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6 Losses in 7 Games...What's Happening to the Lightning · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up next on back checking the bolts, the lightning lose their sixth game in seven. They fall to Columbus by a score of five to two. We're going to talk about that with Justin Godfrey from raw charge. Also, we're going to preview the Carolina game and go over the NHL betting odds for the awards that and more coming up next. Welcome to back checking the bolts back checking the bolts as 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 to back checking the bolts. Hi, I'm your host Jason. Lincoln's and as always, I'm joined by the managing editor of raw charge, Justin Godfrey and Justin. is our instant analysis episode. The Columbus game just concluded the bolts fell by a score of five to two. It wasn't pretty Justin. was your instant reaction? know, yes, they've played better. They're, they're really just still continuing to fight just basically the entire game of hockey right now. ⁓ they're just struggling to. Pretty much put anything together, straighten two or three passes together, get any kind of offensive zone time. And it's just any mistake that they're making right now is ending up in the back of the net. So they're just one of these stretches where they're fighting it. And the only way to get through it is just to keep on grinding. And, know, you got 19 games left now after tonight. And if you're going to struggle, this isn't a bad time to do it. It gives you a chance to get your game back in order before the real playoffs start. don't think there's in danger of missing the playoffs at this point. but you'd like to see them just start playing a little bit more positive hockey and they're just not in their system right now. and I talked before the Olympic break. Was this a bad time for Tampa to have to go two and a half weeks without a game? Clearly they haven't been able to regroup after the Olympic break. What has been the major reason in your opinion, why the Bolts have struggled so much? I don't know. mean, like the one positive of the break that we were thinking about is that they could get healthy, but now they just keep getting injured after the break anyway. So they might as well just play through at this point. It's just, I don't know if it's bringing the defensive players back in the lineup. If it was Vasilevsky not seeing action for two and a half weeks, but it's just, they're just not in rhythm right now. Coach Cooper talked about it after the game right now that they just have no rhythm when they play. They're struggling to get out of their own zone. And when they do that, they just can't push the puck up with any sort of speed whatsoever. Tonight was a perfect example of it. Columbus just bottled them up in a neutral zone. They forced a bunch of turnovers and the Lightning just never got their legs under them. And when they can't get skating into the zone, they just struggled to put up offense. And that's kind what we saw today. Um, it was nice that they scored the first goal. And I thought after a rough start to the first period, I thought they kind of started to things together, but then it came out in the second period and we're just. Absolutely flat and ⁓ Columbus kind of took it to him a little bit. One of the things they really struggled with was the penalty kill coming into the game. They were seventh in the league killing 82 % right now is the penalty kill as much of having different bodies on defense back there or is it just not being strong on the puck? I think it's a little combination of both. They're not clearing the puck when they need to. They started out pretty good. had two penalty kills in the first period. The first one, they struggled a little bit. It was kind of tracking how the puck left the zone and they were pinned in pretty much for the first half of the penalty. Columbus actually led to the one clear that they had early in that peak hit, but then they kind of picked it up towards the end. The second penalty kill I thought was their best probably in the last week. Columbus didn't even sniff a chance on that one, but then you get into the second period and they get back to their old ⁓ bugaboos where they just can't clear the puck, they get chances to clear it and it's either knocked down or kept in. So I think it was on one of the first ones. They had a couple of chances to clear it. They don't, the puck gets out and Columbus just takes advantage of it and you know, they get the extra, the extra time and just put it in the net. want to talk about the two power play goals. lightning gave up both of them were to Connor Garland, a really nice acquisition for Columbus at the trade deadline. Not because Garland scored, but I want to talk about the sloppiness on both plays. Take us back to the two, one goal where the lightning had multiple chances to clear and they didn't. Yeah. Hold on a second. Let me just pull up my recap real quick. Okay. Sure. Just cause I got some, I'm sorry about that. I was trying to do that on the fly. Sometimes I get the goals screwed up in my head. So Justin, talked a little bit about the penalty killing. Now let's break down a little bit. What happened on the two power play goals for Columbus. First, Krill Marchenko unleashed a bomb to make it three to one. us to that one. Yeah. I think that was just kind of Columbus being tougher on the puck than the Lightning. Lightning had a couple of chances to clear it. don't. Columbus is able to work the puck around and Marchenko has a, has a heck of a shot. He's always been kind of a Lightning killer. ⁓ So, you know, you give him space, you get Vasileski moving from side to side, he just kind of whips it past them. But I think kind of the early struggles came in the two goals before that. The Provolov goal that tied the game up, there's nothing you can really do about that. He just kind of flings a shot at the net. Hedman's got his guy tied up in front of the net. It hits Hedman's hand to flex pass Vasileski. Again, nothing you can really do about that, right? ⁓ But then 30 seconds later, Columbus brings the puck into the zone. Letty had two chances to clear it. ⁓ I believe it was Guncawiz at the blue line, takes kind of a swipe at it, misses, gets it in deeper, Declan Carlile has it on his stick, tries to fire it up out the middle, it gets knocked out of the air. Now you got four players kind of looking at Ken Johnson, flings the backhand behind him, Conor Garland's all by himself, no one's there, everyone's puck watching, the puck goes in. So the light you're kind of compounding their problems upon problems. Then you get to the penalty kill, you need that penalty kill right there, you're down two to one. after being up for most of the game, they don't get it. And I think they just kind of got deflated after that a little bit. I was a lot like against Buffalo. They just can't clear the puck when they need to. And they're giving these other teams more chances. And anytime you give a, you know, an NHL team more chances, no matter where they are in the standings, they're going to make you pay for it. the point when it was three to one, the Lightning were being out shot 21 to five. And it was just beyond the halfway point of the game. You had mentioned Columbus was bottling up the lightning in the neutral zone. Are they just refusing to dump the puck? Are they trying to skate through the, through the congestion? What's going on? Yeah. towards the end of game, they did kind of start trying to dump the puck in, but they just weren't able to retrieve it. ⁓ when the lightning were getting into this zone and just with the way their offense is set up, a lot of the shots come from the blue line. And if you look at the shot total, at least the shot attempt totals. There wasn't that big of disparity even through the first two periods, but what Columbus was able to do is block the shots and not only were they blocking them, they were kind of blocking them out at the point of contact. And what happens with that is once that happens, the Lightning have most of their players down below the puck now and it's just an easy clear for the other team. So the Lightning aren't able to get second chances, they're not able to retrieve the puck. And so it's kind of a one shot and done kind of thing. So if they do get into the zone, they're just not staying in there for any length of time. That being said. You know, Columbus did a great job all game long, just absolutely nullifying their attack through any of the zones. At some point, the third period, the Lightning are down. You know, they had just cut the lead to 3-2 at the end of the second period. Got a little momentum going their way. Their first three clearing attempts. Basically, Columbus wins the faceoff, dumps the puck into the zone. Lightning try and clear the puck. Puck is knocked down in the neutral zone. Columbus sends it right back in. The Lightning have the puck again. There's nobody pressuring Oliver Bjorkstrang. He tries a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone. gets intercepted Columbus dumps it back in. Third attempt now I think it was to Stu or somebody like that tried to force it up puck turnover Yorkshire and actually makes a great job of the back check to take away what could have been a dangerous power play or a dangerous ⁓ opportunity but again it's just the lighting just aren't in sync with their breakouts right now and when they do that they just can't generate anything through the neutral zone when they did try and dump the puck in Columbus was first on the puck and just cleared it a lot easier the four check wasn't going Fairly well for the light knee either. So it's kind of this, you know, it's not just one thing bothering right now It's kind of all facets of what they're trying to do on the offense And that's why you know, they're not getting the second chance opportunities They're not getting sustained zone time and they're basically on their heels for most of the game Sometimes when you struggle you try to do too much Justin you're John Cooper. You're in the locker room. Are you telling your guys? let's just keep it simple dump the puck in play good positional hockey, the offense will come. Or is there another message you would be saying? think from what it sounds like, especially, you know, after his press, you know, his post game press conference, he is kind of trying to get that message. ⁓ Did mention that he thinks the frustration is starting to come into their game a little bit now. They're a very experienced team. They've been through this before and they're good. They know they're going to work their way out of it. But I think they're just not doing the little things that they need to do. ⁓ to work their way out of it. And he did bring that up in his post game press conference is I think they're just kind of thinking that, Hey, we've done this before. It's going to happen again. And they're not quite putting in the effort needed. So he's always been a free, he's always had a pretty good touch, you know, on the pulse of his team. He kind of knows how, when to, you know, yell and scream at them, when to just let it go and let them play out. think he's kind of in the, let them play out right now. He knows they're frustrated. He knows that they're struggling. He knows that their mistakes are compounding on each other. ⁓ So he's not going to press them too hard right now, but I think that is the message he's reaching in the locker room is just do the little things, you know, make that first pass, make that clean breakout pass, build from your backend. And, know, then the good things will start happening. Don't start chasing offense. I think they're kind of getting into that a little bit. Now they're starting to cheat a little bit to try and get offense. And it just, it's making them harder for them to connect through those passes through the neutral zone. Justin, it's time to give our duds and studs of the game. Now in a game when you lose five to two, there's not going to be too many studs. So let's start with a guy that you were a little disappointed with tonight. would say off the top of my head, as far as disappointment, thought that, um, I didn't think Charles Edward de stew had a very good game. Uh, just a lot of turnovers. I thought Declan Carlile played with a lot of energy, but he wasn't very clean with things. And there was neutral, those defensive zone turnovers or just killing them right now. Some of their breakout passes just weren't there. It's just, we're good enough. mean, you put it in a nutshell. The lightning just work enough to be Columbus tonight. I think, I don't think he could really pick out one person. Say this was a pretty solid team effort as far as, you know, failing to generate any kind of momentum. those are the duds. Tell us who you were a little pleasantly surprised with tonight. I thought Connor Dickey had a pretty good game. One thing in the first period, the lightning did a pretty good job of rolling off four lines and geeky was down. He was a play with Corey Perry and Oliver Bjorkstrand. I thought we. It was more of a geeky that we've seen in Syracuse where he was trying to dominate the play where he was taking charge. He wasn't deferring to his line mates. ⁓ you know, he didn't get a ton of shots on. don't even know if he recorded a shot, but he was a lot more visible on the ice. You could, could see him fighting for the puck a lot more as far as, know, the players on the ice. thought he kind of played with the most energy and it was kind of a shame. ⁓ Cooper got away from his rotation in the second period and his ice time went down a little bit. And part of that is due to the penalties. ⁓ and that's. Another reason you don't want to be taking so many penalties is it does get you out of your rhythm as far as rolling lines. So I thought Giki looked pretty good. You know, he probably knows his days up in Tampa are numbered probably until Nick Paul gets back, which probably another week or so. But he's trying to make a good impression on the team right now. And I think he's doing that. He had the assist against Buffalo on a really nice play. He made a really nice play along the boards to intercept the breakout. I believe the second period today, but he's starting to, you're starting to see that what makes him. You know, a two hundred foot player as far as using his size to keep the puck in the zone and then his skill with his hands to, set up his teammates. So it'd be interesting to see how he does over the next couple of games. Justin, they've lost six out of seven, but let's take a look going forward. The bolts host the Detroit red wings on Thursday at seven o'clock. It's a little bit of a clash of styles, Detroit, much more structured defensive first under Todd McClellan. We all know about the lightning. They like to play fast. They're an offensive. They're a skill team. What do you expect out of this matchup? Um, you know, Detroit's kind of been scuffling along a little bit as well. think they're like four or five and one in their last 10, something around there. So I think it's two teams that are kind of trying to get back to where they want to be as far as, you know, picking up these points that they need. I do think you're going to see a much more structured Detroit team than what the light near you. So they used to attack the lightning with a lot of speed. With their younger players now, they've gotten a little bit more responsible. So it could be a good game for the lightning teams with speed to tend to put them back on their heels so if the lightning have a chance to kind of regroup in their zone and push out if Detroit doesn't for check as hard as some of these other teams, you know It could let the lightning kind of get into their rhythm a little bit and hopefully be you know, least to let them Not play the entire game and their defensive zone like they have been the last two In the season series, the team split. They played in early October when the bolts were scuffling a little bit. Detroit won two to one and Justin, like you said, that what could give Tampa trouble that structured system. Tampa didn't generate a whole lot of offense in that two one loss, but then they played on November the 28th Tampa with a six three victory. And Tampa just was unleashed on the red wings. They overwhelmed them and those a game they won pretty easily. It could be something that they draw on, maybe bring up some of video of that game to show what they were doing, see how they were stringing passes together, know, attacking the zone with speed, pushing the defenseman back. When the Lightning are on their game, it's players like Kuturov and Point that are driving defenders back, that opens up those drop passes back to the defenseman. Actually, the first goal the Lightning scored tonight was a good example of that. Kuturov enters the zone, he whips a pass across the ice. Gage Gonzalez kind of reads it really well. He's cutting it. He's cutting in towards the middle of the ice He knows he's got a head man behind him So instead of taking the pass and driving to the net he just kind of leaves it He stops the puck leaves it for headman headman walks right into it and unleashes I think they said it was like a 96 mile an hour slap shot. I can cop gun Solvay's is in position He can tip it past them at Mercer Lekens and you know the lightning were on the board So when they attack with speed like that, it opens up that us that those lanes for the second wave. And I think the lightning need to kind of get back to that. need to get it out of their zone first, get it through the neutral zone with speed, and then just start driving those defenders back again. Justin, when you look at the expected goaltenders for the game, the prognosticators are expecting Detroit to go with Gibson. Is that their better goaltender? Yeah, I think Joe Gibson's, know, he's, he's at better than edge. He's been really good for him this year. It's one of those deals when you make it like, don't know if I'm going to trust him to helm this team. He's, he's an older guy. He's been around the league for a while. But he's really kind of, you know, he's he's studied them in that, you know, he hasn't been outstanding. I don't think he's going to get any best of votes or anything like that. But he is definitely a much more studying influence than they've had in the last few years. So he gives them that better experience back there. And they know if they make a mistake, there's a good chance he's still going to make the same. So, yeah, you know, I would definitely go with Gibson and we know Vasilevsky is going to play. I think you're pretty much going to see Vasilevsky every game. That's not a back to back here on out. Case in point, I mean, just because A, he wants to play all these games. B, think Cooper is trying to get him back into his groove. You know, again, we're seeing flashes of it. I thought he had a really good first period tonight. It could have been two or three nothing in Columbus early on, but Vassi made some really sharp saves. He's still not tracking the puck 100%, I don't think. One thing with the Marchenko goal, he was really slow to cover. He didn't have his stick on the shot. It had been knocked out of his hands earlier. But, um, he didn't track the puck very well when Fantilly kind of passed over to Marchenko and he was a little slow to get to the post. So I think he's still kind of working his way back in, you know, it's been five or six games now, but, you know, we know once the Vassalessky gets locked in, he's the best goaltender in the league. So, you know, keep him in the playing, keep him out there and it's going to happen. Let's take a quick look at the Eastern conference standings. The Buffalo Sabres. They are in first place in the Atlantic. now have a four point lead. have 86 points. They are eight, one in one in their last 10. They have one eight in a row. Tampa in second with 82, the Montreal Canadians. They've had the same number of games. only two points behind Tampa with 80 points over in the Metro Carolina with 88 points. They just defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins bias of five, four score in a shootout. The Penguins was 79 points. are tied with the New York Islanders, the wild card, the Detroit Red Wings who will see on Thursday night with 79 points. The Bruins only a point behind them at 78 and the Columbus Blue Jackets. They are for real. They have been a really good hockey team since Rick bonus has taken over. They have 76 points. It's going to be a doozy of a race in the East. But Justin it's that time of the day. It's the nurture marketing trivia question. And I'm going to remember Wink Martindale a little bit, the former game show host. He used to host named that tune. So we're going to call this game name that bolt. All right. Okay. Justin Andre's got pins off. No. Okay. You are going to get five clues to get this former bolt now. They played the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. So this former bolt also played for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was a Hobie Baker winner from the state of Ohio. No, who be Baker state of Ohio. what another clue. Yeah. Cause remember you back in old name that tune, you could say wink. I want to name that in five beats. I'm gonna, I'm thinking of somebody, but I'm blanking on his name right now. Okay. Well, let me give you another clue at the 1999 2000 trade deadline, along with Corey Sarge and Wayne primo. He was traded to the Tampa Bay lightning in exchange for Chris Gratton and a second round draft pick. So the trade would read this person, Sarich and primo in exchange for Chris Gratton and a second. I want to say Brian holes in here, but I'm getting him. is correct. That is correct. Very good. I did not expect you to get that one right away. Well, was a big trade. So Brian holes anger, five foot 11, 186 pounds out of Parma, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland was a center right-handed shot. And he was drafted 124th overall in the 1991 NHL entry draft by the Buffalo Sabres. Yep. Justin. Congratulations. That was a good one. And we'd like to thank our friends over at nurture marketing. If you send us the name Brian Holzinger to our email back, checking the bolts at yahoo.com. You will register to win a Nikita Kucherov Jersey. Now we are going to be doing a different trivia question each podcast through the month of March, and we will draw one lucky name at the end of March to win that Nikita Kucherov Jersey. brought to you by nurture marketing. Justin. I was impressed. Two for three now. Good job there, bud. Yeah. So, all right. Cool. Maybe I'll come up with a question for you for the next podcast. We'll see. No, Hey, I'm the host. I'm the game show host here. You're the lightning expert. So you, you get to answer the questions. Yeah. You get to make the expert look like an idiot because he can't think of anybody's name, but yeah, no, I see how goes. All right. But no. We'll make it work. did a good job with that. did not expect you to get the Hobie I just couldn't remember Elzinger playing for the blue jackets. That's the only thing. it was his last stop. He went to the penguins after the lightning and then ended his career with the blue jackets. him going to the penguins. think he was part of Was it the Bartabee trade? No, Mark Bergevin. One of the 85 times Mark Bergevin was traded from the Lightning, right? Yeah. Well, hey, when you're the Penguins back in, let's see here, that was 2002. The Penguins are literally selling off players to try to get through the strike. So they said, Hey, we'll trade Holzinger for a former general manager. Exactly. A future general manager. Future general manager. Maybe with the salary they say that, you know, prevented them from moving. never know. Hey, there were a lot of rumors. There were rumors of Kansas city. If you remember the guy from Blackberry, Jim Balsillie, he actually had a press conference in Pittsburgh to say that he was buying the team. And a lot of people thought he was going to move them to Hamilton and move them to the cops. Coliseum. See, once again, you know, the NHL before the, before the lockout was a hell of a league. So yeah, you could just kind of walk up. think we could have walked up to a microphone and been like, yeah, we're buying the lightning. You know, we got. 75 bucks. Hey, allowed Len Barry to buy the lightning. I mean, we got the financial backing of the Duke of England to, ⁓ to go ahead and help us. Yeah. Well, Justin, in terms of financial backing, sometimes you'd need a little financial backing when you decide to go to Las Vegas and place some bets. So we're going to give all of our fans out there a chance to get updated on the NHL. betting odds. First of all, let's start with the Stanley cup. Justin Colorado plus two 90 Tampa. Still the second shot out there plus four 40. You have Carolina plus 500 Vegas at 10 to one Edmonton at 12 to one Minnesota at 13 to one Dallas at 18 to one the Sabres at 22 to one. Now for those of you who follow the show and follow us on either Instagram, Facebook, we put out a couple reels and one was me saying that I didn't think the Buffalo savers were Stanley cup contenders. Boy, did we hear that. is no longer allowed into the city of Buffalo. So yeah, great job, buddy. Next time I want to beef on Wex sandwich off to send my wife and park out in Williamsville and tell her to go into Buffalo to get me one. Yeah. I just can't wait. We definitely need to do a live pod from the draft then in Buffalo just to see if any of your fans come out for you. Yeah. Hey, again, I'll be a popular one. I'll, I'll, I'll spend most of the draft at the decamelo bakery. There you go. Not a bad idea. No, it's, it's really good. I'm telling you, if you've never been to Buffalo, get a beef on Weck sandwich. It's delicious. But Justin, let's actually talk about the odds. yeah. That's right. at plus 440. Still pretty good odds for the lightning. I'm wondering in the next week, if other teams are going to get hit pretty hard. I have to say Carolina at five, the one is an attractive bet. know, we are not a gambling, ⁓ we are not a gambling advice, podcast. So proceed with your own caution and all that good stuff. think, ⁓ you're kind of having some of that hangover from the lightning's big winning streak as far as their odds. I wouldn't be surprised to see those dip a little bit as you know, more people kind of are attracted by whatever the latest flavor is. I Buffalo's odds will go up a little bit. You know, the one that kind of surprised me a little bit is Montreal. I think out of all the teams in the East right now, or at least in the Atlantic division, they've kind of been the most consistent. mean, they're not doing anything splashy. I don't think people were sold on their goaltending duo, but they have so much young talent down there. with what Marty St. Louis doing with that squad, think they could be primed for a little first round upset. They're hovering in that third seed right now, but like you mentioned earlier, they have played the same amount of games as the Lightning, so they got two games in hand on Buffalo as well. I'd kind of keep an eye out for Montreal. think as far as young talent, they match up pretty well with Buffalo, if not better. So they're kind of ones I'm keeping an eye on. It'd be interesting to see what they look like in a week or two. Some of those West Coast teams kind of... are intriguing, but yeah, getting back to Carolina, I would say if you're looking for non-Colorado bet, probably your safest. I just feel like they're a better team this year. Again, you you look back at the goaltending and maybe you're not a hundred percent sold on them. They've, they kind of remind me of the lightning prior to winning the Stanley cup. They've been to the kind of the bridesmaid for so many years. You know, is this a year in that they figure it out how to win in the playoffs and kind of get out of that first round, second round and make it back to the conference finals and kind of get over that hump. You know, you never know what it's going to be or when it's going to be, should say. So I'd keep an eye on them see how they finish out the season. But yeah, like I said, that's a pretty attractive look as far as, you know, not betting one of the favorites. Let's take a look at the Jack Adams award. is the NHL coach of the year. Lindy Ruff is the favorite right now at plus 175. Tampa's John Cooper is at plus 245. Jared Bednar for Colorado is at plus 300. Those odds are from Vegas Insider. Justin, I think probably two weeks ago, John Cooper would have been in the lead. Yeah. with Buffalo winning eight in a row, I think that gave him the momentum. think a couple of the publications out there, think ESPN just did their update on the awards and they had Cooper in the lead for the Jack Adams. I don't know if the athletic did as well or was Daily Face Off. What are the other ones? But they also had Adam Cooper in front for the Adams. And I do think it's going to be whatever coach is the hottest at the end of the year now. Kind of the flavor of the month right now, because his team's on such a hot streak, you know, Bednar was the early favorite with what Colorado did and then the Lightning in the middle of the stretch. you know, it'll be, I think we still got 19 games to go. So there's another team out there that could maybe throw one together. Does Rick bonus start getting some votes? You know, if Columbus pulls this off and keeps winning, that's a direct turnaround. mean, it correlates, it's probably more a coincidence than anything else, but their success really correlates with when he took off over behind the bench. So could he be one of these guys, even though if he didn't kill him for the entire season, the turnaround is so great that he kind of garners some votes, but it'll be an interesting finish. Like I said, I think whatever team is the hottest team down the stretch is probably going to have their coach get it. So let's take a look at the NHL MVP. That's the heart trophy. Nathan McKinnon is a heavy favorite right now. Minus two 40 Nikita Kucherov for the bolts plus two 90 Connor McDavid plus nine 50. Macklin Celebrini at 10 to one. I know there was a lot of talk amongst Tampa fans that this could be Kucherov's year. According to the Vegas betting window, it looks like it's McKinnon and he's going to run away with it. think the voting will be a little bit closer than what the odds have it out at us right now. Just because of Kucherov's push. think he tied McKinnon for second place in points tonight. He picked up on this. It's funny. They took an assist away from him in Buffalo, but he picked one up today. So. He's up to 70 assists right now. So if the lightning turning back around and he goes on another one of these benders where he's, you know, putting up three, four points a night, he could still catch him. But McKinnon has been kind of the consistent player. Sometimes I think with the hard trophy voters reward that more than, you know, a guy who was hot for half the seasons. It's funny, you know, the fan bases get so bent out of shape out of this. It just happens to be a time in the NHL where you have three or four really, really, really good players. And I think a case could be made for all of them. know, Austin Matthews is having an off year, but he's usually in this conversation. David's the best player in the game. I don't care what anybody else says. There's nobody who plays the game like he does. And just because Edmonton's struggling a little bit, I think that's why he's been bumped back to third. But again, you know, what, if Edmund goes 15 and four down the stretch or something like that? And you know, David starts racking up the points again. He's going be right back in that conversation. So I think McKinnon's your, probably your favorite. I wouldn't take them at those odds just because, you know, if you're going to bet on the future award, you'll kind of want to get plus plus money out of it. But yeah, it'd be an interesting race. Um, it's over the next year of three, four weeks. And I think by probably early April, you'll, you'll, you'll have a better idea of what, it's going to shape out to be. final award we're going to look at is the Vesna award top goaltender in the NHL. And it's Andre Vasileski. He's a heavy favorite minus one 65, Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders at plus one 10. And it's a two man race because Jeremy Swainman is third at plus 4,500 at 45 to one. might be worth throwing a couple of bucks on Swainman. The meteor takes out the next game and the Islanders and the Lightning plays Swainman's in. Uh, that was kind of the funniest thing I saw when you sent me over all these numbers is just to despair, you know, the discrepancy between second and third place as far as the voters are. The odds makers are concerned. Yeah. There's some goaltenders out there probably wondering what, what do we have to do? You know, if you're, you know, Philip Gustafson in Minnesota, you're like, Hey man, I'm, I've had a pretty good year here, I can't get better. had a very good year. really has. So, one thing I noticed, I do think those, uh, the top two are going to kind of probably flip in the next, uh, week or so, uh, coming out of the break. One thing I took a look at, you know, Swarovski is 302. It's got a 908 save percentage, uh, 273 goals against and a 2.34. Goal saved above expected. Those are pretty good numbers kind of in line with what he's been doing all year long. Meanwhile, Vasileski is two and three. This is before tonight's game, by the way. He's two, three and ⁓ eight seventy four save percentage, 371 goals against any minus one point. ⁓ he goal saved above expected. So he's saving fewer goals than the numbers say you should be. ⁓ You know, like we said, he's kind of fighting it right now. So I think you're seeing those odds swing a little bit ⁓ unless he kind of puts it together starting the next couple of games. So. You know, I have faith in Vasileski. I'd kind of wait and see what happens if he get a kind of a better number on him right now. You know, I may wait to bet on him. So I think it's going to be a two horse race coming down for the best. If the Islanders finish in the top three of the Metro, Sirocan has a chance. If they fall back, I don't, I think Sirocan will be done. Vasileski has to start playing better. mean, he's been pretty much given up five goals a game since the Olympic break, but He was absolutely stellar the first 50 games of the year. So again, slumps happen, but those are the odds right there. Justin, tell us what's going on at raw charge. Hey, we're writing about the Tampa Bay Lightning. Go figure. ⁓ we did sneak it a little bit. ⁓ today's, news links. did talk about the Syracuse crunch a little bit, you know, as much as the Lightning was struggling with blade, the crunch had been on fire. I think they've run a, they're winning straight to about three games, four games now. ⁓ They're creeping in on LaPol for the top of the division. the young kids are starting to put it back together. They actually made a little bit of a trade. They brought back Michael Pecca, who some old crunch heads may remember, played with them kind of during that early Tampa Q's era with Tyler Johnson and those guys. was, he was kind of part of that, but now he's back. I could help them for their playoff push. Broke down the some final thoughts on the trade deadline for on our subscribers only post. So that's kind what we've been working on lately. ⁓ this week we're going to, course, you know, break down the Detroit game, break down the Carolina game and go from there and see if we can start putting this winning streak back together. next podcast is going to be on March 13th, Friday. We're going to break down the lightning and the red wings game and preview the bolts taking on the Carolina hurricanes on Saturday at seven o'clock. You can check out Justin at raw charge at www.rawcharge.com. Also, please like and subscribe to the back checking the bolts YouTube channel. If you follow us on any other of the podcast platforms, please like and subscribe as well for Justin Godfrey. I'm Jason link is thanks for joining us today and go bolts. Go bolts. Thank you for listening to Back Checking the Bolts. We are free and available on all platforms including Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on bluesky at rawcharge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore bolts underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Back Checking the Bolts. If you're interested in advertising on the show or partnering with us, You can find more information in the show notes or email Jason at backcheckingthebolts at yahoo.com.