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Lightning Dominate 6-3 Win vs Minnesota ⚡ Who’s on Tampa Bay’s Mount Rushmore · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up next on Back Checking the Bolts. We're going to see a raft of these current players get inducted into the Hall of Fame when they retire in five, six years. Who's going to be the next great Lightning? it's kind hard to say at this point. Brandon Point may work his way into the conversation. Brandon Hagel may work his way into the conversation. But ⁓ I think you've got a pretty solid four or five guys. 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. Welcome ladies and gentlemen, you are on the back checking the bolts podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Jason Lancaster. And as always, I am joined by the man you can read on raw charge www.rawcharge.com. He's the managing editor. He is Justin Godfrey. Justin, how you doing, bud? Pretty good, man. Good morning. Another beautiful morning podcast here in lovely Dunedin. It's a little cloudy this morning. He actually gets a rain good times. Hey, up here in Des Moines, Iowa, where I'm at right now, it's going to be about 86 degrees. So it actually might be the same temperature as Florida today. and the home of the enemy for all are the Gator fans that are listening today. Boy, was that a shock. I mean, if you would have told me before the tournament, Florida was going to lose early. I never would have thought a team like Iowa. I travel here enough to where I see enough Iowa games did not think they were good enough to beat Florida. That has to be one that is going to stick with them for quite some time because they let one slip away that this is not a good Iowa team. And for them to just not show up in the first half, I'm sure Gator nation is going to be chomping at the bit. Literally didn't even mean to make that pun on words, but Hey, right now I'm in fourth place of 116 brackets. I'm looking good right now for the first time in a long time. I'm in contention. There you go. ⁓ I am not as I chose not to participate as I did my usual zero preparation for college basketball this year, but good luck, sir. May your brackets be true for the rest of the way as guess the, have to pay off that patio that I just, I just got it. And so, Hey, Justin, let's talk about the lightning right now. Last night, sort of a tale of two games. We knew coming off of a long four game road trip out West, this was sort of, let's call it a trap game. It's a game that most teams slip up on. They come out slow and Tampa did the first period was not kind to them. But in the second and the third, they played lightning hockey, especially the third period. What was your overall assessment of the game? Yeah. ⁓ I, I wouldn't even go so far to say the entire first period. thought, ⁓ probably about 10 minutes in or so. They started to find their footing a little bit. It was kind of unfortunate. They gave up that second goal late Brandon Hagel. I love him. He is a bit of a hothead. He kind of mouse off to the official. ⁓ was great. Speaking of college basketball, the official, ⁓ teed him up. as Hagel was skating away. So was kind of comical to see on the overhead shot, ⁓ the rep just chasing after him and. demonstrably, uh, penalizing him for quote unquote abuse of the officials. I was kind of unfortunate that they, they took that penalty right there. I mean, Minnesota's got a heck of a power play and you can't keep giving them chances. They scored on their first two opportunities, but I thought five on five, uh, the Lightning kind of found their game, found their legs. Yeah. Midway through the period. I mean, it's something we've talked about, you know, we've been known to place a wager or two on, on hockey contests. And one of those, uh, games that we always look at is the first home game after a long road trip. or he bet on the home team just because of what we saw. They had some travel issues getting from Calgary to Edmonton. was a lot of time zones that they went through for that four game trip. You kind of had that feeling that they weren't going to be a hundred percent. Cooper even mentioned it before the game that it could be a little bit of a struggle, but as the game were on, they definitely got better. The offense started to flow. They got the lucky break on the Chernekel where, know, Gustafson comes out to play it. It trickles by a half. behind him and Chernek busts the camera behind, you know, in the net with his shot. ⁓ as, know, as much as you want to say that's lucky, you know, Chernek, you know, he's never going to be confused with Tim Uselotti racing down the ice, right? The guy does not have wheels, but he busted his ass to get down there. He was the first player on the puck and he put it home. Sometimes luck is the product of hard work. So that's kind of what happened for the Lightning right there. They did get the lucky break, but they were in position to put it away. So I thought it was a really, really. really solid win for the lightning. They played really well. They shut them down in the third period. It's kind of what we're used to seeing. I really enjoyed the win. A couple stumbles early on with the penalty kill. But other than that, I thought they, you know, they played really well. John Cooper, after the game talked about Sabrin Perry dropping the gloves, sort of changing the momentum of the game a little bit in a way, waking up the bolts. How much of a factor do you think that was just as the wake up call? It's kind of been, you know, their MO, they've been the most penalized team this year. And a lot of that has come from fighting majors. They're a team that doesn't want to get pushed around. And I do think a little early, they were a little sluggish, maybe not as engaged as they wanted to be. That was the word I think Cooper used was after, especially after the Sabran fight, they were really engaged. Perry, was 47 years old, the man's dropping the gloves. Didn't work out too well for him. I don't know if you saw the photos of him during the game, but he took a pretty nasty cut. Yeah, his eye was kind of swelling up a little bit. thought Sabarin held his own, you know, you Sabarin had a bad hit on Quinn Hughes earlier in the game. So he was going to have to answer that bell at some point. Felina was the one who dropped mitts with him. some good moments in that fight as well, kind of dragged on a little bit longer than it needed to be. But yeah, I think it kind of fired up, ⁓ the lightning a little bit, the Uber talked about, know, it's, know, if these guys are out here doing this, then, you know, maybe we need to pick up our game, talking about the other players and, and they really did, especially. After the Sabran fight, I thought they were the better team the rest of the way late in the second period. The game was tied at three. Radish had just scored on the power play. Minnesota actually scored what looked like was going to be the go ahead goal. The goal was disallowed. I forget who the player was who knocked Radish into the net and Vasilevsky didn't have a chance to really make any attempt at a save on the loose puck. I think the goal should have been disallowed. But I've seen even in the last week, multiple chances in other games where that goal has been allowed. Justin, does the league have an issue sort of like in the NFL? No one knows what a catch is after a while. In hockey in the NHL, do we not know really what should be allowed and disallowed as a goal? I feel like the ruling is completely inconsistent game by game, officiating unit by officiating unit. Yeah, it's, you know, goaltender interference. It's going to be one of those things that I don't know if they're ever going to be able to get right. Cause as much as the rules are in the book, there is some interpretation, especially when it comes as the, is the goalie able to reestablish himself to make it, make a save. And I think that's kind of the number one thing they're looking at this year. They've been a lot more clear in my opinion, and from what I've seen in regards to where the contact is made, if the contact is made in the crease, I would say 90. 5 % of the time, the goal is getting disallowed. Yesterday's little fracas. So it was Bobby Brink. He basically cross-checked Darren Radish into the crease. yeah, Vasileski makes a save, but it's pretty much just because Brink shoots the puck right at him. Puck comes out and McCarran puts it into the vacated net because Radish is basically like on top of Vasileski. And I thought it was kind of funny after the game, McCarran's like, well, I thought he went down pretty easy. You know, for, you know, little, little tiny Bobby Brink. cross-checked six foot eight Darren Radish, which, you know, last time I checked, I don't think Radish is six foot eight. So it was kind of interesting. Brink even mentioned it that he thought he down Maybe he should be playing for the Gators. Yeah, maybe he would have helped the Gators. Brink's ⁓ actual quote was, yeah, I cross-checked him, but he went down kind of easy. So to me, was like, okay, so you admitted you committed a penalty and the play probably should have been whistled dead at that moment, but you thought he still went down easy. You know, the rule is the rule. Uh, 69.1, I looked it up last night. If you know, a defending player is pushed, think it's pushed or penalized, pushed or shoved into the crease in a, a penalizing manner and the goal will be disallowed. I mean, that's the rule and that's exactly what happened. The broadcast mentioned, I think it was the Pittsburgh game had a similar play where the goal stood. So yeah, they get back to your original point of yes, there's still some inconsistency there. think the league is working on it. I believe it was a topic at the recent general, the governor's board meeting that was down in Palm beach. ⁓ so it'd be interesting to see if we see anything come out of it. ⁓ when they kind of tweak the rules as they do over the summer. I don't know if it's as big a problem as fans make it out to be, but, ⁓ you'd hate to see it happen in the playoffs where, know, it affects a, an important goal in the context of the game today. Yes, it was an important goal. Cause if, ⁓ Minnesota. gets that lead back right at the end of the period, then you know, it's a different third period, but they got it right. The call, you know, I hate to tell you, you know, Mr. McCarran and Mr. Brink, but the call was right. And you can't cross check a guy into his goaltender and expect to have the goal awarded. third period I thought was like playoff hockey. It was tighter. There weren't many opportunities until Eric Chernak and the Lightning decided to play Let's call it college pool where the ball hits nine, not 9,000 bumpers and eventually finds its way into a pocket. Philip Gustafson has to be sick after what he did is four minutes left in the game. If you're the wild, you know, you're chasing Colorado, but after losing a game like this, are you sort of resigned to the fact that you're not catching Colorado now? I don't know if it's not good that far. They played a pretty good game as well. 12 points behind them. They're 12 points. have left. Yeah. I think you don't say it out loud, but maybe you feel it. Hey, maybe we should focus on, you know, just catching Dallas and getting that home-mites advantage in the first round. Yeah. It's just such a tough break, man. Gustafsson had a really good game. He had some prime chances, even when they were trailing, that he kicked aside. know Kucherov was right after the first goal, Minnesota score. Kucherov, basically the best chance in the first period. He was all by himself at the slot right in front of Goose hips in it. And, ⁓ you know, the goalie made a great save. I do believe that you're looking at, ⁓ you know, they're probably resigned that they're going to be facing the, ⁓ the stars in the, in the first round. maybe shoot that, ⁓ home ice advantage. were just getting their lineup back together. You know, ⁓ Kirill Kapusov and Joel, Joel Erickson Eck, played their first game in a couple. They were kind of feeling their way back in. They got a big road trip that they're on now. So we'll see how it turns out in that conference. But yeah, I think you're looking at Colorado as your number one seed in the West right now. let's look forward. The lightning play Seattle since the bolts played Seattle on this last road trip. It's been a free fall for the crack and they've now lost four in a row. They're five points behind Nashville for the wild, the last wild card spot in the West. You're going to face a very desperate Seattle team. The lightning can't sleepwalk through this one if they really want to get a W because I think you're going to get the very best out of the cracking. Yeah. I think the next two games are going to be kind of, um, tough games for the lightening. got the crack in and then I think, but I believe Nashville right after that. Um, so we're looking at, like you said, Seattle is going to be a desperate team. They're going to throw everything at them. It was a fairly close game until it wasn't, you know, when they met as a lightning, open up that road trip last week. You can take a night off. we talked about the last podcast. mean, it's basically playoff atmosphere. It's going to be play all style games down the stretch here with all the teams in contention that they're playing. And you know, this could be Seattle's last gaps to turn it around. It would be a huge two points for them if they could beat the lightning at the same token, you know, the lightning narrowed their gap with Buffalo to two points. So they're kind of still eyeing that first overall seed in the Atlantic. Yeah. I think you just kind of keep going. I thought. The lightning defensive effort really got started with that game in Seattle. So to see them kind of keep that going tomorrow night would be nice. Seattle still has a lot of talent. Again, their style matches up pretty good with the lightning and in regards to the lightning, they're not a fast, quick upfront team that's going to trouble their defenders. So lightning are going to have their chances to break out, to make clean passes out of the zone. So they can keep doing that. It'll set up the offense. And I don't see them putting up six goals on them again. Keep doing what you're doing. I pick up those two points. Now, Justin, we talked about the game winning shot that Iowa had over Florida, and it got me thinking. We have the nurture marketing trivia question of the day coming up and how can I tie that in? So I said, you know what, let's take a look at the Tampa Bay lightning all time game winning playoff goal leaders. So we're going to get pretty specific on this one. Okay. So thanks to nurture marketing, we are going to be giving away in the key to Kuturov Jersey to one lucky contestant each podcast in the month of March. We're going to give a trivia question. If you email back, checking the bolts at yahoo.com email one of the answers. You will register for that Nikita Kuturov Jersey compliments and nurture marketing your it channel experts. So Justin, I'm going to read the question one more time in Tampa Bay lightning history. Who are the top 10 game winning playoff goals? Good Lord. 10. 10. All right. Jeez. It's too early for that. We've been like five, man. All right. You'll get a lot of these, but the entire current lightning roster and just say that. Okay. All right. So lightning playoff game winning goals. All right. Just for fun, I'm going to start off with Tyler Johnson. Tyler Johnson is on the board. Tyler Johnson is second with nine. Yeah. He had that really good run 2014, 15. I think it's probably one of the more iconic ones. Um, so yeah, I guess Detroit. So that's good call. That was one that I didn't think would jump off the page. That's why the, that's why the fans love TJ baby. Oh, uh, let's see who else, uh, let's sort of Stamco's up there. Stammer with five. Oh, okay. He's the most like, yeah, he's in a huge tie for seventh. Yep. Huge tie for seven. So yeah, there's actually only four players. all just tied for seventh. right. Um, uh, Marty St. Louis. Number three tied for third with eight. All right. So we got Stamco's we got. Tyler Ross Colton, know, Ross Colton had the big one, but I don't think he had more than that. So he did not. He's not on the board. He just has a Stanley cup clenching goal on his, uh, on his resume. Um, I'd say Justin, thanks to nurture marketing, your ability and lightning bar trivia is going, going through the roof. Exactly. We're going to do marches almost over. We're going start running out of questions. All right. Uh, how about, uh, my boy number four bits at LaCadier. Vinny had five. He's one of the numerous people. Tired for seventh. Rusty Fedotenko. Did he make a number? Ruslan Fedotenko is not on the board. So again, he just gets to claim the fame of a Stanley Cup winning goal. All right. Victor Headman? because he's made it in all the playoff games. Victor Headman also in the seventh place log jam with five. All right. So I'm halfway there, right? I got five. All right. Yeah. Brad Richards. I'm can't believe I, I'm this one. Yes. With seven. Yeah. See number one or is he? He's six. Six. Six. Yeah. The person with the person at number one has 12. 12 game winning goals. Andre Palat. Yes. That was when I saw this, when I saw the stat, I was like, wow, he had 12. The man knew when to score goals. You're telling me 12 game winning playoff goals. That's the stuff that people remember 20 years later. So good job on that one. Yeah. So after like nine, 10 guesses, how about the greatest player in lightning history? Nikita Kuturov. He has eight. He is tied for third. All right. So I am, that's what I got eight now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, Yeah. There's, there's, there's a couple. The tie, the log jam at seventh place is pretty extensive, but you are missing someone tied for third. Someone tied for third. All right. ⁓ current era or ⁓ four. ⁓ current era. Okay. ⁓ it's going to be obvious when I, yes, is. finally give you enough clues here. He was on the brain. Yes, I was going to give you, going to give you a clue, but you got it right there. Come on Godfrey, let's figure out who's bottom. Yeah. And then the final one, current era as well. Yes. ⁓ One current era and actually there's somebody else. I'm looking at it now. So there's actually another person tied for ⁓ seventh. So one currently plays for the lightning one still in the league, but not on the lightning. Okay. Right. ⁓ Alex Cullorn. Yes. Number. He has five as well. And the last one is the current one where the lightning last one's occurred. Uh, offense or defense offense. Oh, that's still a current member. Uh, Acropolis. Yes. Gordo. All right. So that is today's nurture marketing trivia question of the day. name a player of the lightning. if you name one player, the lightning who has played in their team history, if you name one of the players that we had mentioned in the top 10 of game winning playoff goals, email that to back checking the bolts at yahoo.com that will get you entered for the Nikita Kucherov Jersey compliments of nurture marketing. Justin, we saw earlier. yesterday that Paul Maurice coached his 2000 game in the NHL. John Cooper just hit number 1000. There's only five coaches in league history that have hit that with one franchise. have Cooper Al Arbor, who won four Stanley cups with the New York Islanders back in the early eighties. Billy Ray way back in the day with the Chicago Blackhawks, Lindy rough, who's back with a second stint with the Buffalo Sabres and Barry trots who is currently the national predators general manager. coached Nashville from their inception. She's pretty much through about, I think he coached for about 15 years with the preds, but Cooper's numbers are right up there without arbors. Other than the fact that Arbor had four Stanley cup wins the playoff success, getting the conference finals, getting the Stanley cup finals, and then winning multiple cups puts Cooper in some pretty rarefied air. He's been. I am the best coach of his era right now. So he's the longest tenured coach in the NHL. I think it's his job as long as he wants it. I don't see the, the lightning firing him any, at any point. You know, there's always, you know, the lightning go through, you know, a three or four game stretch where they struggle. You know, the hashtag fire Cooper makes its ⁓ appearance on social media from time to time. But it's just one of those situations of, okay, you're going to fire John Cooper. You're going to get to replace him. After 13, 14 seasons, you would think the message, you know, everyone talks about the message getting stale in the locker room, but I think Cooper is, is so attuned with his players that he knows how to change that message up. You know, he connects with them pretty well. Everyone who's played for him, you don't really hear any bad things about John Cooper. You know, we, we saw the remarks from McDavid last week or, know, a couple of days ago, um, about how he has his, you know, the structure of the team and how he communicates with his players just speaks to how, you know, people want to play for this guy. And I think it does help the Lightning from time to time in free agency. You know, they're not the biggest free agent spenders, but I think a lot of people talk about wanting to come in. ⁓ And then they talk about the culture of Tampa Bay and Cooper's the one who's responsible for that more so than anybody else. So yeah, it's pretty much his job ⁓ as far as long as he wants it. think there was some, some chatter last year about maybe him wanting to go out to coach Utah. ⁓ he's pretty good friends with Ryan Smith, who's the owner out there. think they've connected a few times over some non-hockey related stuff. And then, you know, there was that rumor, but then the Lightning reportedly signed him to a multi-year deal. So he's going to be around for a while. I don't know how else to say, he's a really good coach. So it'll be interesting to see if he catches any, you know, know, Al Arbor or anything. It's all still a fairly big gap, especially with Lindy Ruff still coaching the Sabres. Lindy's probably going to be around for a couple more years and start padding those numbers. I think by the time it's all said and done, he's probably second or third on that list with all time games coached for one franchise. think the one thing that is unique about Cooper is he hasn't done it with just one group of players. Al Arbor won his Stanley Cups with Brian Trottier, Mike Bossy, Billy Smith. After those guys left, he had Pat LaFontaine, but they never were a true Stanley Cup threat. You look at Lindy Ruff, you look at Barry Trotz. They took underachieving teams and made them achievers. They always took those teams that probably should not have made the playoffs and they found ways to get in there. Lindy rough had more playoffs success than Barry trots did, but they took those kinds of teams and they made them better. John Cooper has taken two different units and has turned them into Stanley cup contenders and Stanley cup finals participants. And I think to me that is. the difference in this list. When John Cooper took over, it was a different cast of characters than the one that's there now. And they're still Stanley Cup contenders. They're still at the top of the heap. Part of that, you have to give credit to the general managers that he's been under, but you also have to give credit to Cooper because that is something that you don't see many coaches and Mike Sullivan had it in Pittsburgh. He had his unit. won two back to back cups and then He went five, six years without any playoffs success and then missing the playoffs. He had that success in a short window for Cooper. He's missed the playoffs once as a full-time head coach and they missed it by one point. And it was a season where Vasilevsky or Ben Bishop was hurt and I believe Stamkos missed a bunch of time and they went on a tear at the end of the season and almost came back to make the playoffs. ⁓ but yeah, like you said, with that transition, mean, if you look at that 2014, 15 team that kind of surprised everybody who went to the Stanley cup. Right now, if I'm not mistaken, you know, you had Kuturov on the team and I believe Headman, think there's the only carry overs that are still there. Kind of flipping through the roster real quick, just to double check. ⁓ well, Vasilevsky played 16 games as well, but to speak to your point, you know, that ability for the team to transition from that super young group, the triplets coming up with. Tyler Johnson and Kuturov and Palak to sustain that success, build on it, and then transition to where the team is today. And yeah, you know, yes, they flamed out in the playoffs the last couple of years, but they've also lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion twice. So a lot of times that's just a bad first round matchup. You know, if they don't play the Panthers in the first round, maybe they go a little bit farther. So we'll see this year, it's going to be a little bit different path for them in the playoffs if they can get some success. And get back into, you know, at least the conference final or something like that. think it's another successful year, but yeah, to be able to make that transition, ⁓ to not really have a year off, it's a lot harder, especially in the salary cap area, not only a salary cap era, but you're looking at a cap era where it was flat for three years. You know, that kept went up a million dollars during the height of the lightning success and they were still competitive. So a lot of that is yes on the GM to be able to build that roster, but it's also on the head coach to be able to get these guys who are coming in. I think this year is one of his better jobs as well, because he's had such roster turnover. So you've had players who maybe not as much experience in professional hockey, like Charles Edward de Steeu, ⁓ Max Kroescher, Dominic James, some of these guys that came in to fill roles, you know, he's made them feel part of the club. He's coached them to their best abilities and gotten the best performance out of them. He's the best coach in the league right now. I know some players come, you know, don't like him. There were some, some fans, I should say, don't like him, especially for other teams. He comes off with a little bit, you know, smug from time to time in his press conferences. But again, I think that's part of his act. That's part of who he is. He knows how to play that. You ever watch his press games conferences? Very rarely does he call his players out unless it's needed. I think he did a little bit during the losing streak about their effort levels. The one back in December, the losing streak, he he didn't do it too much during the recent one. But yeah, you he knows when to press the right buttons and he knows how to coach through the media. You know, he had a joke yesterday. I mean, he an eight minute press conference yesterday. I believe it's something along those lines, uh, you know, eight minute post games, um, scrum. And he's like, Oh, that's good enough for the next three guys. Got the next three days guys. So he has that little sense of humor where he's poking fun at people. But, uh, yeah, he's just, think for the modern age coach, Cooper's the role model right now on social media. We put out there that we are going to take a look at the Tampa Bay Lightning Mount Rushmore. Now you see a number of different publications and a variety of different sports. They'll put out, okay, who's the top four in our franchise? And Justin, you and I were texting yesterday, going back and forth with different names. So first of all, let's talk about some of the candidates for the Tampa Bay Lightning Mount Rushmore. First, you got Stamco's 555 goals with the Lightning. They're all time points scoring leader Nikita Kucherov, who will probably pass Stamkos early next year, unless he has a really big last 10 games, he might catch them this year. He's got 1114 points. Yeah. Don't put it past him to catch him this year. So, then you got Marty St. Louis, 953 points. Vincent Lacavier, who I still think in my own opinion is the most important. member of the Tampa Bay Lightning to ever play because I think he turned the organization around getting that top notch player coming in at a time when the Lightning were very desperate for talent. had 874 points. Victor Headman has played over 1150 games has been a stalwart on the blue line. And then you have guys like John Cooper, Steve Iserman and JBB. You have to put them up there. So Justin, give me your top four. Yeah, think the list I sent you was Stamkos, St. Louis, Kuturov and Vasileski. Whenever people do these kinds of lists, I think you always see a goaltender thrown in there. And I don't think you could downplay the importance of having a true number one goaltender. When we talk about this long stretch of sustained success, I mean, to have somebody you could throw out there 60 games a night. and have a better than not, you know, better than even chance of winning every single one of those games. Vasileski is going to set records. feel like, uh, you know, was the fastest to whatever did 300 wins is where he got to. don't know. forgot how many wins he's at. Yeah. I think he was the one of the fastest goal. He said 300 wins. You know, if he stays healthy, he's going to be the fastest to 400. He's going to break Bob Rofsky's record that is currently held. That's why I put him on there. Um, Stamkos is, I mean, he's the franchise icon. He's the captain during their golden years. He was the guy they all rallied around. mean, his, his goal against Dallas is the most iconic moment in franchise history. You got to put him up there. Kucherov is the best player to ever play for this team. You could, think St. Louis, LeCabier, you can kind of argue that spot on there. St. Louis was just the embodiment of this, of the early success for this franchise after years of wandering in the darkness. You know, you bring in LeCabier who's, you know, the number one draft pick. He's the golden boy, the Michael Jordan, if you will, of the team. And then you also have Saint Louis, who's, you know, not drafted. He's picked up on waivers. He's a fourth line grinder for his first couple of years here and then turns into one of the best scorers in league history. Yeah. It's kind of hard to, to narrow it down to four, which is something, you know, when we first started watching these games, you don't think way back in the college days, you don't think we would ever be at this point. You know, we would have been arguing for Brian Bradley and Alex Elvano. Darren Poopa. You know, and it's so to see how this, this organization has flourished in the last 20 years is really great. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's a hard conversation. Then, like you said, if you start bringing in the non hockey players, um, know, Esposito has got to be on this list, you know, the team doesn't exist without him. Whatever, you know, use car salesman tactics he used to bring this, this franchise into existence. God bless him. Um. Then you have Bill Davidson, who knows where this team is if you know, Art Williams sells it to somebody other than Davidson who, who invested in the team and invested in the facilities. ⁓ and then left the team alone. mean, that, that's the best thing Will Davidson did. It was like, Hey hockey guys, take care of this team. I'm going to be up in Detroit watching piston games. ⁓ just, you know, me my check from all the fans that show up. ⁓ and then Jeff Vinick, you could put Jeff Vinick's face on there four times and it would be a solid Mount Rushmore. ⁓ Iserman. You know, who, kind of rescued this team and Al Murray, the, you know, the head of scouting, you know, where's this team without those drafts through, um, you know, 2008, 2009, uh, to like about 2015 that built the foundation of this team. So, you know, these Mount Rushmore things are great because they do, you know, you know, they cause this kind of, um, conversation. That being said, you know, is there anyone who's going to jump on the list in the next five years in the organization? Probably not. think we're going to. We're going to see a raft of these current players get inducted into the Hall of Fame. you know, when they retire in five, six years, who's going to be the next great Lightning? And it's kind of hard to say at this point. Brayden Point may work his way into the conversation. Brayden Haylou may work his way into the conversation, but I think you got a pretty solid four or five guys that you could throw on there right now. Brayden Point right now was sixth in Lightning team history with 681 points. In just 709 games, he's almost a point again player. If he, if he would get to a thousand points, does that change the scope a little bit of Braden point on this list? I don't know if it does because I'm Marty St. Louis league MVP. That is right there. Something you can't take away from him. But if, if point gets to a thousand points in his career, now you're assuming a lot, it's going to be a lot more games. You're assuming the lightning. are going to continue to be this offensive juggernaut that they have been. But does that change the conversation? think if he adds a couple more cups, maybe if the Lightning pulling up, you know, another cup or two while he's here as that top line center, you know, it'll, it'll bring him up, you know, in regards to the standings. Part of his problem is he's always been on a team with a lot of really good players around him. So I do think as much as Lightning fans like him, as much as we appreciate it, what he does, I think he does get really overshadowed. by the Kutrafs, the Stamkos that he played with. I could see it working his way on the list, but I do think maybe if he can garner a Selke or a, or a league MVP, he would need that to kind of bump off anybody who's on the list right now. My list, Justin, first of all, I do agree with you with Stamkos. I put Victor Hedman on there just because he's the anchor of the blue line and has been for a lot of years. I put John Cooper on there. When you look at these Mount Rushmore's every time you see the Green Bay Packers, there's Lombardi. You see the Pittsburgh Steelers. You see Chuck Knoll. You see the San Francisco 49ers. You see Bill Walsh. John Cooper to the Lightning is what those guys were to their franchises. And so I would put Cooper on there. And finally, I know this is going to go against, it's hard to believe it's not going to be Nikita Kutcheroff, but I still think Vincent LeCavier Getting him when they did was the most important piece of turning this franchise around. There was a lot of rumors back in the late nineties that this franchise wasn't going to exist in Tampa and they needed that young player to come in to be a star. And was he one of the top two or three in the league? Probably not, but he was in the top 10 and sometimes in the top five. Yeah. I mean, I would argue that post-Cup, I think he had a couple of years there that, you know, he was one of the best three players in the league. mean, to me, part of LeCabier, and I make no bones about it, Vinny LeCabier is my favorite Lightning player of all time. I mean, I ride and die with Vinny. He kind of mirrors when I started following the team. So I was able to watch him rise as a player. ⁓ But I think part of his career is always going to be a big what if. The injuries. That kind of got him back when I was a small time blogger. I wrote about did, you know, Matt Cook cost Vinnie LeCabbie a hall of fame spot with that kind of really unnecessary collision where Vinnie ends up hurting his shoulder. His career is not really the same after that. I think he had one or two really solid years after that, you know, injuries started creeping in. To your point as to the turning point of the franchise, I do believe that is 100 % correct. The Lightning had a chance to draft him or David Leguan. They made the right decision. After some early, turbulent years with coach John Tortorella, the rumors of those two almost coming to physical blows in a team meeting seem to be fairly true, at least reported as reported by people who were on the team at the time. You know, the fact that they were able to work that out where, you know, Tortorella wanted Lacabbe gone. He wanted him off the team. And I think they went into the gym. It might've been Dudley at the time. And said, you know, it's, it's either him or me. And they said, Nope, you guys are going to figure this out. And they did. And the Lightning go on to win a cup. I mean, what's your iconic moment from the 04 finals? It's, it's Vinnie throwing the haymakers with Jerome Mcdill, right? That's what a captain does right there. And they put a lot of pressure on the kid when he first came in. ⁓ he struggled with it and then learned how to be a leader on this team. So yeah, they don't win the cup without him. They don't win that cup. Who knows where this team is post-lockout. argument for him to be on there is, is a pretty good one. But again, in my opinion, kind of look at it more as a stats base. And I think it's just the four guys I mentioned just because of the long run of success. The fact that they've stayed healthy really kind of put them over the edge for, for like blood caveat for me. So, but if you're going to personal Mount Rushmore, then yeah. You know, another way we could use our way out of this, ⁓ you know, the original name of, of the mountain where Mount Rushmore is. ⁓ at least in the Lakota, ⁓ tribe language is the six grandfathers. So if we bumped the list out to six, you know, that gives us a couple more. So that's easy way out. Hey, sir. You've known me for 35 years. Has there ever been a time where I did not take the easy way out? mean, come on now, ladies and gentlemen, he's Justin Godfrey. Let's look for the loophole here. So yeah. So if we go to the six grandfathers, you know, I'm more than happy to add Vinnie LeCavier to that. of that list there. But yeah, it's always a fun discussion to have. Considering the franchise has only been around for 30 years, the amount of offensive talent that's come through the organization in recent years, you can only point to pretty much Pittsburgh and Colorado that have had multiple generations of supreme offensive talent hit their organization. And it just goes to show just how much talent the lightning have had. And again, that's why they've had the success that they've had as well. Justin, what's going on at Raw Charge? ⁓ just grinding through the rest of season here. I mean, we're, we're in the end game now. So, just looking forward to, ⁓ you know, this stretch of, of games against really good component, ⁓ opponents. So we'll be posting those, those previews every day, trying to look at, you know, some of this stuff behind the numbers. ⁓ as they, as they battle each other down the stretch here, trying to get to that first spot over all starting to piece together some playoff stuff that we'll see once you know, April hits pondering some matchups, how teams kind of play against each other. Beautiful thing about the Tampa Bay Lightning is you never have to worry about draft prep. We can focus on the games actually being played, yeah, we'll probably delve into some, some free agency at some point. Once we have a breath of fresh air around here, you know, a moment to come up and breathe. that is today's podcast. We will be back to. Recap the Seattle game and preview the upcoming games this weekend for the bolts for my co-host Justin Godfrey. You could see it. www.rawcharge.com. I'm Jason link is thanks for joining us today. Please hit that like and subscribe button. We appreciate all the support for the podcast. The last podcast was our most downloaded podcast. hit 500. Thank you very much for the support. And again, thanks to Nurture Marketing for supporting the Nikita Kucherov giveaway. We'll see you soon. 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.