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Tampa Bay Lightning Road Trip Recap First 10 Games Review + Jets & Predators Preview · Backchecking the Bolts

• Tampa Bay Lightning Road Trip Recap First 10 Games Review + Jets & Predators Preview: But Justin, in order for the Lightning to be truly offensively gifted, they need to have that second line contribute. And Gage Goncalves, who got the nod early this year, has not been a major factor on that second line. We talked about it going into the season. Who is going to be that top six winger that the Lightning establish in that role? They have five forwards that are consistently in their top six, but they don't have that sixth. I'm gonna ask this in two questions, Justin. One, should Gonsalves get more time in the top six? And second of all, is that top six winger is he on the roster right now? Do they have to go out and get somebody? 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 Linkes. 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 to Backchecking the Bolts. where we go beyond the box scores looking at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Well, the Lightning just completed a three-game road trip. They were 1-1-1, a victory in Vegas, a pretty ugly loss in Colorado, and an overtime loss in Utah. We're gonna break down the three-game road trip, but we're also gonna talk about Justin's 84 bets in 84 games, and let's just say Justin wasn't going to the betting window, returning. Any winning tickets. We'll go through that. We're also going to talk about the Lightnings' first 10 games of the season. What are our assessments of the Lightning so far? Are we surprised, or is this what we expected? And we're going to take a look ahead at the Lightnings' next couple games, home against Winnipeg and on the road against the Nashville Predators. Now it's time for me to bring in my co-host. He is the managing editor of Rod Charge. He is Justin Godfrey. You can read him. Each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. Justin, that three game road trip had a little bit of everything. What were your initial assessments of that road trip? they did a good job of getting three points out of it. I don't think it was the best road trip they could have had, but it was also you know, three pretty tough teams that they were playing out there. So it's not like they were going out and playing, you know, Calgary and Vancouver or somebody like that, you know. You start in Vegas, which has always been a tough place for the Lightning to play. you go on to Utah and then you have that back to or should you go to Colorado and then have the back to back in Utah. So for the f for them to come out with three points, it does feel like they left a little bit on the table, most definitely probably with that Utah game. But all in all, if they got three points. They found a way to beat Vegas. like you said, that Colorado game, not the greatest display of of hockey on the Lightning's part. And then they managed to salvage a point out of Utah. So no, not too bad. Kinda glad that they have four days off. Kinda rest, relax, get a little healthier and work on some of their game a little bit. So Well, let's talk about the special teams. That was one of the things that you earmark going into the road trip. Power play, three for twelve, not bad. They got three power play goals in there. You saw D'Astous at the point. What was your initial thoughts when D'Astous took over the point? And do you think he's taken over the point now? It's it's gonna be interesting. I thought he looked a little f I don't want to say nervous out there, but it wasn't exactly smooth. I think he was kind of thinking a little bit too much out there, trying to make reads before he had it. So I don't think he looked a hundred percent comfortable running at the point. There were some flubs with the puck. there was one where they rolled out D'Stu and then Karlsson kinda in that Hagel position, and that was just a total disaster. They were almost literally running into each other. all in all I thought they looked pretty good. for me it wasn't so much the alignment as the f as the fact that a lot more focus was on the opposite end of the ice than Kucherov. they ran a lot more through the left side. Getzel flipped over from being on that right side to to on the left side with Hagel. A little bit more play with Hagel. point was out a little bit more wide, and I think it kinda helped just give him a different look. the interesting thing is I think by the end of it, by the end of the Utah power game They were back to their basic alignment. And in fact, I believe on one of the ones yeah, one of their final power plays, you know, Karlsson was back out there at the point. So I I think it's something that they may switch back and forth to going along. It wasn't horrible. they did generate some chances. They looked a little bit better. I think there was a little bit more open space for Hagel endpoint on the power plays. You know, his goal against Utah that set the record for Kucherov was kind of old school. You they've worked the back the puck back and forth. Kucherov set it down low and point kind of dug it out of the pads and put it home. So it was good to see him get a goal. So I think it looked pretty good. yeah, so moving forward it'll be interesting to see if they keep the stew out there or if Karlsson kind of moves back to his spot. We talked about the man advantage. What about the PK? Eight for ten, not bad, not great. I thought that they gave up a lot of chances in this road trip. I just wanted to see what your thought your thoughts were and Is there a different alignment or different players that we saw that Hedman left in the Colorado game, Girgenson's left in the Utah game? Do you think that impacted the PK at all? Maybe. Not not so much. I just think y you ran into some some good power plays. I think Utah has one of the best home power plays in the league. so they did really well. Al Rao's got a lot of talent, so those kind of games are gonna happen. like I said, I I thought they played Okay. They did give up a few more chances, but for the most part, you'll take eight eight out of ten, eighty percent. You would have loved to get that ninth out of ten. I think they also had one kind of similar to Guentzel's second goal against Colorado where they scored right after the power play exp ended. I think they kinda had one of those where they gave up goal just as Kucherov was coming out of the box against Utah. So it was kind of not a official power play goal against, but kind of actually was 'cause they hadn't reset the lineup. I think that was the only one that really That was the four four goal, right? The goal that tied into four. Yeah, exactly. So but yeah, so I thought they looked all right. I'm I'm not too worried about the PK. I I still think they're getting a some bad breaks here and there, overall. So I think that's gonna get better as we move on. Let's talk a little bit about the defense. There were some defensive breakdowns on this three game road trip. You could say both of Vegas's goals, the Barbashev goal. D'Astous just flat out lost the puck right in front of goaltender Vasilevskiy. I thought the defense was a little bit shaky, throwing the pucks in some problem areas. What was your assessment? Yeah, and it kind of starts with their forecheck. I don't think you saw the forecheck as dominant have as you've seen it in some games earlier this year. so that allows a team like Colorado to come out with a lot of speed. You give Nathan MacKinnon room on the ice with the puck, he's just gonna blow by you and set up chances. if my math is correct, I believe they allowed forty high danger chances over the three games, which is a lot for the Lightning. I think it was something like ninety-two scoring chances again. So that's over thirty scoring chances a game, which isn't Lightning hockey that we've seen so far this year. But like I said, as much as it is with some bad clears and some pointless dump outs, I a lot of it starts with them not having the puck in the offensive zone, allowing those teams to get through the neutral zone, which we just haven't seen this year. And when you do it against teams with speed, they're gonna make you pay, and that's what Utah did to them. that's what Colorado did to them. Justin, we knew this was gonna be a tough road trip. Three playoff teams the Lightning were gonna be facing after the Vegas win, they go to Colorado. They had a couple days off, but the Colorado game early in the season, it was definitely their worst effort of the season. Colorado speed, especially the Nathan MacKinnon line, just took it to I saw MacKinnon a week previous over in Colorado. You don't realize how fast he is until you see him in person. What kind of issues did he just give the Lightning all night? It it it's that, you know, you he's the guy who can he gets he gets that puck in the neutral zone and he just he forces you to back off. You can't play him at the blue line or else he's gonna skate right past you. so when the Lightning get pushed back like that, that just opens up the space. And yeah, he just kind of tore him apart with that. it's a really good line that he plays with. Martin Nikes has always been a Lightning killer throughout his entire career. so it wasn't surprising to see him have a couple points. But yeah, I think MacKinnon was also playing a little upset. He had gone, I think, the previous two games without getting a point, both of those Colorado losses. that and that was another thing. No, Colorado was coming back off of the end of a pretty bad road trip. And that was their only home game of the week, I think. So they kind of wanted to come out and take it to the Lightning. And I didn't think the Lightning played horrible in the first period, but a lot of the chances that they got were just from distance. They didn't do a lot in front of the net. so you look at the numbers, the raw numbers a little bit, and you're like, they had 75 shot attempts. That's a that's a lot. It's one of their higher numbers. But then you look at of those seventy-five shot attempts, I think 41 were either blocked or missed the net. So now you're down to 30 shots. And, you know, they just weren't generating those high danger chances or cycling the puck and keeping it in and, you know, getting the goalies moving back and forth. So Colorado took advantage of it. The Lightning just had a bad game. You know, I'm not gonna worry too much about it. The one thing that watching the game, Svechkov's bat Pucky bat out of midair on the two on one. Cernak actually made a really nice play on it, deflected the pass, came Svechkov just knocked it in on the backhand out of midair. But I thought that goal happening at the first minute of the second period really set the tone for the rest of the game. The Lightning could never get to their game after that. They were always in chase mode. And I think Jake Guentzel probably had two of the easiest power play goals he'll ever have in his life, literally two tap-ins. The Lightning were resilient. They never went away. They always were within striking distance. D'Astous got that 5-3 goal, but they just didn't have enough in them to get that within one. Let's talk about the Utah game, though. That's a game where Tampa went out to a 4-2 lead. Second game of a back to back, you had Dennis Hildeby in net. Did the Lightning run out of gas? It kind of seems like it. I mean, thought the first half of the game was really good. I mean, they took advantage. One thing they didn't do against Colorado is cash in the chances when they had which they did against Utah. I mean, they scored four goals pretty much halfway through the game. and they were kind of taking it to Utah, and I think they just kinda, for whatever reason, you know, let off the gas a little bit. they gave up that four to three goal Late ish in the third period, allowed Utah to get back into it. I think that one was the one that came off a delayed penalty, and then gave up the tying goal. So, you know, back to back altitude, not having Hedman in on the defense, you know, he was scratched for the game. You lose Girgenson's midway through the game. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, the fourth regal came right after his last shift. the Undersley goal. Yeah, yeah, and I think it was they were scrambling a little bit with that line and just never got set. So, does it have a direct impact on on the goal? Maybe, maybe not. you still had Hagel and Cirelli out there two year better defensive forwards. I just felt like they kinda ran out of gas a little bit and you can blame it on the altitude, blame it on the back to back. They just didn't finish like we're used to seeing them finish. And then over time, I mean that Simishev goal was just a really nice goal. I both of his goals were really nice. Both of them were nice. Yeah. First two goals ever in the league. Exactly. so if he's starting to get confidence, you got Sergachev back there, Utah's gonna be, I think, a handful this year. So y you kinda wanted that extra point, but you did hold on you did hold on for the for the, you know, overtime game. So like I said, you come back, you got four days off, you can kind of get back, rest up a little bit. They had the big Coop's catch charity event on Monday. so you were totally off the ice, totally not thinking about hockey at all. I think sometimes it's good to clear your mind after a road trip like that, back at practice today and kind move forward with the game, you know, on Thursday and then, you know, the quick trip up to Nashville on Saturday. I want to talk about the Connor Geekie goal. We talked about Connor Geekie's evolution into a power forward. We saw it on we saw a little bit of a glimpse of it on that fourth goal that the Lightnings scored in Utah. He took the puck just before the red line, went about ninety-five one hundred feet. beat the defenseman and then roofed it. that was just a beautiful goal. It's a glimpse of what you hope Connor Geekie can become. My question to you though, Justin, does he need more playing time to become that player? Yeah, possibly, but he's he's also got to earn it. you know, it's kind of coincidence that you know, we picked back up our top twenty under twenty five and Geekie came in at third this year and we just released the article on it and that's kind of, you know, what I was talking about in the article is that this is a gonna be a big growth period for him this year. he's still a young kid. people have already written him off a little bit, but he's only twenty two, right? the his learning curve hasn't been the straightest. He he made the NHL straight out of training camp his first year with the Lightning, struggled at times, but spent most of the year up there, went down to Syracuse, had a good year, and then last year struggled out of the gate with the Lightning, went down to Syracuse, stayed down there the entire year and had a great season, had an all star season. And I think it really helped with his confidence. He talked about in an article during the during training camp, how how his improved skating has actually made him more confident in his other skills because he's not as concerned about, I gotta skate hard to beat this guy or maybe I can't beat this guy, I gotta do something else. Now he feels like I can get the step on the guy. And we saw that in a goal against Utah, you know, he's he worked his way, he skated around a defenseman, you know, and that's not something we saw out of Geekie in his first year up here. So now that he, you know, he's kind of has confidence in that skating, he can rely on his other skills, which are tremendous. He's got a great shot. He's got great hands. for a big guy, he's got really, really good hands. so I think if he keeps at his game, if he keeps doing the little things that Cooper asked him to do on this, you know, third, fourth line, he could be a solution on the second line. The light Lightning are still looking for that kind of second line win winger. you know, Gage Goncalves hasn't been it this year, and for whatever reason, you know, the line plays well with the Goncalves on there, but he's not scoring. So I think you're kind of looking for somebody to step up and it could be Geekie this year. We're gonna talk about that issue, the top six winger, when we talk about our overview of the Lightnings first ten games. But Justin, last point I want to make on this road trip. You lost Victor Hedman, you lost Zegmus Girgenson's. Are they going to be back or these longer term injuries? What are what's your anticipation? it looks like Hedman may be back. He was on the ice for practice today. Girgenson's took a maintenance day along with I believe Hagel and Cirelli. so the lines were messed up. I think we'll see more tomorrow and then of course Thursday for the morning skate to see how they're doing. But it looks like Hedman. you know, I kinda w went back and watched both of the injuries and neither of them were contact injuries. So it was kind of interesting. Headmonds came in that Colorado game right after I believe it was Logan O'Connor kind of ran into Vasilevskiy and started a little brawl behind the net, but you didn't see Hedman do anything that would indicate he got tweaked up. he just didn't play after that. And then same thing with Girgenson's, you he had won a faceoff in the or he actually got kicked out of the face-off circle. Hallenberg wins the face off. They skate down and and they're going into the zone and Girgenson just kind of turns up at the blue line and heads towards the bench. The camera cut away from him, so didn't exactly see it, but he looks like he maybe just tweaked something as well. So we'll see if you know what happens with those two. It was kinda interesting to see them go twelve six against Utah af with Hedman being out. It's the first time they've done it since opening night. yeah, he's been playing eleven seven pretty much for most of it. So we'll see how it goes. I think they got the depth right now that if Hedman needs to take another day off, it's not gonna be the end of the world. as far as Girgensons, you get Viel back in the lineup, you have probably Sabourin back in the lineup, so we'll see how they deal with it if he does miss any time. If you're following Justin on social media, you've seen him put out his eighty-four bets in eighty-four games. Every podcast we recap that as well. Let's just say Justin was stuffing those losing tickets like our friend Mike does into the chair at the Westgate Casino. In Vegas, he had the under, the under at six and a half. That was a loser as there were eight goals scored. In Colorado, he had Hagel over one and a half shots and Yandy Diaz going baseball over one and a half total bases. That was a loser. And then in Utah, Velmeka. Under twenty-two and a half saves. That was also a loser. Justin, you have a chance of redemption against Winnipeg. Do you have any leans? honestly, leading back towards that under. I know it was over by like the middle of the second period against Vegas. but as much as I hate bait it betting against action, Winnipeg's problem hasn't been stopping the puck. You know, they've been a pretty good defensive team even during their current five game winless streak. It's not like they're getting lit up. not having Connor Hellebuyck doesn't seem to stop their goaltending. Stu Skinner's been just fine. so leaning towards that, I think you're gonna see an improved defensive effort from the Lightning as well. so even though they're a little bit better on the road generating offense, I think they're gonna try and tighten things up defensively. so depending on where they set that number, if it's I may stay away from it. But if it does creep up to six and a half, I might be tempted to hit that under. yeah. Gonna stay away from the World Series bets though. So if it's still going on by Thursday. Yeah. I was about to say the way last night when I think Milwaukee they're ready to pop the champagne and cook some brats, cause it was ugly. I was I was texting a couple people and it was ten nothing. I said the last time the Brewers were leading a World Series game ten nothing was nineteen eighty two, game one of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. And I never thought Milwaukee would be in that position with the pitching. I didn't think their pitching was good enough to get them to the World Series. But hey, you gotta give Pat Murphy and his crew a lot of props. They've really exceeded expectations in my eyes. But Justin, let's get back to the Lightning. We want to recap the first ten games of the season, our initial thoughts, what surprised us, what we expected. The first is this is a great home team. But they're shaky on the road. Now they haven't had a ton of a ton of road games, but they've been awesome at home. And on the road, a veteran team, they've been I d I'm not surprised that they've lost games on the road. I'm surprised they've been a little bit loose on the road. Yeah, I think and of course when you're you're talking about five games, sample size plays a lot into it. The three game series where where they were kind of loose defensively. but it was also they didn't play great against the Rangers either time. The Islanders game was okay. It's probably their best road game that they've played, honestly. but still they got a little shaky towards the end of that one too. And you just look at some of the defensive numbers, you know, as far as like shots against shot attempts on the road, they're giving up about fifty three per sixty minutes. And then compare it to like only forty nine at home. It doesn't sound like a much, but those those shots build up. but pretty much the Interesting one is the high danger chances against. Yeah, they're giving up almost two more on a road, per sixty minutes at five on five. Those are the chances that turn into goals more likely. So they haven't been as tight defensively. And again, I think a lot of that speaks to them not having the puck in the offensive zone. What we see them at home, I mean, they're constantly on the forecheck. They're they're creating turnovers, they're disrupting breakouts, and you just don't see that on the road with them right now. So if they can tighten up that aspect of the game, I think they'll be all right. They've been scoring just fine. Both home in a way. a little bit better offense on at home. But you know, it's not like they've lacked in scoring goals on the road. They put up four against Utah. They scored well against Colorado. And you know, Colorado I think they had what two goals, but still, you they had the chances. They had some chances. So yeah, we'll see how it goes. will it even out? I thought last year they were a really good it was kind of the reverse, honestly. They were a really good road team and kind of struggled at home. so we'll see how it had balances out as the season goes on. They start getting some more reps under their belts, some more longer road trips. this was the first real road trip that they've been on this year. So we'll see if they get more comfortable away from it benchmark arena. But hopefully they do and pick up some victories and just stop allowing shots on that. For a veteran team, I was a little bit surprised they played as loose as they did on those three games, but it's October. And offensive teams have a tendency to do that. It's not uncommon when you watch the NHL over the years, October. There's more scoring. As the season goes on, things tighten up, defense tightens up, and I think that's one of the last things that comes to a lot of teams games, especially teams that are offensively gifted like the Lightning. But Justin, in order for the Lightning to be truly offensively gifted, they need to have that second line contribute. And Gage Gonsalves, who got the nod early this year, has not been a major factor on. on that second line. We talked about it going into the season. Who is going to be that top six winger that the Lightning establish in that role? They have five forwards that are consistently in their top six, but they don't have that sixth. I'm going to ask this in two questions, Justin. One, should Gonsalves get more time in the top six? And second of all, is that top six winger Is he on the roster right now? Do they have to go out and get somebody? I'm I'm with Goncalves, I I think he's kinda had enough time. he's played 160 minutes or so, and most of it has been with the top line. And like I said earlier, like the the line itself does fine. They they generate w way more offense than they give up goals. I think honestly, the the goal he he was on the ice for it's either Colorado or Utah, I forget. Was the first time they've given up a goal with him on the line. So it's not like they're getting caved in numbers wise. He's just not generating enough offense. I think part of it comes from he just doesn't shoot the puck enough. I think he has let me see if I wrote it down here. Gage has twenty-five shot attempts on the year. He has ten shots on goal. Just ten shots on goal. Twenty five attempts. Just twenty five attempts. Yeah. Wow, that's surprising. Yeah. We were talking about Geekie and and playing with go confidence earlier and Gage is one those guys, he's just gotta, I think he's gotta not defer as much as he does. he he is a pretty good playmaker. He knows what he wants to do with the puck, but I don't think he generates enough of his own offense to you know, force the defense to respect that. At this point, it's gonna be a question of what do you do with him? do you move him down to play with like Geekie and James or something like that, which could be a pretty good line. early returns on that have been kind of spotty. he doesn't play very well with Connor Geekie in their limited time. It's like grotesquely horrible. so we'll see. we'll see if that's a solution. But as far as having the player on the roster, I wouldn't be surprised to see, you know, maybe they try Dominic James up there. They try Connor Geekie up there just to see. I it I do think it's interesting that the last couple times they've gone eleven seven. the line with the two Fords has been Hagel and point and they've just kind of rotated or sorry Hagel and Cirelli then they just rotated a third forward in there. which is not usually what you see when a team goes eleven seven. It's usually the fourth line is the one that's broken up. but we'll see. I th I I think they're gonna try and figure out who it is before they go shopping. and I think you may wait until Yanni Gourde's back in early December to see how it all shakes out. that being said, is that stopped me from looking at potential wingers? no. it was kind of odd. It's all it's always worthwhile to kick the tires and see what's out there. It was it was interesting that a couple weeks ago, think Elliott Friedman was talking on his podcast about Pittsburgh and is Rakell available? And then he mentioned Brian Rust. And, you know, Brian Rust has kind of been one of those players that has come and gone for Lightning fans as far as picking up a deadlines. but with only one year after this con this this season left on his contract, he's kinda in that ideal spot of players that JBB likes to go after because there is some term. His sec his cap hit's not that bad. And he's a right handed shot who plays on the power play. And literally just as I was starting to pull numbers for him, I flip over on a website and they're yeah, Brian Russ is hurt for six weeks. So kind of puts the kibosh on that for a little bit. That also lines up back with when Gourde's kind of come back. So if they're still looking for this at that time, you know, do you start delving in a little deeper into, you know, is Brian Russ the kind of guy who fits with the Lightning? So I I think it's something probably in the back of the mind of of BriseBois right now. he's probably starting to circle players in the league that he may go after if the if the team doesn't write itself. It's not a huge problem to have just 'cause they are getting production out of other lines and anytime you have Nikita Kucherov play on whatever line he's playing on, he's gonna put up points. So it's not a glaring problem, but I do think it's something you look forward to moving down this season. One player we have to talk about a lack of offensive production, it's JJ Moser.. And surprisingly, the guy has a goose egg in the offensive scoring column. Are you disappointed with Moser's play or is he just not getting the bounces? I I think it's just he's just not getting the bounces right now. I know his expected goals is like one point one right now. he but he's another guy who's just not shooting the puck a lot. The Lightning do like to focus their offense from the blue line, but you know, when he's on the ice, so is John Karlsson and and Carlson's getting most of those shots. one thing I notice is roughly like twenty-seven percent of his shot attempts are getting on net, which is pretty Pretty low for him. So the others are either going wide or getting blocked, which you know, based on his career, it's a little bit low. He's usually around 40%, shot through percentage, I think is what they refer to it as. so his target's a little bit off right now. But again, that's not his role. You're like, he's not out here to put up 60 points, 50 points. It's just kind of those outlying stats that you look at. You're like, why does JJ Moser have a point? You know, guy plays, 20 you know, as close to any defenseman to 20 minutes as possible. so I think it's a little bit of a bad luck. He's had some good looks. I remember there was one where he was Coming right down the slot. I think he put it off the post or something like that. It it's probably gripping the stick a little too hard, but we'll see how it goes moving forward. I think he may be due for one or two. Just an interesting stat that lies out over, that that sticks out over ten games. Justin, your team MVP so far through the first ten games is Brandon Hagel, and Brandon Hagel's been extremely good. Seven goals, six assists. He's been a menace out there. He's involved in every play and The Lightnings bad games against the Rangers, he's been their best player. If you had to pick a guy that's shown up every game so far, it's been Brandon Hagel. Yeah. Nikita Kutroff has been fantastic. he's got fourteen points or something like that. he just set the record for most points in franchise history. Yeah. Nine times out of ten, I'd say Nikita Kutroff. But I do think there's been some games where he's been taken out of out of action and that just doesn't happen with Brandon Hagel. he's gonna push himself to be involved no matter what's going on on the ice. and like you said, in some of those losses, he's been their best player. He's been the one guy that's kind of been engaged and going. And his ability to put up points at even strength kind of gave me the nod. And you always wondered like, is he really a thirty goal scorer? You know, every year he puts up thirty some points or thirty some goals and you're like, Yeah, it's Brandon Hagel though, you know? This is a guy who, you know, walked away from Buffalo and Chicago traded away for a couple of prospects, But every year he comes out and he does exactly what Brandon Hagel does, man. He just bulldozes his way to thirty some goals. I think he's been that MVP over the first couple of seas couple games. Jake Guentzel's heating up, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him get back to his thirty to forty goals as well. So it's gonna be fun to watch those two feed off each other. One thing I was little bit surprised when you sent me the rundown, Justin, is you wanted to talk about how the Lightning offense is more aggressive this year than last. How so? One of the articles we post on Sunday was just kind of comparing the first ten games of this year to the first ten games of last year. You know, the Lightning were seven and I think seven and three this year. They were like four, four and three, four, four and s they were they were four, three and I don't forget three, four and two or something like that last year, you know, and everybody's like, my god, what a horrible start. And most of the numbers are pretty similar as far as defensively. they're within a half a goal, quarter of a goal of each other. But one thing that really stood out is the Lightning are shooting the puck a lot more. And they've never been a volume shot team. they've never been a team that regularly puts up 30 shots a game, hence the they'll make a they'll they'll make a bet against Utah. But you know, this year's a little bit different. And I think a lot of that comes off of what we've talked about already today, which is that forecheck that they established. they've been a lot better in the offensive this zone this year, or at least early on, of blocking these passes, these clearing attempts and things, keeping the puck in, cycling it around, and kind of generating those chances. And that's kind of been what's carried them through the first part of this year is they've scored more goals than they did last year at this point. Let's take a look ahead, Justin. On Thursday, they host the Winnipeg Jets, and then on Saturday they travel to Nashville for an afternoon tilt. It's a one o'clock afternoon start, an odd start there for the Bolts. in Nashville. But let's talk about that Winnipeg game. First of all, Winnipeg has struggled after getting off to a pretty good start. They had the whole Connor Hellibuck saga, which has finally ended. I didn't expect them to go to New Jersey, but he did. But Winnipeg is a team that's going to play tight to the vest in 11 of their games. They've had nine one goal games. They're top heavy. They have a Great top line, Perfetti, co Kyle Connor, Mark Shifley, and after that the offense drops quite a bit. What's the one key that you're looking at in this game? pretty much shut down that line. If they can keep that Kyle Connor line from scoring, it'll go a long way. Force the rest of Winnipeg to make the two hundred foot journey up the ice, you know, get that forecheck established again, and just get some shots on whoever's gonna be in net. Their goaltenders played Pretty well. You Stu Skinner came over and it's kind of been the default number one with Hellebuyck, you know, sitting at home doing nothing. and he's played pretty well. but Clay Thompson hasn't been bad as a backup either. So now they have Nico Dawes to throw in the in the mix. So I think goaltending's gonna be fine for him. So do you really? You think their goaltending is a is good enough? It's gonna be fine. Yeah, it's gonna be great, but I think it's gonna be good enough to carry them. I mean Stu Skinner. I'm not a sk I'm not a Skinner believer. I I think he is someone who I don't think he can carry you for fifty five, sixty games. I think at best he's a timeshare kind of goaltender. I think why they brought Dawes back, you know, as part of that deal. Clay Thompson's a a nice story. I think he's he was in Hershey for a long time. I think he's part of their culture their Calder Cup team. You know, he's this kid who had his path blocked in Washington, so he signs with, you know, I think it's kind of close to his hometown team as well. He's out from that part of the the region. And you know, he's played pretty well. But I think Dawes becomes your number two, maybe one B, and you can relieve Skinner a little bit more now that you have him on on the the roster. Skinner's been fine. I I thought even in Edmonton he was fine. It's just, you know, build a crappy team in front of him like Edmonton. You know, if their defense was never anything to write home about, then then you get what you get. So we'll see how Winnipeg does. But I think, yeah, if the Lightning just force the especially those Second, third, and fourth lines to go the whole length. if they can get back in the way of breakout passes and and just put a lot of shots on net again, I think they'll be fine. I think this is definitely a winnable game, but it's also gonna be a good test for both their defensive structure and their offense to get back to what they were doing before the road trip. Big travel to Nashville for a Saturday tilt at one o'clock. It's our old friend Steven Stamkos, who's off to a great start. But besides Stamkos, Stamkos is the driver. They need some passengers to jump on board because this offense has really struggled. The power plays good, but five on five, Justin, I want to talk about that. Tell us about Nashville five on five and some of the issues they're having. it's not great. especially on home ice. That's an understatement. I think they're like twenty sixth and scoring chances, you know, twentieth and high danger chances. Their shooting percentage has been terrible. you know, it's like six percent or something at home. Yeah, they've been kind of carried by the power of play. And you know, I think the key to the game for the Lightnings, keep them at two goals or less, because if you do that, you're gonna win. I think the something like Nationals won I think in their four wins, three of them, they've scored more than five goals. If you shut them down, especially early, you're gonna be okay. but yeah, you talk about top heavy teams in Winnipeg. that Stam Coast line is kind of carrying it all. it's good to see Stammer, you know, doing Stammer things, seven games. He's still scoring games. Yeah. And he scored it even straight too. It's not like it's all power play this year. So it's good to see him. I think we're about a year away from can we start the bring Stammer back to to Tampa talk? You know, I think next year, when he's got two years left on that deal, it's a little bit better, but Nashville strikes me as this team that doesn't quite know who they are yet. I you know, they're making trades. Are they trying to get younger? Are they bringing in veterans? I don't think they kinda know who they are. So they're undoing some of the trots things. Jonathan Martichot, hasn't been he's been bad really. He's that's that was that that was a that that was a bad addition to that team. But Justin, I do like what you talked about with Nashville. They don't know where they're at. I sort of equate it to they don't know which part of the pool to jump in. Do they go in the deep end? Do they go in the shallow end? And when you don't know and you're trying to do both, just like the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing. You end up not doing either and you end up holding yourself back. And I feel like Nashville is stuck in that purgatory where, okay, we might be a wild card, we might finish two spots out of the wild card. You're better off either going for it or being really bad. That's the easiest way to get good. Yeah, and and you saw they kind of, you know, sold off some assets last year, but then you know, they bring in like Ross Colton during the summer, who's you know, a good player, but you know, is he gonna move that needle much? is he somebody that you bring in just to move at the deadline this year, possibly? so it's kind of been back and forth with what they're trying to do. And in that they're in that central division, which is tough. So it's brutal. And only and only getting tougher. I don't know what they're gonna do moving forward. it does seem like this year, more so than last year, there's some teams that are kind of already calling it quits, if you will, and starting to talk about trades and things like that. So I wonder if they're gonna do that or if they're just gonna try and hang out hang around and and see what they got and then make a decision maybe in February or so if they're gonna be buyers or sellers. But yeah, I don't know. it'll be interesting to see the see them live, see how well, not see them live, but watch the game and and just kind of see how they play and if they're worth investing in if you're a Nashville fan. Justin, tell us what's going on over at Raw Charge. Well, as I mentioned, we restarted the top twenty f twenty under twenty-five. We're gonna wrap that up. we posted numbers four and three this year was Ben Ratyan and Connor Geekie. So that leaves two prospects left. I think most fans can kinda guess who they are, but as far as what order they they finished in, we'll find out tomorrow. yeah, and then just kinda get back into the hockey swing of things here. take a look at some things. on the ice as far as what's going on. See if we get any more reveals about what the hometown remix jersey is. today at practice the Lightning looked like they were wearing their new pants. which slightly different shade of blue, kind of more towards that stadium classic series blue that we saw. We'll see what the rumors start out of that. Kind of break that down once we get information on the on the sweaters themselves. And yeah, just cover the two games. You know, it's nice that Nashville's doing it at one o'clock so the kids can go out and trick or treat afterwards on Halloween. But yeah. My general rule when it comes to Halloween, when my wife buys the candy, give out the bad candy first. So that way when you have leftovers, you at least have the good stuff. So the first thing I give away are the Reese's peanut butter cups because I can't stand them. Nice. I think we're about eighty percent finished with the bag of candy that we bought for trick-or-treating, so probably be another run out to Walgreens to pick up some more next week. Buy some more hundred grand bars. Hey, who doesn't Halloween candy ever. Everyone, thank you for joining us. Please hit that like and subscribe button. We truly appreciate it. We'll be back after the Nashville game for the podcast that'll drop on Monday for Justin Godfrey, who you can read each and every day at www.rawcharge.com.. I'm Jason Linkes.. Thanks for joining us. Have a great evening and go Bolts.. Go Bolts.. And go raise. 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. 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