schedule and I've. I don't remember ever seeing this. play Florida this weekend, but they play both games back to back in Pittsburgh. Now I know this NHL schedule is a little weird because it's so condensed. I don't ever remember seeing that with anyone's schedule. you? Well, they did it a little bit that that post COVID year that was a 2021. And everyone wants to on the lightning kind of, they had one earlier this year. They had a similar game where they played in the arena. had a day off and then played it again. I want to say it the Islanders, somebody like that. I thought it was one of the Metro teams. ⁓ yeah, it's one of those weird little schedule quirks. If you're a Penguins fan, you can't hate that schedule you have down the road. They got Washington on the schedule twice. So ⁓ so yeah, I think this was kind of a hard game and maybe the Penguins are kind of looking forward to that. They're like, Hey man, I've been, we've been on a rough stretch because they have been, and they've been winning these games, you know, against playoff teams without Crosby, without Malkin. I know Carlson's had a really great month. I he was the second star of the month behind Kuturov. And then Anthony Mathers, were kind of talking goals. Yeah. We were talking before the podcast about the job Dubas has done, especially with like the Chinnikov trade, but Mathers is another one of these guys. mean, who had in for 30 goals this year. So I think he's done a really good job building that. It's going be interesting to see what Mathers gets. These are unrestricted free agent, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. You're going to make some money. after bouncing around a few years. It's really nice. Yeah. Good to see them have a good year, but yeah. yes. to bring that up, that schedule quirk. just, I don't see it. Yeah. You don't see it often. I think it pops up every once in a while. It's just kind of wondering what the schedule makers do. I don't mind it. Honestly. I would kind of like to see it a little more often. And I know when they did it during the cap year, some of the players liked it, especially in the division games where we do play a team three or four times a year and I think with the more division heavy schedule next year, it'll be interesting to see if they do that. Uh, maybe if each team has one of these kind of almost baseball like series where you're, you're in town for a couple of days. Um, especially late in the year, it's nice if you're in the road team, cause you're not flying it back and forth or flying to a different city. you get that off day is really kind of a true rest day for you. Uh, yeah. So, but yeah, it's nice to see you. Unfortunately, the Lightning have the opposite. They're on the road for most of the rest of the year. So. But Hey, they had a nice home stand. You know, they're, picking up the points like they need to, and they just need to close it out against Boston and pretty strongly. let's talk about the game that concludes this home stand. play the Boston Bruins five o'clock on Saturday at home. Tell us a little bit about the Bruins. You know, David Pasternak, you know, Morgan Geeky, Jeremy Swamins in that. Tell me about a player you're a little bit concerned about heading into this matchup. It's always going to be Pasternak for me to tell you the truth. He's kind of the guy that stirs their drink. ⁓ as far as Kucherov, he's kind of their Kucherov. Look at his numbers. He's getting close to a hundred points. Him and Kucherov are probably the only wayers that are going to hit that hundred point mark this year, which is pretty impressive. So got to keep an eye out for him. He keeps having that big strong year out of nowhere. They got the physical play. So going to see how their, their third and fourth lines kind of do. KC Middlesat's got a 40 point season. He's kind of really picked it up. I know a lot of people were talking about Victor Arvidsson. He's at 50 points on the year. they're, they've got some depth. I know you talked with Hardim about the, about the Maple Leafs, but there's that, Frazier Mitten trade that the Boston made last year, it's really paying off for them. Not only do they get Mitten and they got that first round pick coming up, possibly unless, you know, Toronto completely tanks and ends up in the top five. But, you know, Frazier Minton's got 17 goals for them. So they really added to their depth. It's going to be. Kind of a matchup game. feel like, so they're going to roll three lines, like they're going to roll three lines. I think the top two lines cancel each other out. You got to go from there. None of us thought Boston would be in this spot at the beginning of the season. Everyone, think pretty much had the Bruins as one of the teams that were out of the playoffs. When you make a bump up and you have a surprising season, you need to have some guys have surprising years. Pavel Zach are the center 28 goals this year. He is one that has quietly had a very nice season has 60 points. You figure with about eight or nine games left, he's going to get to that 65 point mark a career year for him. I think that's one of the reasons why Boston's here is because it's given them some balance amongst their scoring lines. It's not all pastor neck. I think last year they kind of fell into that, you know, they were a one line team last year. ⁓ especially after Marshawn was traded away at the deadline. So. Yeah, a little more balance here. Your Swamen's having a bounce back year. He had a really, really bad year last year. The whole contract dispute heading into camp signs early in the season. I don't think he ever really kind of found his game last year, but you're looking at the guy now he's got 30 wins. His goals against his under three, nine, nine ⁓ eight save percentage. So having Swamen kind of back to being Jeremy Swamen has helped them out as well so that, you know, when they are, you know, giving up the shots, he's back there making the stops. After the home tilt against the Bruins, the lightning head to the road next week. go Monday at Buffalo, Tuesday at Ottawa, Thursday at Montreal. And then Saturday they faced the Boston Bruins. So they're going to face the Bruins twice in a week. Justin real quick. You look at this road trip, you have a back to back to start it out. Are we looking at Johansen again on Tuesday night against Ottawa? Yeah, that would be my guess. They're going to be at the, at the worst two points by in Buffalo, you know, by the time they match up. depending on what happens this weekend. yeah, I think you get, you get Vasileski against Buffalo. You give it the all, you know, we all know Cooper loves trying to win that first game. The Lightning has done a pretty good job of it. And they're, and they're back to back this year. They had 10 or 11 wins in the first half. And then you throw Johansson out there. And I was kind of peeking at the schedule. I see at least two starts for Johansson down the stretch. As far as he's probably going to start this game, he'll probably start the Rangers game. ⁓ the last game of the season, I would expect that gives a vast Celeste a nice little break before the playoffs. So depending on how the playoffs shake out, does he get one more? I don't know. ⁓ I think the lightning as much as I love talking about just getting into the playoffs and then not caring about seating, I do think they want home ice in the first round. So I wouldn't be surprised if you see. That's what let's play this, play the majority of the stretch. And then like I said, you have to getting that auto game and then the Rangers game. Well, normally Justin and I will talk about some NHL news and notes at this point, but with Toronto making so much news out there, we wanted to get a Toronto perspective on everything that's going on with the Maple Leafs. So from pension plan puppets, I did an interview late yesterday with Hardev Ladd. So here's that interview right now. You're on back checking the bolts. try to look at the entire NHL and I really got after Mitch Marner and Hey, you know what? I had my opinion. I really ripped into the Leafs, but we wanted to bring in someone with some insight on the Leafs. So we reached out to our friends at pensionplanpuppets.com and Hardev Ladd covers the Leafs been covering for 10 years. Hardev, thanks for joining us today. Thank you very much. ⁓ saying I've been covering them for 10 years makes me feel old, but you know, guess it's true. Yeah. It's nice to be on. Thank you. Well, you originally started with SB nation. You've since have created the pension plan puppets.com site. Tell us a little bit about the site. We've hit our third three year anniversary as an independent site. It's been, it's been awesome. ⁓ we have an amazing following. We've been, we're self-sustaining. It's great. We, we cover the games every day, every game. We have chats every day, the strength of PPP. The reason why everyone, we have so many followers, we have people who like to come and see us is our comment section. Every day we're in there, we're chatting. It's a really great forum. I really, really have a lot of fun talking to our other writers about prospects and the team and all those kinds of things and Marlies. So yeah, we have a lot of fun at PPP and you know, always like to have more people joining in. Well, let's talk about what's going on with the lease. there's a lot of talk out there. First of all, Brad tree living. He has been relieved from his general manager duties, the head of Maple Leaf sports and entertainment, Keith Peli. said something today that made absolutely no sense to me. He said, I want to hire a general manager. That's high on analytics. Three years ago, you had the guy in Kyle Dubas. You bring in tree living. different scenario. You only give him three years. Now you want to go back to where you were before. What's your thought? Was it about time for him to be let go? ⁓ Yeah, the interesting thing is that MLSC, the owners of the Leafs have gone through a new ownership change. Basically, they were kind of split 50-50 between Rogers and Bell. Now, recently, Rogers owns pretty much all of it at this point. I'm not really sure the details, but let's just go with that. Keith Pelley is a recent hire. He is someone who's come in only in the last few years. I think he was around when Tree Living was hired, but he might not have been. So this is kind of his first chance to go and get involved with the team. So yes, they had Kyle Dubas and that was, you know, the structure that they wanted to have back, back then. That relationship was over like eight years long. think they had, I think Kyle Dubas was the GM for like five to seven years, somewhere in that range. That relationship expired for all the reasons that had happened. They wanted to go a different direction. That different direction was Brad Tree Living. It didn't work, just frankly, didn't work at all. So now they're trying to go back. When I was listening to Keith Pelley's talks, it wasn't that he was looking for like the smartest person in town who has the best numbers. It's not really analytics necessarily that he was looking for. He gave some really clear ⁓ indications that he's looking for someone who will make the most of the resources that the Leafs have. I think that was an indication that Brad Tree Living and his group didn't. They weren't really listening to everyone that they were paying to, you know, come up with ideas, you know, tell them things that are real, tell them things that are important. I think that was probably part of the reason. They did a lot, I feel like they did a lot of decisions off the cuff, a lot of decisions in a panic. I'll say the biggest one, the most one, the one that I think got the most angst from least fans was actually signing Max Domi. Getting him that extension has really Of all the ones, it was Max Domi. It has, I think it has really hampered this team because it was a gut, you know, panic decision that they were worried they weren't going to get anyone else in free agency and they re-upped him for four years. And he has been really, really problematic for the team. It is hard to find a line for him to play on that isn't playing next to Austin Matthews, which hampers Austin Matthews, or on a third line that you can't trust. You can't trust him to center a line. You can't trust him necessarily to get the most out of Austin Matthews. He has actually really hamstrung this lineup a lot. And that is one of, think, many decisions that True Living did make that has really cost this team a lot. As you probably would look, if you looked at their, like, their stat sheet or their, futures sheet, they don't have first round picks in two of the next three years, right? Including this one. And the players that they got back from those trades were Brandon Carlo and Scott Lawton. It's not much. You're not getting much out of that. So. They have had a lot of struggles and a lot of those decisions, think are the things that Keith Pelly really wants to fix. you talked about the lack of picks that they have. You keep hearing that they want to retool and not rebuild. You have Morgan Riley tied to a contract that is cap crippling for a defenseman who's only getting 35 points in a season. He signed an eight year, $60 million deal. Yeah. And it doesn't expire until the 29, 30 season. So he's likely to possibly be bought out. But do the Leafs have the resources to retool like a Detroit has tried to do, like a Pittsburgh has tried to do it and Washington a couple of years earlier, do they have those resources? Ironically, I think it's Pittsburgh that they're most interested in looking like where Kyle Dubas, ironically, the Leafs former GM has turned that team around through a few years of a retool while keeping them competitive, while giving, you know, Sydney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin, fun, interesting, useful years where they're not completely crap. ⁓ And ⁓ giving them that kind of middle ground of getting young players and developing them and bringing them in, but also keeping the team relatively consistent or relatively playable. I think that sort of might be the direction that they're heading in. Now, I don't know if Morgan Rielly is the key linchpin for like the cap anymore than in the past. Cause while the Leafs were competitive, especially during the Dubus era, the cap was more or less flat. Like they weren't getting any increases in the cap. Now the cap's going up a lot. So the Riley situation is more a case of a line of spot and less about money. I think the really key thing here is Austin Matthews. You have two years left with him. What do you do? You want to be competitive with him. You want to see if you can keep him. If you can't, then you trade him and you, and you do the rebuild. So this team is in a retool slash. quick change or, you know, a new face, new ideas. Maybe you can refresh the roster in a year and see what next year looks like with Austin Matthews for sure. And if that doesn't work out, it has its problems. You can convince Matthews to stay long-term then, then you go for the full rebuild. I think that's kind of the idea. if you trade, let's say hypothetically, you trade Matthews. Does that also mean you're trading William Elander? Well, probably. ⁓ I just don't think you trade him until he has won your left on his contracts. Unless you've actually tried with the new GM and you've given it a chance. You see if he wants to stay. I don't think that Matthews has given much indication that he wants out necessarily. He wanted to be the captain. He wanted to be here. He wanted to win a championship here. Those things could all still be true. It's just a case of what makes the most sense for the team. Right? Do you trade him or do you not? If, if Matthews goes and you want to do a full rebuild, yeah, you probably will also want to trade building the Neylander at some point. Maybe don't do it all at once, but you know, at some point. let's take a look at the Eastern Conference right now. Yeah. You have Carolina who has pretty much asserted themselves in the Metro in the Atlantic. have Buffalo, Montreal, Tampa, and even Boston is on the fringe of fighting for that division title. Hard to have, who do you like in the Atlantic for one to win a division and who do you like to come out of the East? Back when I started covering the Leafs, I also covered the Lightning. So they still hold a place in I'm always going to cheer for the Lightning. I'll always, I'll always hope that they do well. Buffalo is, really, really hot right now. Let's see if that keeps going and if they can keep that momentum alive. Can never count the Lightning out to the very least win to the division or, or to go far. So I don't know the teams that I really like the teams that I'm looking for. I expect Tampa to go far because they know how to win. They keep their heads cool through those years, through all that pressure. Carolina, it kind of feels like they're the only team that's stood head and shoulders above the rest for a while and is still that good. Everyone else, especially in the Metro, it's pretty flat in the middle of that Metro division from Pittsburgh all the way down. Like Carolina's in area of their own in the Metro. It's hard between Tampa and Carolina. That would be a really fun conference finals. It really would be now I'm going to ask you this, give me a sleeper in both the East and the West, team that could sneak up and do some damage in the playoffs. the thing is like the obvious answer is Buffalo. Cause you never know if they're going to be real or this was their first try. They're going to start seeing a bunch of things that they're not used to in the playoffs. They're going to, you know, either collapse or they're going to play through it. So Buffalo, even though they're leading the division right now, who knows if they can keep that going, you know, they haven't proven themselves yet sort of situation. Buffalo is kind of my wild card because I don't see them as that established playoff contender yet. Buffalo is kind of my sleeper pick in the East. For the West, just think Colorado is going win the division. They're going to win the West. So it's going to be Colorado. Someone who might be able to beat them. I'm going to go on the limb and say the Ducks. I'm going to go on the limb and say the Ducks. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard because I... They're fun, but that fun can become problematic when the games get started getting tighter. Right. ⁓ they lost to the Leafs last week, I think. And that's kind of embarrassing for them, to be honest with you. So, you know, I'm taking them off my list because you lose to the Leafs. That's, that's not a good look for you. ⁓ Colorado or the, or the field, it's Colorado or the field right now. Hard to have one of the reasons I like the ducks is I love the acquisition of John Carlson. I think that was a great acquisition along the blue line, a veteran presence. This team has not been in the playoffs for quite some time. And there's a learning curve similar to Buffalo, like you were saying. And I just think the Pacific is so weak right now that unless Edmonton gets their act together, I think they almost have a free ride to the conference finals. Maybe I'm giving the ducks too much credit, but I just feel like it's a, it's an easy trip. no, for sure. Like they have it easier than others. So. You know, they have a bit of that, that benefit compared to everyone else. Again, Colorado. I don't know how you beat that team. Just be honest. They, are loaded. hard to have, us what's going on at pension plan puppets for anyone here. can go to pension plan puppets.com and check out hard of in his team. What's going on over there. Yeah. I mean, right now we're looking at the GM search. We're looking at coach staff. ⁓ we're just trying to get an eye of how, how the summer is going to go. We're getting on that early. ⁓ I think discussions we're having are really interesting about who might be an option, what the structure might look like, and what kind of player movements they might make. And I really hope that they get onto this sooner rather than later in terms of hiring people and getting a plan together because the worst thing you can do is come in unprepared and then be stuck. So we're talking about that a lot over at PvP. We have lots of fun ⁓ and it gives us something better to do than talk about losing because this, this least season. Was not fun. And this is actually giving us something to talk about finally, rather than a team that doesn't adapt a team that doesn't win a team that's doing the same thing over and over again. Well, hard dev. First of all, thank you for joining us today. You can see hard dev and his team at pension plan puppets.com. Hope to talk to you later in the playoffs and Hey, appreciate you joining us today. Absolutely. Call me back. You got it. Have a great day. Thank you. Well, we appreciate hard dev lad joining us. We hope to have him back. When the Lightning faced Toronto at some point next year, Justin, the Lightning did not come out of the Montreal game unscathed. A couple injuries. He had Brandon Hagel, you had Scott Sabarin. Tell us about that. quite sure what's going on with Hagel. Um, you know, he played 22 minutes in that game. He was on the ice for much of the end of it. I think his last shift technically was three minutes long, just a mix with the Lightning power plays. And then that big stoppage after Kuturov was boarded by Jake Evans. So he looked, he looked fine. ⁓ they announced it at the practice on a Wednesday that he, you he wasn't on the ice. And, ⁓ afterward Cooper said that he was day to day doubtful to play against, ⁓ the penguins. then he did mention also that Scott's sovereign was also a little dinged up and also day to day and doubtful. Sabyrinth did take the big hit at the end of the game from Arger, ⁓ Jackie and they got into a little tussle. So, you know, you can kind of see like, yeah, he probably got a little dinged up from that. ⁓ so not quite sure what's going on with Hagel. It's kind of one of these lingering, could be one these little lingering things. Maybe they're just giving him a day off. Maybe he's feeling a little under the weather. You know, they did have that illness, but that took Kuturov out for a couple of games. It's hard to say, you know, I mean, it was kind of funny after the pregame, the morning skates, Jeff Halperin kind of was the point person to answer the reporters. And he was like, dude, I don't know what's going on. Like he was like, I have no idea. He's like, somebody had mentioned that Hagel was doubtful. He's like, I didn't even know that man. I was working on the power play. So, uh, they're being, I always say the NHL, if, if you went through history right now, uh, Abraham Lincoln would be questionable to come back to Ford's theater with an upper body injury. Yeah. So yeah, yeah. It's doubtful for tonight. it the worst thing in the world? If it's not a, you know, a huge problem, don't mind, hey, we'll get a good day off here there. So it'll be interesting to see how he goes with the road trip, uh, calling up Chaffee. Um, they, Chaffee, should say they, um, kind of showed them that they wanted to go. with that 12 forward roster as opposed to going 11-7. They could have cycled Steve Santini in, but I think they wanted to kind of keep their lines a little bit more stable against the Peguins. He played pretty well. He's had a great season down in Syracuse after getting sent down there, so it was nice to see him up, give that fourth line a little physical punch. Justin, the other lightning news was Victor Hedman. He was placed on long-term injured reserve. We all know Hedman has been on a personal leave. Why do the Lightning place him on long-term injured reserve? It's always interesting this time of year with such a short time left in the season, the cap math changes on a daily basis. I think they moved him over there just to be able to free up enough money to be able to pull up Mitchell Chaffee, have that player come up. I don't think it changes his timeline with what they're planning on doing with him, whatever's keeping him out right now. Hopefully he's back for the end of the year. Again, he's another one these guys. don't, I don't want to rush him back. He's had that bad year. He's been dealing with injuries all year long. It seemed like he was getting over that elbow thing. And then at the Olympics, he tweaked something lower body. So I think at this point, their defense is playing well enough that they don't need to rush him back. Not as big a deal as maybe in some other years. this was pretty much just a way to sort of massage the salary cap. This strategy behind it. Other than that. In my opinion, that's what happened. Not being there in the boardroom, you you never know exactly what's going on, but I don't think it's any indication that whatever he's dealing with has gotten worse or that his timeline has changed. I think somebody did ask Halpern about that as well. And again, he played Dom. He's like, don't, you know, I don't know what's going on. If you go back to that 2018-19 season that the Lightning had such a great regular season and then, you know, got swept in the first round. Hedman was hurt towards the end of the season there. And I think he was, he wasn't the same in that first round. think danger already had gotten hurt too. So I Cooper's kind of being a little wary with some of these injuries. He knows the light near to make the playoffs. knows they're probably going to be a top seed. He's not going to force these guys back or force them to play if they're not a hundred percent. It's been such a condensed month since the Olympics. And even before that, that if he can get them an extra day off that he's going to do that. So I think that's kind of what we're seeing right now. If the lightning were say in a wild card spot or hunting for the playoffs, I would not be surprised if, you know, Hagel was playing and possibly even headman. they announced that Hagel was out, I was thinking to myself, are they giving him sort of a maintenance game? Yeah. Don't play against Pittsburgh knowing that Buffalo's right. Yeah. On Monday. Out of all the leagues out there, the lightning, you you talk about load maintenance and I know the NBA is going through it right now. I'm trying to find that, that fine line of how you deal with. You'll keeping your players healthy and, ⁓ but still getting them on the ice. would, the way hockey is, I don't think the players would agree to just sitting out, just to sit out, you know, there's been some speculation that, this illness that's going around, maybe Jake Edsel is going to catch it at some point. And maybe Ryan McDonough is going to catch it at some point. You'd be hard pressed and convinced, think a hockey player to just take a day off, just to take a day off. But if they are banged up, if they are trying to come back from something, they know the importance. of ⁓ being healthy and rested for the playoffs. So yeah, I don't think they're hurrying back from some of these injuries or illnesses, but at the same time, I don't think there's any like manipulation going on either. It's sort of like the players who come back from the Vegas flu. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't seem to be such a big deal as I think the least kind of adjusted to play in Vegas. I know that first year, ⁓ you and the Lightning, think Danny got wrapped up in it a little bit. I teams have adjusted to, to, to travel into Vegas these days. Not that anybody in the league gambles, right? There's, no, no one does. I'll be, I'll be out there on the 13th. All right. What am I doing on the 13th? Yeah. Um, but yeah, so it's going to be an interesting, you know, next two weeks just to see what the, lineup looks like going into that Rangers game. wouldn't be surprised if the lighting or kind of let, you know, clinched into a spot that you may see some players rest. They see some, you know, some call-ups from Syracuse for the day. They still got a couple of their recalls available to, to, bring somebody up. So. We could see an interesting lineup on that final game, but I think, ⁓ right now they're there. Look to get their, their, their play on the ice into a playoff style, which we saw again, especially where I thought that was a very playoff like win. And then they're just trying to get healthy. Yeah. And it's trying to stay healthy. Justin, what's going on over at raw charge? ⁓ we'll take a look at some stuff. ⁓ kind of want to dig in. mentioned the gurgles and picked up that hundreds goal. He had such a bad year last year point wise. I think a lot of people soured on the acquisition. I think what we're seeing this year is what they were expecting out of Gergenson's kind of break down his season a little bit, see how he's played, what he brings to the team. He's not going to be the biggest goal scorer in the world, but he's got, it was his ninth goal last year. So from somebody on the third line, who's out there for defensive responsibility, that's a pretty good output. I'll take a look at that. ⁓ preview the Boston game, preview the Buffalo game. ⁓ I think that's going to be your, your capstone on the season. What happens in that game is going to determine how they play down the stretch. Hopefully the lady can pick up the win, maybe pick up that first. first spot in the Atlantic and get that overall home at night's advantage for as long as they can in the playoffs. next podcast here on back checking the bolts will be dropping on Monday, probably around noon time. We're going to recap the Bruins game and we're going to preview the big tilt in Buffalo next Monday night. Also, we'll talk about the Ottawa game the following day as the lightning embark on a four game road trip. For Justin Godfrey, who you could see at www.rawcharge.com, I'm Jason Linkes. Thank you so much for joining us today. Please hit that like and subscribe button. We're almost to 1200 subscribers. We're growing quick and we can't do it without you. So thank you very much for Justin. I'm Jason. Thanks again and go bolts. Go bolts. Thank you for listening to Back Checking the Bolts. We are free and available on all platforms including Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on bluesky at rawcharge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore bolts underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Back Checking the Bolts. If you're interested in advertising on the show or partnering with us, You can find more information in the show notes or email Jason at backcheckingthebolts at yahoo.com.