Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / Lightning Drop Two Straight | Sabres & Senators Recap, Canadiens Preview & Injuries
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- Jason Linkes: Coming up next on back checking the bolts. Not a fast team. They're a little bit better when like Dominic James is in the lineup. think with Peltier and they'd be a little bit quicker as well. They got Braden point who's probably their fastest skater and that's kind of about it. So teams with speed, especially the, the lightning defense kind of give them a little bit of trouble. think they'd match up a little bit better against Montreal than they do Buffalo. think Buffalo has the size and the speed and the forecheck, ⁓ as well as their defense. think. The lightning can exploit Montreal's defense a little bit more. I think they're a little bit younger. I don't think there's talented as a buffalo's defense. So I think that would be the matchup. The lightning may favor. 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 Lincoln and the managing editor of raw charge, Justin Godfrey, as they break down the lightning's most recent games and go beyond the highlights, telling you what the box scores didn't. It's time to drop the puck. Hi everybody and welcome to back checking the bolts. This is your David Shaw, Alexander C. Mac, Tim Taylor, and Jonathan Druane episode. It's number 27. Hi everybody. I'm Jason Lakers. And as always, I am joined by the managing editor of raw charge, Justin Godfrey. You can read him daily at www.rawcharge.com. Today we are going to break down the the bolts last two games and they are on a two game losing streak. lost four to two to Buffalo on Monday night. They dropped a tough one to Ottawa last night by a score of six to two. We're going to preview the game against Montreal on Thursday night. And we're also going to talk about that lightning injury situation, talk a little bit about the NHL playoffs, see what's going on around the league. Just in the last two games were not what the lightning drew up. Last night, they looked a little tired. The Buffalo game was a tough one. They just couldn't find a way to get the equalizer in the third. Give me your quick assessment on those. look like kind of like a beaten up, you know, slightly tired team. John Cooper talked about fatigue a couple of weeks ago, or, ⁓ just dealing with the fatigue at this point in the season, the compressed schedule. Now that you're throwing in these injuries that they're, they're going through right now, ⁓ especially against Ottawa, they just looked, they look like a slow team. looked like. They were skating in the quicksand for much of the game against Ottawa. You know, the Buffalo game, it was a tough game. They didn't play very well for the first two periods, kind of turned it on a little bit in the third, but Buffalo kept them, kept them off the board. So yeah, they're kind of going through it right now. They got two more games left on this road trip. They were really kind of needed some wins here if they wanted to, to fight for that division title. Now it kind of comes down to this game against Montreal, put it this way. They need to be better. I think Cooper always says they got better in them and they're not showing it right now. They got to kind of find that as they close out the season right now. Justin, the one thing we've seen with the Lightning this year is they're a little bit inconsistent. They've had stretches this year where they have been phenomenal. The 21-1-1 stretch where they just took the league by storm. But then even early in the season and right after the Olympic break, they've had some stretches where they haven't played good hockey. where they've gone on some losing streaks. Is this just a little bit about the 2025-26 lightning DNA or is this just the compressed schedule? They're tired. They're not the youngest team in the world. And is it just, Hey, we're going to need a little bit of a rest heading into the playoffs. is. think it's a combination of factors. Everything you just mentioned there, along with the fact that they're playing some really good teams. Let's not take any credit away from Buffalo. Let's not take any credit away from Ottawa. mean, Ottawa played like a desperate team last night. They were on the puck. They were quick. They outskated the Lightning, I would say 98 % of that game. So let's not dismiss the competition factor and what the Lightning have gone through. They've had a really long stretch here against teams that are in the playoff hunt. Uh, and they played well for most of it. I mean, that, that homestand was, you couldn't ask really for a better homestand. I ended five one and one, had the four game winning streak on the road prior to it. So they're coming off a stretch where they played some pretty decent hockey. did a really good job of limiting chances, scoring chances against now they've just, it feels like the season has caught up with them a little bit. You know, they've been battling these injuries all year long and eventually it was going to catch up with them. Is it the best time for it to happen? Not really. But you also have to wonder possibly if, you know, if this was a playoff, is Anthony Sorelli playing? You know, is Brandon Hagel playing if this is a playoff game? We don't know the extent of their injuries, but you kind of feel like that. Yes, he is, you know, Cooper's kind of trying to sneak some rest in for what is basically his second line. Justin, we've talked about the NHL compressed schedule. We've talked about how many teams played 16 or 17 games in the month of March. In the last week and a half, this compressed schedule loosens up a little bit. Most teams now will have four games. in the next 10 days. So you're seeing teams with multiple days off really for the first time in quite some time for the lightning. Their schedule eases up once they get back home after this road trip that ends in Boston on Saturday. With that being said, Cooper's had to manage this roster. You mentioned the, the Hagel and Sorelli injuries. Do you think he's likely right now knowing that the playoffs are clinched? They're going to finish somewhere between first and third in the Atlantic. Do you think he just says, take as much time as you need. Make sure you're ready for the long run. Um, would say there's more long lines of make sure you're ready to play. don't think you'll Brandon Hagel is going to play it. Brandon Hagel can play. I don't think they're forcing them to stay out or anything like that. You know, it's not that drastic. I just think it's one of those that you guys are banged up. Take the time to get ready, you know, come back, play the Detroit and Rangers games. Yeah. I don't even know if they'll play the Rangers games to tell you the truth. Get in for like the Detroit game, get your feet under you and then get ready for the playoffs. So the back to back is over, but they still play every other day down the stretch. So, you know, it eases up, but it doesn't ease up quite to like the Islanders who had four days off. think Buffalo has a couple of days off as well. So the Lightning are going to get multiple days off until after the last game of the season. When they have Thursday and Friday off before the playoffs start on Saturday. So I'm going to be a grind. And they got Boston up and you got Montreal, which will be a big game. The Red Wing games may not, may not mean anything by the time they play it just with the free fall that your Torrix in. then of course you got the Rangers that again, which probably will be a glorified exhibition game. they can pull it off. Let's talk a little bit about the Buffalo game. First, was two to two midway through the second period. Jason Zucker gets the deflection off of the Byram slap shot from the point. But after that, the lightning really struggled to get a lot of offense going in that third period. Buffalo, surprisingly for a team with a lack of playoff experience, Buffalo tried to shut the door on them. And I thought with the exception of the, just the last minute rushes by the lightning at the tail end of the game, thought Buffalo played a really good third period defensive brand of hockey, not something that was actually expecting from a team as young and With the lack of playoff experience that they have, what was your assessment? Yeah, right. We know right on board with you. Um, it was really the kind of shut down third period that we've seen the lightning play with the lead. And I do think having, you know, Logan Stanley and Luke Shed in the lineup helped out. Um, they are a couple of big guys. kept the lightning from in front of the net. The bolts just couldn't generate a lot of dangerous chances all night long. So yeah, it was a good playoff style win for Buffalo. You know, these two teams have played some, some kind of bonkers games over the, over the year. And to be honest, the game kind of started like that. There were a lot of penalties early. They don't like each other. I don't know if it's quite a rivalry yet, but it's definitely two teams that don't like each other this year. ⁓ but it did settle down as the game went on. I think part of the reason you saw a lot of penalties early is the officials didn't want it to get out of hand. Cooper talked about it after the game. I think he used the phrase, the refs suck the fun out of the game. ⁓ with some of their calls early on and you know, there were some ticky tack cause, but again, you got to play through stuff like that. There's going to be games like that. It's going to happen in the playoffs. There's going to be some, some calls you don't agree with and you got to find a way to play through. But yeah, Boston just did a really good job of limiting the chances. We've gotten so used to the Lightning this year, kind of going into a third period tied or down a goal, finding a way to tie it up and then finding a way to, to take the lead. So was kind of surprising that they didn't pull off, pull it off against Buffalo really. Again, it's good competition out there. Buffalo is a good team. They're not a flute. They're not a Cinderella team, maybe like an Anaheim that's playing above their head. They are really sound fundamental team. play well. Their defense is much deeper now after the trade deadline. So I think if the lightning and the Sabres match up in playoffs expect a lot of games like this. of the biggest stories that came out of the Buffalo game was the Pontus Holmberg injury that occurred in the second period. Now this has made. national news because John Cooper actually criticized the office official for opening the door to the penalty box before the penalty had expired. Now we don't know the NHL protocol for what the office official should do. Is he supposed to have his hand on the latch with two seconds with one second? We don't know those protocols. The NHL does and right now they're doing an investigation on this, but Justin At first glance, what was your thought of the Holmberg injury? And I know I'm asking a tough question here, but should the office official be scrutinized at all? think it's a topic you raise. Like you said, we don't know what the policy is, what their procedure is. you know, at first glance, when I first saw it, I didn't even notice it's doors open. Honestly, there is a replay where you show it does buckle a little bit when Holberg hits it. Um, it's not like it flew open and he jammed his shoulder into the, into the sideboards, um, with the door open, but it is definitely unlocked. It is unlocked. You can tell that it, like I said, it does buckle. Now you get people on both sides of the argument that, Hey, you know, with it being open and it lessened the blow. And then there's other people like, no, it made it worse. I'm not a medical expert. I'm not a physics expert. I don't know if it made it worse or better. I just know home birds hurt. I think the angle he hit those boards at and the speed he hit it at, was going to, he was going to be in a bad shape no matter what happened. Cooper's frustrated after a bad loss. I, I'm sure if he went back, you'll probably choose his words different, but at the same time, like you said, if the official is not following procedure, if he unlatched it early, it is something worth an investigation. know, just because something's investigated doesn't mean there's going be anything that comes out of it. They're going to probably talk with a few people and the guy says, is what I did. This is how I've always done it. If you've ever seen those clips from the, know, especially if a player coming out of the box scores, they usually show that the camera angle where he's standing at the board ready to go. then the penalty officials right there kind of ready to pop the door. Cause God forbid he'd be in the box two seconds too long, you know? Yeah. I get the frustration on Cooper's part again. I think if, know, if he could hit the rewind button, he probably phrases a little bit different as opposed to, you know, coming after the guy's job. The end result is home degrees out. It sounds like he's going to be out for a while. Which is kind of one of those quietly important injuries that the light, you're gonna have to find a way to deal with down the stretch and possibly into the playoffs. one of the ways they dealt with the injury situation going into the Ottawa game was to make a phone call up to Syracuse and basically call up an entire line of Syracuse crunch members. So we have Peltier, Jacob Peltier, Connor Geeky and Dylan Duke. All three were called up from Syracuse. What role did they play in the game on Tuesday night in Ottawa? It was kind of interesting when, when the news broke that all three were coming up, it's kind of funny. kind of came in waves. we wrote the article about the home burger injury kind of early and we speculated that Pelletier could be one of the call-ups just because he has been absolutely red hot in, in Syracuse. He's leading the HL of points. Um, he's on an, I believe an 18 game point streak, which matches a Syracuse crunch franchise record. So, you know, I kind of saw him at the top of the list, plus the style he plays would mesh well with that line. Um, and then the first release was that, uh, Duke and Geeky were the call-ups. So we had to go in and update our article. And then as soon as we update that article, Oh no, Peltier is coming up and, Mitchell Chaffee is being reassigned to Syracuse. So I had to it again. Uh, the joys of being an editor for an online website, sir. But anyways, um, you know, back to the original question. I liked the fact that they put him out there as a lie. You probably could have hemmed and hauled and maybe mixed them up a little bit. They played a lot together in Syracuse, especially on special teams. So they kind of feel like, let's get these guys out there together. Roll them out with the fourth line. They played all right. Dylan Duke had a nice chance early on. They were on the ice for one of the goals against, but I think overall they played pretty solid. They had some jump to their game. ⁓ Geeky was a little feisty. ⁓ I thought was one of the better Lightning players, honestly, he one of the more noticeable ones. He skated really well. He had some nice back checks. It'll be interesting to see how long they're up. Of course, it all depends really on the Hagel and, uh, Cirelli injuries, I think. But if they get a couple more games in, you know, I'd like to see them get their feet wet, but it was, it was nice to see them get called up. Uh, I think they had a bit of an adventure getting there. If it's my understanding that they actually, uh, had to drive from Syracuse to, uh, Ottawa, just had some issues getting plane tickets and then there's a snowstorm going on up there too. So. And they kind of playing strange as an automobile did up, believe it was an intern that drove them all the way up there. yeah, there's a clip of them unloading their hockey bags from like a little crossover vehicle. So I'm it was an adventurous day for the trio and a, and a fun road trip. through Watertown. go right by fourth drum. You're you enter the Canadian border through the thousand islands, which is an actual beautiful drive. If anyone's ever had a chance to do that, the last five miles of the States. going into Canada, you go through the series of islands and through the St. Lawrence Seaway. It's just an absolutely beautiful drive. Now, not sure how beautiful it is. And let's just say early April, but with it's summertime, it is a great drive. So yeah, it's about a three hour drive. I've made that again, numerous times throughout my work career, but I want to ask you this question about those three. Let's say Hagel and Cirelli come back in the next game or two. Do all three stay up with the big club? Do a couple of them get sent back? Do all of them get sent back in this Chafee brought back from Syracuse? What's your prediction? I wouldn't be surprised. I think there's some speculation that Scott Sabrin may be a little dinged up as well. He only played five minutes his last outing, depending on who exactly, who is hurt, who's not. I could see maybe one of the three, ⁓ staying up. would think it would be maybe Peltier, especially if he's going to take home bird spot. think he gives the lightning, the best mix of offense, but defensive responsibility. He's also got the most experience, ⁓ at the NHL level as well. You know, he played with Philly and Calvary a little bit more and say, Geeky did, and they've been really stressing Geeky's development in the NHL this year. So they kind of wanted him to go back down and be that number one center down there. ⁓ Duke, you know, I think it's kind of a reward for having a really strong season. So I wouldn't be surprised to see him go back down, but I could see them keeping Peltier around, especially if sovereigns may be a little dinged up and then, ⁓ filling that Holmberg roll on the third line. Ottawa had just played back to back games this past weekend. They were coming off a six three victory against Carolina. They were waiting for the bolts who played Monday night in Buffalo. I thought Tampa looked a little slow. Jake Sanderson, his first game back from his injury looked absolutely phenomenal for Ottawa. But Justin, one thing I want to talk about before the fatigue factor on two of the Ottawa goals. And I'm thinking the first goal, the Jordan Spence goal on the two on one, and then the second Sanderson goal, which he basically had a breakaway from 90 feet. There were two defensive breakdowns, lack in coverage. What led to both of those goals? Yeah, the first one, ⁓ it ended up being a two on one with, ⁓ Kachak and Spence, but the play was made in the Ottawa zone. Lightning kind of got a little overloaded on one side of the ice. He was one of those diagonal passes from one zone to the other. And the Ottawa player who made it just made a really nice pass. Moser got stuck a little down low. He didn't wait for his coverage to come back. So he had both, ⁓ Moser down low. You had the center down low. Bjorksner tries to knock down the pass. And once it gets past him, it's right on Kachak's stick. Radish is the lone defender back who, know, Radish plays two, two on ones pretty well. Um, but Kachak made a nice pass and, and Spence just made a really nice shot, honestly. So that first one, yeah, a little, uh, coverage breakdown, which, you know, does rear his ugly head every once in while with the Lightning. They don't, you know, I thought they'd played pretty well in their own zone as far as their coverage down low, but the transition game really, really gave them issues. You mentioned that that's Sanderson goal. This, the second power play goal. think they just, their brains just shut off. Basically what happened, you had suits will score in the power play. was challenged by the lightning for goaltender interference. The call my ass was upheld. the light, what did you think of that goal being upheld? Call. Wrong call. ⁓ it was a good call. It was kind of questionable. Dylan cousins basically comes flying into the net. Was he shoved a little bit? Probably. I could see it going either way, but. I have no problem with them upholding it. Yeah. was just two players crashing in the net. And like I said, does cousins make contact with, with, ⁓ you answered yes, it is what it is. You know, you can't let it bother you. And I just like the brains just shut off and they definitely weren't into that shift. Sanderson sees a hole. I mean, he blows through it and just turnstiles everybody on the ice. You answer really doesn't have a shot. So you're next thing you know, it was three to two now it's five to two and that game is. pretty much over at that point. Well, the bolts have a tough task now. They have to head up to Montreal. Montreal won last night in the shootout. Nick Suzuki tied it late against the Florida Panthers with the goaltender pulled. won it. They now have 102 points. So does Buffalo and so do the bolts. There's a three way tie for first place in the Atlantic. The first tiebreaker, Justin, its regulation wins Tampa and Buffalo each have 39 Montreal is Distant in that category with 32 so any tiebreakers Montreal is not going to win them Let's take a real quick look at the rest of the East in the metro Carolina has clinched the division They have a hundred and six points the Pittsburgh Penguins had second with 96 the Philadelphia Flyers now They continue to win one again last night a 5-1 victory over the Devils They have 92 points for the top wild card spots. You have the Boston Bruins with 96 points The Ottawa senators who beat the lightning last night, have 92 and on the outside looking in, you have the Columbus blue jackets with 90 Detroit and the Islanders with 89 of the Washington capitals with 87. Justin, I'm going to ask you this. You look like if you're not going to win the division, you're going to have to go through Buffalo and Montreal two teams that I think the lightning don't necessarily match up great against. think speed is going to be an issue in both of those series. If that comes to fruition, what is your initial thoughts? Yeah. I mean, that's a great point. The Lightning are not a fast team. They're a little bit better when like Dominic James is in the lineup. think with Peltier and they'd be a little bit quicker as well, but yeah, they got Braden Point who's probably their fastest skater. And that's kind of about it. So teams with speed, especially the, the Lightning defense kind of give them a little bit of trouble. I think they match up a little bit better against Montreal than they do Buffalo. I think Buffalo has the size and the speed and the forecheck. ⁓ as well as their defense. think the Lightning can exploit Montreal's defense a little bit more. think they're a little bit younger. I don't think they're as talented as Buffalo's defense. So I think that would be the matchup the Lightning may favor. But yeah, it's going to be tough. I mean, the first few rounds are probably going to be the toughest rounds for any team in the Atlantic, let alone the Lightning. So if you get through those two, then you're going to face whoever wins, you know, that Metro side, which, you know, if it's Carolina, does Carolina finally have it put together? Pittsburgh, a resilient Pittsburgh team, I mean. Every time you start to count them out, every time they kind of go into a little bit of funk, they just find a way to start putting the wins together. And Crosby is dragging that team into the, into the playoffs. One more shot of glory for Sid the kid. And I think it's going to be an interesting march through the, uh, the Eastern conference. And then if you win all of that, go to the Stanley cup. You're looking at probably the, I would take the Colorado avalanche, but yeah, again, that's going to be another division where it's going to be the first round. It's going to probably be your best. You know, your toughest competition. it's going to be, you know, it's going to be a fun playoffs session and you're probably just glad they don't have to play in Florida, even though they kind of built their team to play against Florida. So it's going to be interesting to see how they handle some of these younger teams with, with a lot of speed and you know, maybe they're kind of too dumb to realize that they shouldn't be this successful. You know, a lot of times with these, with these younger teams, they don't know what they don't know. And they just go out there and play hockey and it would be fun to see the light and you kind of get back to that a little bit. Just, I thought they, they're just skating the last few days just hasn't been there. And that's something they need to pick back up something we saw during the winning streaks. And, ⁓ we'd like to see them get back to the where they're just, you know, they're constantly skating and they're constantly moving. thought they kind of not to say there were passengers, but I thought the effort level was a little bit below what we've used to them doing this year. last week, Montreal beat the lightning four to one. was a real tight game. It was a two, one game. Montreal got two empty net goals that game was played on March the 31st in Tampa. But in that game, the lightning owned the stat sheet. They did everything but score coming into this game. go up to Montreal, you're going to have a big time atmosphere for this game. The Montreal fans are hyped. They haven't been in this situation in quite some time where they're true contenders. Now, Martin St. Louis has his team playing great. They've won nine out of 10. What matchups do you fear in this? Where do you think they can attack Montreal? they can get, if the lightning get their four check going, ⁓ I think they can force some bad passes of turnovers from the defense. It's going to be kind of a different gourd line. think they had, they had York strand playing on it for most of, yesterday's game. And I think they may try that again. ⁓ especially if they keep the kid crunch line together, then you're probably going to see Bjork strand on that third line, which gives them. another hard checking forward. if they can pressure that defense, if they can make them rush plays, rush passes out and then own the neutral zone, the Lightning can kind of have a good chance. That's what they did, you know, in that game on the 31st is Montreal had some, had some issues getting the puck out and the Lightning were able to pounce and get that puck right back in, keep the, keep the cycles going. So I'd like to see that. I mean, as far as things I dread, definitely that Cole Caulfield line. It's just, that's a beast of a line. Those guys are so good and they played it so well together, limit the damage from those guys and then try and win the other three matchups, you know, as far as lines. But yeah, that's kind of like the, the Couture of Point line from the Lightning. It's a very heavy, very heavy, hard playing front line that, that plays with skill, plays with precision. So that's the line I got to keep an eye on if I'm watching the Lightning. Where do think they're going to attack the Canadians? The Hegel line's back. That's a good one. Uh, thought Nick Paul, you know, who was centering the second line, if they can win that matchup, if they can get some offense out of that, you know, that new reconstituted second line with Gage Consolidation and Corey Perry, just kind of grind it out. That's, that's how they're going to have to, to, to score these goals, get that cycle going. We saw the nice deflection goal from Perry, uh, last night, it was one of those things. It's, mean, the guy's 500 years old, but you get him next to an athlete, he's going to score goals. That play was set up by getting the puck into the zone. The Lightning struggled to get the puck into the zone for much of the game against ⁓ Ottawa. They were really slow through the neutral zone. That's where the Lightning got to win. They got to win that neutral zone. They got to be better at getting their entries in. When they were able to get through the neutral zones cleanly, when their passes were hooking up, you know, they put some pressure on Ottawa. It wasn't a lot, probably one of their worst games in terms of high danger chances and scoring chances overall. But when they were able to get through, you know, that's how they set up their offense. That's how they get the puck deep and get their cycle game going. That's what I'm looking for from the lightning, you know, grind this one out. It's not going to be super fast two on one goals for them. It's going to be get in, work the pack, puck back to the point, retrieve rebounds and just kind of win the front of the net as well. of the questions Montreal has going into this next off season is the goaltending situation. Jacob Fowler, the 21 year old rookie looks like he's the next heir apparent in the Montreal goaltending. Lineage. I mean, he's going to be the next Kerry Price and they're hoping of course, he's the next Patrick Waugh. That's probably Hey, every, every team wishes they had the next Patrick Waugh. But coming into the season, Sam Montembeau was the number one goaltender, Jakub Dubas, who is now one six in a row. He looks like he's now entrenched as the number one in the off season. Do you expect them to try to get Sam Montembeau to another destination? I wouldn't be surprised. think out of the three, he's the one you're looking at as far as moving. mean, he has a big reason they made it last year to the playoffs, right? He was there. He was a true number one goalie. You had folks talking about him possibly starting for team Canada. So it's been a rough season for him. But the fact that Dobish has stepped up, I don't think they were playing it on Fowler playing that much this year up at the NHL level. think they wanted to get him a year in the AHL. He's 21 years old, so he's still kind of a young kid, but Dobish has really helped their season out. His ability to just provide them the goaltending they need. You know, he's not a flashy guy. He's not going to steal a lot of games. I thought he was a big factor in the Canadians win against the lightning, especially his third period in that March 31st game. If they can get solid goaltending from him, then let their offense kind of outscoring the problems they might have. But yeah, it's going to be an interesting off season for him. I think there'll be teams interested in Montalvo. He's on a decent contract. Just over $3 million a year. He signed through next season. So I think you could see it. The Canadians flipping him for something, either a prospect or a mid-round pick, maybe even a higher round pick. So, but Hey, that's three months away. So they're not worried about that right now. I think they're glad to have him as a third goaltender. Dobrish falls off. Now you're going to ask 21 year old Jacob Fowler to play playoff games. I don't know about that. So to have Montalba waiting in the wings is not a bad problem to have. I think he could step it up. You know, he's going have something to prove. throw them in there if you need to. only problem is he hasn't played in a month. It's been Fowler who's been getting those other starts. If you're Martin St. Louis, now let's just play hypothetical. You know, Dobish, let's just say you fall down to nothing in the first series. You're struggling. Who do you go to? Do you go to Fowler? Do you go to Montembeau? I think at this point, maybe you go to Fowler, but give him a shot. But after that, you know, Montalbaugh after, you know, like I said, he's, did well last year. did okay in the playoffs of the three. He's got the pedigree. That's what Marty gets paid the big money for, right. To make those decisions and hopefully pull off the right ones. wouldn't be surprised if maybe multiple gets a start somewhere down the road. These next few games for Montreal, just to get him some action. Yes, you're fighting for the division lead, but you also at this point, you know, you're going to finish in the top three. You know, kind of who you're going to match up with. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Montalbaugh get it. Get it started somewhere down the road of the three teams fighting for that top spot in the Atlantic, Tampa, Buffalo, Montreal. Is it more important for one of those three teams to win the division? I haven't really looked at the, you know, home road splits with the lightning. They've been so good on the road this year, you know, last two games and not withstanding. Um, I don't think they're too concerned with winning the division. They've never been in the past. don't, I think under Cooper, I don't even know if they even They don't think they want any of their cups as the number one seed. Montreal maybe because just cause that building is so electric for home games. think they get a little push off of that. So if they have a game seven at home, I think it's more important for them than maybe the lightning. Buffalo, I would throw in that, that as well. think Buffalo is going to be happy to be in the playoffs no matter where they're at. You know, they're going to have probably going to have home ice, even if they don't get the clinch. think I see them finishing first or second. So yeah, would say Montreal probably would be my one that more than anything else, quote unquote needs the top seed. I would agree with that. I don't like Montreal against Buffalo. like Buffalo in that matchup. think Montreal would fare much better if they would have to face, let's say it could be anywhere from Boston to Columbus to Ottawa. One of those three, think it's a much more favorable matchup for Montreal. I think Buffalo, do I think that they're a flawless team? No, I think they're a decent team that can beat anybody in the East. still think Carolina right now, if I had to handicap the East, I would probably move Carolina into that top spot. think Buffalo can beat Tampa. think Buffalo can beat Montreal. I don't have the same feeling about Montreal that they can go in. beat Buffalo in a seven game series. think they would struggle with Tampa in the seven game series, even though I think there's some things in the matchup that Montreal would give Tampa a lot of trouble with. So I think it's more important for Montreal to get that top spot. And if I'm Montreal, say, Hey, let Buffalo and Tampa beat their brains out in that two, three spot in the Atlantic. Yeah. But Justin, got a lot to talk about here coming up. You got the Montreal game on Thursday. What's going on at raw charge? We kind of broke down Pontus Holmberg, what he means to the team. that was posted yesterday. I'm going to take a look at that. Emil Lilleberg, Charles de Stouw pairing, just to see how well they've been playing as a third pairing and what they mean to the Lightning. I'm going to go ahead and recap the Canadians game. Get started thinking about some playoff matchups and take a look at the Lightning's path to the playoff, how they fare against these teams in the past. You know, they do have some history in the postseason with Montreal, not so much with Buffalo, but, yeah, it's going to be, you know, a fun finish to the regular season. think the lady here, they go for it. They're going to try, you know, they're going to play their best. They got to get into shape. So we're going to talk about that a little bit. And then, yeah, just finish up the season and then get ready for the playoffs, which, you know, we're just over a week away from, right? So it's, it's, it's right around the corner. It's going to be a blast. I'm going to ask you a real quick non-lightning question, but the Sabres on Monday night wore the black Buffalo Sabres uniforms that they wore in the late nineties, early two thousands. Do you like those better? Do you like the original more powder blue, uh, French connection jerseys? They're both nice. You know, you got, was it the slug and then the powder blues, the French connection jerseys. Yeah. I like those black and red is what I associate with the Sabres. That's when I started following hockey was, when they were wearing those. So that's kind of the traditional look for me. ⁓ but there's all blue uniforms. Pretty nice. The blue and yellow goes well together. But, ⁓ yeah, I would go with the, the dark black and red. So I'm more the old school. I think Pat Lafontaine, Alexander Mo Gilney, ⁓ Rob Bray, those jerseys from the early nineties. I absolutely love them. So yeah, that's, those are the ones for me. Our next podcast is going to be dropping probably on Sunday morning. We're going to record it on Saturday evening. We are going to recap the bolts in Montreal on Thursday and the Bruins game on Saturday afternoon at 12 30. You can read Justin at 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 until then have a great day 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, I heart radio, 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 raw charge.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.