Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / From Broadway Blues to Seattle OT Glory! Rangers & Kraken Recap
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- From Broadway Blues to Seattle OT Glory! Rangers & Kraken Recap: Think they're work through it. Yes, they're the worst power play team in the league right now. And yes, this is not something that short out. They were something like four for fifty seven on the power plays, about seven percent. They gotta start mixing it up a little bit. It couldn't be putting Cirelli on that top line. So we'll see what they do moving forward. Maybe it's just a confidence thing. If they get one or two against Vancouver, maybe that propels them into a nice little streak. Welcome to Backchecking the Bolts.. Backchecking the Bolts. is your cup of coffee. To get you the latest on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Join hosts Jason Lincoln 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, and welcome to Backchecking the Bolts.. We are back after a Tampa Bay Lightning 4 3 overtime victory over the Seattle Kraken. A Victor Hedman special. It was nice to see the guy have a vintage moment, and that's what Victor Hedman had last night as he got the OT winner. Today we're gonna recap the 4 1 loss to the Rangers. We're gonna talk about that 4 3 win against Seattle. We're gonna look ahead to the Saturday's tilt. Against the Vancouver Canucks before the Lightning head back on the road. They go to Vegas next Tuesday, and we're gonna look at our surprises and disappointments throughout the NHL. Now it's time for me to bring on my cohort. He is the managing editor of Raw Charge. He is Justin Godfrey. You can read him each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. Justin, you were in the press box last night for the game. You got to see a Victor Hedman special. That was Vintage Hedman, was it was nice to see. Yeah, the old guy kind of turned on the wheels there a little bit. it was kind of funny to watch that play develop from up top. It was you know, kind of a night he comes fly he comes kind of jumping off the boards, you know, cook they did a little line change with John Karlsson. Hom Holmburg gets in the puck and you know he kind of just circles, he has his head up, and it's like, Well, I guess I'm just gonna call my own number. And basically what he said after the game is he saw the defense kind of split wide, so he knew if he could beat the the guy up top which was Shane Wright, he'd have a pr pretty much just a straight shot into the net, which he did. And I think he kinda surprised Wright a little bit with his speed because he he did have the little giddy up there. But I thought it was really nice plays by Cirelli and Holmburg to draw those other defenders out wide. And then by the time they reacted to Hedman coming up the middle was too late. You know, Grubauer tries the old poke check. It didn't work and Hedman slides it under. It's gotta be a great boost for his confidence. It took him forever to get his first goal last year with all the struggles he had. he's up to three points this year, which based on his playing time, it's not too bad. That was a really good moment. I was glad to see he got it. it's kind of funny. We did post an article yesterday about you know a little a too little too early look at Hedman's season. You know, there were some good things to pull from it, some bad you know, some things that, you know, kinda weren't as good. So it's probably we should do more profiles on people who are struggling. So maybe for Saturday we'll have a Brayden Point article or something like that to see if we can get him motivated that way. Well, I will have to say this. Victor Hedman, as he was coming down, Grubauer thought he had, I think, a much easier poke check, but when Hedman is a big man, he's got the wing sans wingspan of a seven forty-seven and it showed. He really caught him off guard the fact that he was able to put that puck towards the net. But Justin, let's start our recap. Let's go back To the four one loss against the New York Rangers. For whatever reason, right now, the Rangers have the Lightning number. And this was a little bit again, when we look at your game notes, the first point you reached out to me and said it's the same game, it's the same story. This was a little bit of the season opener part two. Yeah, it's just For whatever reason, the Lightning looks slow when they're in massive square garden. For most of the season, the Lightning have been an up tempo team. They've been really good on the forecheck. They've been really good at disrupting things, breakouts, but against the Rangers, it's just not there. they're second to the puck on on almost every loose puck. they can't get their forecheck going. It's an easy, easy time out of the zone for the Rangers. And then they just struggle. And and you kind of look at some of the numbers. It's one of those weird ones where most of the stuff we use to track possession and kind of the flow of the game. Are in the Lightning's favor. I mean, they have more shot attempts, they have more scoring chances, they more high danger chances. they're just not converting against the the Rangers for some reason. When they do get those chances, then they get behind and they're chasing a game. Cooper was pretty easy on them after the loss, just because he said, but they've played four really good games in a row. They have this clunker. We don't know what it is with with the Rangers. so yeah, it was just kind of one of those really disjointed kind of games, and they just never got into their flow. But, you know. They don't have to play in Madison Square again the rest of the regular season. So eighty-two and two, here we come. The Rangers are a young team. They're much younger than they were. They've turned over the roster. Do you think part of this is just you have a young team that plays hard, very quick. They're a much quicker team than they were last year, top to bottom. Do you think those kind of teams give an older veteran offensive team like the Lightning a little bit of trouble just because they just don't give them a whole lot of space? Honestly, I think it's it's the last point you made there. It's it's about the space. the Lightning have troubles with teams that don't give them space. so the Rangers immediately pressured Kutra offer point whenever they came into this zone. This year I thought the Lightning have played pretty well against teams that have speed. You haven't seen a lot of the the breakaways. a team like Minnesota is really quick, a team like Seattle last night is really quick, and I thought the Lightning handled it pretty well. the only time they've really been caught out as far as some breakaways was against the Rangers, and I think that was just because they were kind of pushing towards the end, pinching their D's in and and, you know, had a couple breakaways here and there. it's kind of funny that LaFreniere goal is an alley oop goal, and basically everything that had to go right for the Rangers did, you know, Sorelli's the guy on the back check. It's your best defender. He tries to swat at the puck with his hand, misses it. It lands right on LaFrenier stick. He's able to kind of shield off Sorelli's stick check attempts and then puts it home. I think Something like where La Fronnier is just on a heater right now. Last year that he probably flubs that goal or it doesn't even get to his stick. I don't know what it is with the Rangers. It's just one of those things that they struggle. And I think the Lightning have gotten a lot better with dealing with team speed and their s their defensive shell has been really good this year. So I I thought that's been a positive over the first seven games. Let's talk real quick about LaFreniere. Pretty much a colossal disappointment. It as the number one overall pick a few years back. A lot of people expected him to be one of the next superstars in the league. He's clearly not, but this is his best start by far. Do you think his success early on this season is just because of opportunity? You think it's maturity? Do you see anything different about his game that wasn't there a couple years ago? I think it's kind of confidence, honestly, and maybe relaxed expectations. You know, the Rangers weren't expected to do too much this year. so you take some of that pressure off, and I think a player like him, he gets the opp he you know, he gets the opportunity as well to be the number one guy, and he's just kind of matured into his game. I thought we saw a little bit of it last year. I thought he had a pretty good year year last year as well, from the times I saw him. And you know, players mature at different ages. So, you know, you you add opportunity with a little bit of growth, maybe Both physically and mentally, and you have the kind of year. Now w that being said, you know, still got a long way to go in the season. This could just be early. Hot two week stretch. Are the Rangers a good team? Maybe they're looking like it. you know, the goaltending thing's gonna shake out how it shakes out. you know, it was going good up until last night, but last night they I'm sure when you're in a press box, you're like, Okay, wow, they just gave up a seventh spot. Yeah, it's like, you know, the guy sitting next to is like, Did you see the Rangers score? It's like and I kinda glanced at every was like, ooh. That's not going good. You know, it seemed like every time Jersey went down the ice, he just put the puck in that. So but yeah, you know, you know, and that metro division's kind of wide open. So can they build on this, you know, strong start and and end up in the playoffs? I think so. Carolina, they're gonna be okay. But the rest of it, the other teams in that division, are you scared by anybody in it? Not really. No, you're exactly right. There's not a team out there other than Carolina that you're like, wow, that's a really good team. And we're gonna be talking about some of the surprises and disappointments at the end of the pod. But Justin, in that Rangers game, it was the Holmburg Girgenson McKayev line. Probably the biggest bright spot for the Bolts. in that game. Yeah, to me they were the the one team that kind of played as a unit. you know, we mentioned the turnovers from like Kucherov and Point. It those top two lines did not have a good game. I I I'm almost all six players on the on the top line kind of struggled a little bit, including Brandon Hagel, which is probably the one game where he hasn't been. D Brandon Hagel that we've seen this year. And it's just to me, it felt like a lot of individual efforts. Like they would just go in alone, try and skate around two or three players and and cough up the puck, or they would go in, circle back points, famous for charging into the into the zone, circling around and looking for a pass. And those passes just weren't there. So it's a lot of individual efforts, except for that Girgenson's line, which played really well, you know, throughout this whole 11-7 run of play. It's dependent on one line that's kind of stayed together. Final point is Nikita Kucherov last year. A slow start by Kucherov standards. And I think we're seeing the same thing a little bit this year. The Rangers shut down the rating NHL MVP and it wasn't much of a factor in that Rangers game. Yeah, he had absolutely zero space. I think I took a look at the numbers. He had one shot attempt at five on five. and that happened all of three times last year. so that Kind of speaks to how good the Rangers were at focusing on Kucherov and shutting him down. He bounced back against Seattle, which we kind of figured he would, but if you can take him out of the play early, he gets frustrated. He kind of makes some mistakes. He kept he starts to force things, which I thought he did against New York. and then he's just out of his game. So credit to the Rangers. Justin, last night, of course, the Lightning with the 4 3 overtime victory. And in your Godfrey game notes, the first note is Let's welcome back Dominic James. He's back in the lineup. Justin, with him entering the lineup, who left the lineup and how did James look? All right. Coop went with the eleven seven once again, and it was Gage Gonçalves who actually got to spend the day up in the press box. So it was kind of interesting to see him, you know. Originally when you're kind of looking at lineups and you know James is coming back, I did think it was gonna be Jeffrey Viel who who got a seat. You he he did sit out against a team of the other night when Scott Sabourin played against the Islanders. They went with Gage, which I think probably is not a bad thing. I think every once in a while Gage kind of needs a kind of a mental reset a little bit. He gets to pushing too hard and then it kind of affects his play on the ice. So it'll be interesting to see how long he's out. And then as far as James, I mean, honestly it looked like he hadn't missed a beat. You kind of keep an eye on these guys when they're coming back to to check out their first shifts and It was a kind of an on-the-fly change. He comes jumping over the boards, skates right to the neutral zone where the action is, gets in the middle of things, grabs a pucks, zooms into the offensive zone, just kind of like the Dominic James we've we've been used to seeing. he played mostly with Geekie and Viel on on what would be, I guess, a fourth line, as much as Cooper hates to number his lines, but kind of that secondary scoring line looked really good, looked really fast. His transition game is just really the best part of him. So, you he'll he'll get the puck in the neutral zone or in the defensive zone and then just zip right into the offensive zone. He got a little bit of time with I think it was Hagel or no, it was po it was good point and Guentzel, kind of that opening that the w the Lightning had with their eleven seven. So he had his first shift with him, he draws a penalty, which last year I think his penalty penalty differential was something like twelve to four. So he drew twelve penalties and committed four. And that's what speed does, you know. for the Lightning. It it puts the other teams on their back foot and it draws penalties. And that's kind of what James did. he had a little bit of an unfortunate moment where he was rotated back out to the point, kind of flubs a flubs a pass back to him, turns it over and he has to tackle the player to prevent a breakaway. Crack and score on that power play. So you know there was some bad with the good, but I thought he looked you know mid season for him. I think he's going to be great. He's going to Probably move up and down the lineup until they kind of solidify things a little bit, but he just brings that nice element of speed to the Lightning that that they miss in their top six or so from time to time. Justin, that penalty, did that occur right before the Maddie Brunniers goal? Or was that the Jared McCann goal? it was the Jared McCann goal, it the one that they scored like seven seconds into the power play. Which the one that Jordan Everly threaded a pass through Ryan McDonagh.. Like that it was that was right down below us and You know, you you see it live and you're like, How did that pass get through? And then you kinda look up at the T V monitors and watch the replay and you're like still like, How did that pass get through? I mean, it wasn't like McDonagh. was going down. Like he was down. He was on the ice and something through it it gets through. And, you know, that's kind of been the story with the Lightning penalty kill this year. numbers overall don't look great. But some of the goals that they've given up, I know two of them, it's been defenseman has lost his stick. I think what the one against the Rangers came off of a A shot that hit the post and came right to Mika Zibanejad. So they've kind been a little cursed a little bit on the penalty kill because I think overall they've played fairly well. Like the other power play opportunities that the the Kraken had, they didn't really have too many chances. And same thing against the Rangers, the game before. I d I didn't think they gave up much as far as chances. it just happens. I think Coop pointed out you gotta kinda win that face off or at least tie him up. And that speaks also to the the goal later, the game tying goal. So, you know, those are both face-offs lost and goals come right off of it. So it's gonna be a recurring thing like the pen the power play. You know, face-offs and power play are probably your your two big obstacles right now for the Lightning. So yeah, they'll just keep working to get better at them. Now the power play, you talked about the penalty kill struggling, even though I think the penalty kill has actually looked decent at times, like you said, the power play has been a power outage. They just cannot seem to get going. When are they going to start making some wholesale changes out there to try to get this thing energized? Well you saw a a minor change last night. The third opportunity, I believe it was, you know, Anthony S Cirelli was out there in place of Brandon Hagel. which, you know, seems like a minor change, but you're also taking probably the the best player so far through seven games for the Lightning off of the top power play unit. You put Cirelli on there, you you you do get a little better chance with your face-offs, I think, over the last two their their first opportunity wasn't good and it was the same first unit and it was the same problems, lose face-offs, can't get the puck in the zone. second opportunity, which was split over the end of the first period and into the second period, looked a little bit better. They got a couple chances, and then the third one actually looked really, really good when Cirelli was out there. You know, he wins the face-off, they keep the puck in the zone, the puck retention's good. you know, point gets pushed out to that left circle, and it kind of frees him up to move a little bit more. as good as he's been in the bumper position in the slot. throughout his career. I think it's getting a little stagnant for the Lightning. So to get him out moving, open up some shots, they had a really good chance. Jake Guentzel on the back post and he just he just pushed it wide, honestly. and then I think on the second one, Karlsson had a nice kind of slap pass down low and Hagel deflected it off the outside of the post. So for the first time in probably about three games, I would say, the power play looked good. Like, The process was there, it especially on the third attempt, but I do think, you know, they are kind of being a little stubborn about it. There's a fine line between trusting the players that have this experience and being stubborn. And I think at this point, Cooper and and Jeff Halpern, who runs the special teams, are being a little bit stubborn with this rotation. I I think you just have to mix it up, if nothing else, just to give players a different look. give teams a different look. I mean, teams know what the Lightning want to do on the power play and they're stopping it. They're gonna stack the line and because the top unit loves to carry the puck and they don't want to dump it in and chase it. so you you kind of mix it up a little bit, put some different personnel, and maybe you go to a more of a dump and chase, and now you're backing people off of that blue line, which then in turn gives you the space to carry it in. Everything's related in in a sense. So I think they're gonna work through it. Yes, they're the worst power play team in the league right now. And yes, this is not something that's short. I actually took a look the last time Seattle was in town. was I think March twenty sixth of last year. Lightning went one for one on the power play. Yay. if you include that game up until before last night, they were something like four for fifty seven on the power plays, about seven percent. Wow and they'd actually they actually allowed three short handed goals over that time. So your goal differential is only one. Now granted one of those was the Zibanejad, you know, goal at the end of the Rangers game, which counted as a short handed goal even though it was an empty netter. But yeah there's they they gotta start mixing it up a little bit. And it doesn't have to be big changes. It couldn't be putting Cirelli on that top line. You know, that's not that big of a trade off. So we'll see what they do moving forward, especially against a Vancouver team that's not very good. Maybe it's just a confidence thing. If they get one or two against Vancouver, maybe that propels them into a nice little streak. If the power play continues to struggle, do you go back to the old times and have Victor Hedman back there on the point? you might say I wouldn't be surprised to see him maybe on the Second unit. the stew was the other healthy scratch today. and that's just a rotation thing. I don't think it's anything about the way he's played. they just want to get Emil Lilleberg back in into some action. And so it was JJ Moser who was on that second unit, which I think saw maybe 30 seconds of ice time. They they weren't on there a lot a lot at all. I think as the season progresses, you're gonna see Hedman worked back into this lineup a little bit more. I think they're still kind of going slow with it. I think tonight was a big step up for him. 'cause not only did he have the goal, he had a really nice play on one of Hegel's goal where he, you know, Hegel's or Hedman's got the puck in his own zone. Capo Kakko is absolutely hounding him with for the puck on the forecheck and he's all over him. Hedman makes a really nice play to kind of use his body to shield it off and then he chips it up the board to Dominic James, who gets it out. you know, a lot of times you see on that kind of play with the way Kako is all over him, it's a turnover or he just tries to bang it up off the glass off his backhand and maybe either flips it into the stands or just, you know, flips out an empty pass. So You know, I thought Hedman's looked good, really good for most of the season. He's had a couple clunkers of a game, but overall, I think as his confidence goes, as he gets his legs back, I think you'll probably start seeing him sneak in on that at least the second power play unit, maybe even the first. We'll see how goes. Justin, on the third Godfrey game note, it was Victor Hedman. We just talked a little bit about him possibly going on the power play, but this was a little bit more of vintage Victor Hedman. And I think it's real important for the Lightning to get him back if they get if they want to get to where they need to go, if they want to go deep into the playoffs, they're gonna need Victor Hedman to be the Victor Hedman that we all knew. Do you expect to see his minutes start to increase, even though you talked about possibly going twelve six, and they're gonna have to rest certain players because they're still carrying eight defensemen? Do you expect to see his minutes increase moving forward? Probably a little bit. I mean, it's it's been really interesting how they've used the defense right now so far this season. You know, took a look at the numbers. I think it came up in the kind of the morning skate conference, you know, press conference about the you d you know, how they're utilizing people. Right now on this, you know, through seven games, they have one defenseman who's averaging over twenty minutes a night. And that's JJ Moser. And it's like just barely it's twenty minutes and nine seconds. And this is in all situations. So this includes power play. And penalty kill. Moser's next at 1746 and then Crozier's at 1640 five. Everybody else is under 16 minutes. Hedman right now, kind of about he's at 1421. so it's been a really even spread. And that that is kind of the benefit of the 11 to 7, is you can rotate out your defensemen. I think it's you know, a lot of people are talking about Hedman, but one thing to look at like Ryan McDonough's own only averaging about 15 minutes at a night, 1536. and his five on five time is way down. So It's not just Hedman that's kind of, you know, I wouldn't say sheltered minutes, but is having less minutes or is having fewer minutes on the ice. And I think that is strategic. I think they kind of want to rest some of these older players early when they can. And there's different ways to do it. You can have them sit out a game, or you can just, you know, lower their minutes on a nightly basis. A lot of it, again, you go back to the 11 7, you got more players to rotate through. And Cooper admits it sometimes, every once in a while, you know, a player gets kind of lost on the bench. just Based on the way the game's going out. And Dave Michigan kind of made a point the other day in one of his talks. The Lightning don't have that player who plays all three, you know, facets of the ice. You know, if you're on the power play, it's pretty much John Karlsson, but he doesn't kill penalties. And then vice versa, you have someone like McDonagh. who kills penalties, but he's not on the power play. I think T'Stu doesn't really kill penalties either. So when he's out there, so you don't have that 26 27-minute guy like a Quinn Hughes who's out there for every single situation. And that kind of helps balance out the numbers a little bit as well. So it seems they've gotten a buy-in. I I think there's a couple players that wouldn't mind being on the ice a little more. I think Moser's one of these guys who who wants to prove his big contract that he just signed. you know, he wants to be out there in every situation. And so we'll see how it goes throughout the year. You know, if they do go back to 12 to 6, does it get back to where you're throwing Cernak and McDonagh. out there 20 minutes a night? You know, is Moser and Karlsson gonna be the combo that's out there twenty minutes of the night as well. But it's something to keep an eye on. I think they've handled it pretty well. The Lightning have been a good defensive team this year. Defense hasn't been their problem. So it's working. Might as well stick with it while you can. We have the next segment we're gonna call eighty-four bets in eighty-four games. It's Justin Godfrey. Every game he puts out a bet for you to make prior to every Lightning game. Now, so far in the season, Justin, you are I think I'm three. I think you're a game below 500, right? Three and four, yeah. So split I split the two here, so three and four. So on the r in the Rangers, you had Brandon Hagel plus a half assist and a Lightning win on the parlay. And for those of you who don't know gambling, a parlay means multiple bets. You have to win them both. That was not a winner. Last night you had Nikita Kucherov over two and a half shots at minus one hundred fifty-five. And for those again who don't know gambling, Minus one hundred fifty five means you have to bet a hundred and fifty five dollars to win a hundred. That was a winner. So you're just one game below five hundred. You're looking ahead at that Vancouver game. Any thoughts going into Vancouver? Probably probably going back to you know shot totals. I love shot totals. especially when you have teams that give up a lot of shots. And that c that's kind of what influenced me in regards to the Seattle game. You know, as good as as as good as Seattle's played this year. They've given up a ton of shots. I think they'd given up the most in the league on a per game basis. and the sh where the shot locations were coming from, Nikita Kucherov's side of the ice. And you also had Kucherov coming off a bad game, which you usually don't have him throw together two or three game bad games in a row. So I really felt you know, on that bet, I I felt it was a it was a good bet. And obviously I could have ta bet it up to eight shots on the night because I think that's what he ended up with. Vancouver, probably the same thing. Maybe even leaning the over. I gotta see what that number posts out at. I think it's gonna be kind of an open game. One thing to notice with Vancouver is they are getting Philip Cheidel back. So they are gonna be a little bit better than than what we've seen on the season. But I'll also probably wait to see who the goaltenders are. You know, it's a it's a weird start time, it's a four PM start time. So is it another Hildeby game? It could be. so we'll keep an eye out on that. I don't have that locked in quite yet, but I'll definitely have it posted out before the game starts. As far as the Rangers bet, sometimes you just don't make good bets, man. I went against one of my betting tenants, which is when a team is on a winning streak and they have that bad game but still kind of win, chances are they're gonna lose the next one. I didn't think the Lightning played really well against the Islanders. so I probably should have leaned more towards the Rangers. And then as far as Hagel, I just riding the hot hand. figuring he'd find a way to chip a point in. So Every you know, on an eighty four game season you're gonna have some where you kind of just take a flyer and it doesn't pay out. The one thing with teams that are offensive, and Justin, you and I have had many gambling conversations over the years. Whenever you have teams that are as offensively gifted as the Lightning, there's a lot of value in unders because everybody thinks that they are going to score nonstop. It's just like a football game. Everybody envisions a Rams, Buffalo, Bills type of football game with every game. And for those of you don't know, last I think it was Monday night, it was a forty to thirty-seven Bills victory. But everyone envisions those kinds of games. And with the Lightning, because you have Kucherov, because you have Hagel, because you have Point, people always envision it's gonna be nothing but offense. There's some value in the unders. Now, I know the unders, they're not the fun bet. I always say when you bet an under, it's like taking a girl on a date and hoping she doesn't invite you back to her place at the end. It's just the way it is. You're basically hoping that no one scores. But that's just the way it is when you have offensively gifted teams. Justin, I do want to talk about the Vancouver Canucks. They're coming off a really tough loss against the Florida Panthers, three two last night. Florida with a comeback victory. Are there any players we should be looking at with the Vancouver Canucks? Who could be factors in this game on Saturday? I think the Pedersons, I think both of them have kind of had bounce back years. So it's it's been a rough last couple of years for him, but I think he's kind of almost like the La Frontier situation where without the expectations, without some of the locker room drama that that he's gone through, he's played pretty well. I thought again towards the end of last season, you kind of saw his game emerge, and now this year, he's playing pretty well. So he's off. I think Jake DeBrusk is another guy to keep an eye on. just if for nothing else possible trade implications at the deadline, you know, Vancouver is not going to go on a miraculous run here and get back into competition. So, you know, you kind of keep an eye out on as we start hitting that ten game mark, what kind of changes two teams make and I think the trade lists kind of start building. So keep an eye on him. Justin, let's talk about our surprises and disappointments so far in the in the season. Let's take a look at the Eastern Conference. I think the biggest surprise is the New York Rangers. They continue to amaze me, considering their injuries. They got they had an injury at the worst possible position. Now last night they got decimated. Do I think this will continue for the Rangers where they're still a playoff caliber type team? I don't, but they've gotten off to a great start. And my biggest disappointment, I think everybody's, is the Philadelphia Flyers. Nine games, they're still winless on the season. Who do you have as your surprises and disappointments in the East? Surprises, Rangers were on there, and then I also threw Ottawa on there. I basically gloss over them them in my predictions. I like, Hey, they're just a hockey team, right? And you know, here they are, twelve points in their first, I believe, six games, seven games, on top of the division. And they've done it by playing solid defense. Kind of like with New York. Will it last? We're gonna have to see. And then Rangers were on there, of course. And then as far as my struggles, a kind of Montreal. Dobish has struggled in net. they just recalled Fowler. Montebal's on IR again. So kind of a rough start. I think they're starting to put it together now. It's a young team, so maybe, you know you have some smoke blown up your ass last year. You have a really good season. and maybe you don't kind of have the dedication you need at the beginning of the season, but I think they're kind of straightening it out. they're gonna be a a competition. But you know, to see them start as slow as they did, it's it was kind of surprising. And then I also had Dallas on there. Dallas where offense goes to die. both sides. I mean, they're not giving up goals, but they're not scoring either. I mean, they just signed David Perron Perron for God's sake. So, you know, kind of interesting to see what's going on over there. Maybe, you know, we'll bring West back on at some point to talk about what's going on in in the big D. But you know, Philly. Have we seen a team this bad recently? I mean, this harkens back to like those ninety seven, ninety eight Lightning teams that just can't score. They got eleven goals in nine games. that's you know, that's the amazing thing is the the lack of goal scoring and they have talent. And of course in Philadelphia, y they're ready to fire Rick Tochett after nine games. Now in the NHL that's not unheard of for that for that to happen. It's a bad streak. There's a lot of young talent out there for the Flyers, but this is this is surprising. I thought Philadelphia would be a team that at least got off to a hot start, considering what happened at the end of last year, and it's been the complete opposite. Justin, we've talked about the surprises and disappointments. Now what's going on over at Rotcharge? just gonna keep rolling, you know, got a couple games this week. Then they're gonna have the big West Coast trip. I do think it's kind of funny the way the schedule's rolled out that so far. if I'm not mistaken, was it seven games in a row against Western Conference teams? so get the get the co coffee and the Red Bull going to cover some of these games. probably take another look at the power play. We did one already. but just kind of trying to figure out what's going on with it and what they can fix if they can. Gonna dive in, probably do a little recap of the Crunch, who are off to a bit of a slow start. If you didn't get a chance to read the Hedman article, it shines a little different after his game last night, but I think it's still worth worth a look into some of those numbers and stuff. But yeah, so we'll just keep going. Enjoy the wins, because the Lightning Fashion played pretty well. So don't be so sad, Lightning fans. Things are going well. The Bolts. continue their homestand. They play Vancouver at four o'clock on Saturday, then they head out west. They play the Vegas Golden Knights at ten thirty on Tuesday night. You can read Justin each and every day over at www dot rawcharge dot com. I'm Jason Linkes.. Thanks for joining us today. Please hit that like and subscribe button and go Bolts.. Go Bolts.. Thank you for listening to Backchecking 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 Blue Sky at Rawcharge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore Bolts. underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at BackcheckingTheBolts. 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.