Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / Lightning Split Opening Weekend! Rangers Loss & Capitals Win Tampa Bay Lightning Recap
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- Jason Linkes: Coming up on Backchecking the Bolts.. Let's remember what Tommy Lasorda said. Even the bad teams are going to win a third of their games. The really good teams are going to lose a third of their games. It's the other third that determines whether you're good or not. ⁓ I think this is one of those that for whatever reason, the Lightning just didn't have it, you move on ⁓ you live to play another day. 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. Hi, everybody, and welcome to Backchecking the Bolts.. It's Sunday morning. The Bolts. have already played two games this season, ⁓ 5-1 loss the opening night to the New York Rangers, and yesterday the home opener, the Bolts. were 3-1 victorious over the Washington Capitals. ⁓ gonna go over both games. He was at the game last night in the press box. We're gonna hit ⁓ Justin Godfrey's game notes. He's gonna have three takeaways from each game. We're gonna talk about the three stars. Justin is trying to make 84 bets for 84 games. We'll see how he's doing. And we're going to talk about the upcoming game against Philadelphia. And they're going to end this homestand with a Wednesday game at the benchmark arena against the Minnesota Wild, who are a really good team and looking good so far this year. Now it's time to bring in the managing editor of Raw Charge. He is Justin Godfrey. You can read him each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. Justin, you were in the press box last night. What was your thought of that game? Well, ⁓ complete one eighty from ⁓ the opening night game, that's for sure. ⁓ you know, the Lightning came out. They had a Washington team that had played the night before, and they took it to them in the first period. ⁓ it was really one of the best periods we've seen from the Lightning. It's easy to say this year, but ⁓ kind of over the last couple of years, you know, they were fast. They attacked the puck, they pushed Washington back pretty much the entire twenty minutes. If it hadn't been for the play of Charlie Lindgren, you're probably looking at, I don't know, maybe a two, three or I should say three, four nothing score. ⁓ after the end of one, the power play looked good. And then ⁓ they kind of withstood some surges from Washington. Washington's a really good team and even if they are a bit tired, they were they were always gonna push back and the Lightning kind of, you know, closed the closed the door on them. So it's just a really good team effort. You know, Coach Cooper didn't want to single anybody out after the game, ⁓ just like he didn't for different reasons in the first game. ⁓ But it was just a really good complete team effort and ⁓ kind of shows what this team can do against really good competition. Justin, let's go back to the season opener, the game against the New York Rangers. The Rangers had already played. They lost 3-0 to the Boston Bruins a couple nights earlier. So the Bolts. go to the garden, and it was not a pretty performance. Justin, one of your first game note takeaways was Pre-season versus regular season. And in my opinion, you could tell which team was sharper, which team was ready. What was your thoughts? Same. You know, it was it was just teams playing at two different speeds. ⁓ the lady came out, you know, the first period they didn't play bad, I would say. ⁓ they got some chances. They just looked a little bit off. You know, the passes were ticking off the sticks, ⁓ The timing was off on entries, and anytime they had any kind of breakdown, New York went in, took advantage, and scored. ⁓ Coach Cooper pretty much caught it, he said he'd look like it was an inconvenience for some players to be out playing a game. And it was probably as harsh as you hear him following a game, especially a first game. He questioned their ⁓ pushback, which in Coach Cooper speak is kind of, you know, at their effort level. And he just said they didn't have any. There was nothing. There it's kind of true, you know. New York would go down and score and there'd be nothing, no response from the Lightning. ⁓ I thought Brandon Hagel was one of the few players that that played really well, you know, 'cause it's just the way he plays. You know, he can't not be competitive. ⁓ but yeah, just as an overall, it just wasn't a very cohesive game. The power play was way off and yeah, it just you could tell New York was a little bit smoother, a little bit more together, and they took it to him. One Thing I want to talk about is the NHL shortened the preseason this year, going to 84 games. They did want to start training camp a lot earlier. So what they did is they took a couple preseason games off of the slate. And when you look around the league, there was some sloppiness. That first game, there were a lot of teams, I'll say Philadelphia, who the Lightning are going to be playing on Monday. They gave up seven to the Pittsburgh Penguins. There were some other blowouts in that first. couple of games, primarily Edmonton and Vancouver who completely forgot to play defense in their back to backs. How much of the short and preseason do you think for the Lightning hurt them going into that first game? Probably a little bit. I mean you figure the you know the the actual lines maybe played what, twenty minutes ⁓ together. At the most. At the most. So it was bound to happen. We knew this was going happen. And I'll still take the short and preseason over a couple of sloppy games at the beginning of the year. You would hope with a veteran team like the Lightning that they wouldn't need that much to to get going. But you can't replicate game speed no matter how hard you try. So I think that's kind of around the league you're seeing that. You know, somebody asked ⁓ Cooper about it last night. What kind of notes ⁓ does he have for next year? What are you gonna do different ⁓ in training camp? And he acknowledged that yeah, he you know, he took some notes and there's gonna be some stuff he does next year. That's a little bit different when it comes to camp. But it All in all, I I don't mind it. I'd rather have a shortened preseason ⁓ and get into it. I I would you know eighty four game schedule is what it is. I think we've talked in the past. We'd both like to see maybe a slightly smaller schedule. ⁓ but it's I'd like to see sixty. Yeah, I I I think I'd be around seventy two, something like that, but you know, that's never gonna happen with the revenues that's generated. Exactly. We'll be playing, you know, year round with a three week break sometime at some point. ⁓ I think teams are ironing it out. Like you said, Philly struggled. ⁓ the Vancouver, Edmonton things are are crazy. ⁓ but hey, but then there's teams like the Penguins that are, you know, all of a sudden, you know, the Penguins at ninety two, you just scoring as many goals as they want. So, you know, both teams it'll it'll even out in the next week or so. I think we'll s we'll see things flatten out and and teams get back to, you know, who you thought was gonna be good is gonna be good and you know, who who you thought might struggle is probably gonna are probably gonna struggle. So we'll see how it how it rolls. Justin, your second takeaway was the power play. O for seven against the Rangers. The one thing I want to say about the Rangers power play, one of the things that I saw was Adam Fox out there on the first goal. Adam Fox settled the play down, got the puck over to Dorofeyev, eventually hit the post, goal scored by the Rangers. But I thought there were a couple instances where he slowed the game down and got their power play settled. I didn't see that with the Lightning, and there's a lot a couple new faces on the Lightning power play this year. What was your assessment of the Bolts. on the man advantage? Yeah, I think they're still kind of figuring out a little bit on on the power play. Karlsson is gonna be okay at some point. ⁓ yeah, I th I didn't think he had the greatest game at the point, but again, like this is stuff you're trying to do at game speed now. So you gotta get you gotta keep him out there. He's he's His career shows that he's gonna be okay at the point on a power play. And it's just a matter of learning the reads off of Kutchrov's stick, what Kucherov likes to do with the puck. And then you'll get going. The big thing with them on the power play against New York were their entries. They actually did all right on the faceoffs. I think they were like four or four of seven ⁓ with their face offs on the power play. So that wasn't a problem, but it was just getting the puck into the zone. They had seven chances. and every time New York was able to clear the puck. it was a struggle to get it back in. And then they just weren't generating enough ⁓ traffic in front to get really good shots and and, you know, a couple self clears where they missed passes. So it's just it was just out of sorts. And we saw a vast improvement against Washington. But I thought their the I thought their penalty kill was actually pretty good, even though they gave up that first goal. ⁓ they just kind of got it was one of those plays where yes, Adam Fox was really good and and New York moved the puck around. But Hedman had lost his stick, so Cirelli gave him his stick. Now Cirelli goes out to try and challenge Dorofeyev, but he can't get in front. He can't block the shot. Yeah, he rings it off the post and it just happens to come right to Zibanejad, who's gonna kill the Lightning every time they play each other, and he just puts it in. So they killed off a couple more after that. So I think Panoni Kill wise, they're fine, and I think their power play is gonna be okay. They haven't made any changes on the personnel yet. Things got a little wacky towards the end with Cooper pulling the goaltender for six on fours. I I think Vasilevskiy only played something like ten not in ten minutes in the third period or something like that. They had the goalie pulls. Was it that many minutes he was on Yeah, he I mean, he pulled him with just over halfway through the period for that first six on four, and then there was long stretches where Vasilevskiy was on the bench. ⁓ so you know, just trying to get it going and it kind of throws everything off the rhythm. So At one point Cirelli did come out and ⁓ they had pushed ⁓ point out to the wing, kind of as opposed to his bumper spot. So, you know, a little adjustments like that. They did even did it a little bit last night against the the caps as well for a little bit. So I think they're gonna move point around a little bit more than they have in the past ⁓ to try and get him going. So we'll see how that ⁓ that evolves. But it was just a yeah, it was just a bad night on the power play. The third takeaway from this game is I call it drivers versus passengers. The top line, a lot of scoring chances, looked really good out there at times five on five, but the rest of the team just could not get their legs underneath them. So Justin, go into that a little bit more in depth. It's one of those weird games where if you look at the stat sheet, especially the advanced stats, you would say there's no way the Lightning lost this game five to one. ⁓ they dominated in scoring chances, high danger chances. I think shot attempts ended up ⁓ going. But yeah, like you said, a lot of that was driven by the top line, which was good. I thought the fourth line, you know, the Connor Geekie line had a good first period, not a great first period, but then they kind of disappeared as, you know, the Lightning started chasing the game. ⁓ didn't see a lot out of the Gergensen's Viel ⁓ combination in that game. So it was yeah, it was just it's a really odd game, especially once the Lightning started chasing it. ⁓ Cooper mentioned that they just didn't get enough traffic in front of Shesterkin, ⁓ which, you know. When you're a world class goalie like that, no matter how hard you're shooting the puck or who's shooting the puck, if he can see it, he's gonna stop it. ⁓ so yeah, it was just it was just one of those games. If it wasn't the first game of the season, you would just kind of chalk it up to a bad night. So I think a lot of people put a lot too much stock into it. And ⁓ you know, the performance against Washington showed that ⁓ they had better in ⁓ So let's remember what Tommy Lessorta said. Even the bad teams are gonna win a third of their games. The really good teams are gonna lose a third of their games. It's the other third that determines whether you're good or not. And I think this is one of those that for whatever reason, the Lightning just didn't have it. You move on and you live to play another day. And they did. Well the Rangers game was not a pleasant one, the five one loss, but the home opener, the Lightning came back and responded with a nice three to one victory. A well played game. They didn't do anything spectacular, but it was a workman effort. Very solid in all three aspects of the game. But Justin, one of your first takeaways was that fast start that they got off in the first period. They outshot the Capitals fourteen to five. Tell us about that first. Yeah, it was just pretty much the entire period was down in the Washington zone. ⁓ you're watching up there, it's twenty minutes of ⁓ Charlie Lindgren basically bailing his teammates out. The Lightning were harassing the puck. ⁓ Washington just couldn't get it out of their zone, to tell you the truth. So it was all, you know, three and a half lines. You know, when when Coop goes eleven seven, he likes to mix up that bottom line. ⁓ kind of generating, you know, as much as he didn't want to call anybody out for having a bad game on New York, he didn't want to call anybody out for having a great game just because it was such a nice team effort. ⁓ but ⁓ again, it was that top line that really played well. ⁓ the Kuchov was doing Kucharoff things. And then I thought Connor Geekie really had Perhaps one of his better games as a Lightning player. ⁓ he did have the one goal ⁓ to make it two nothing, but it w he was kind of all over the ice. He was very noticeable, which is something you can't always say ⁓ throughout his Lightning career so far. He looked like the player that you see in Syracuse where he's, you know, using his size, he's using his hands. And, you know, that shot he he beat Lingren was just a a really nasty little wrist shot and ⁓ kind of shows the talent that he has. Well, the goal that he scored in the first and the third period, he had almost that exact same scoring opportunity. Lindgren really stood tall and made a nice save on him, but it's the fact that he's getting opportunities, and that's something you didn't see from his game in his previous stints with the Lightning. Now he's actually getting those opportunities. Good goal scorers, talented offensive players will eventually put those in. Justin, your second takeaway was the power play. Now it did go 0 for three. So far this season they are O for ten after being blanked in the Rangers game. But unlike the Rangers game, the power play looked a lot more efficient. They created a lot more scoring opportunities than it did against the Rangers. Yeah. So you know, there's there's different Ofers. ⁓ sometimes it's your fault and sometimes it's just you you run into a good goaltender. And it felt like last night, ⁓ against the Caps, it was just a good goaltender. ⁓ their very first power play was as good as you can B with the extra skater. ⁓ they spent pretty much the entire two minutes in the zone. They won I think there were three face-offs on that one that they won. The two entries that they had were smooth. There was no bottling it up at the blue line. They got in, they got set up, and they got their chances, and they got the chances they wanted, which is Brayden Point from the slot. It's just that Lindgren was was better. ⁓ and that's kind of the story of the game. So they they probably should have had one or two power play goals last night. ⁓ as the night went on. Washington got a little bit better with the penalty kill, but it was still the Lightning were getting their chances and it's kind of showing you what they can do. Coop didn't move anybody off of the line. It was the it was the same top five that we saw against New York. They just executed a lot better. ⁓ there were a couple moments, like I said ⁓ earlier, point did slide out to the wing at times, ⁓ with Hagel kind of going into that bumper position, which I think we may see a little bit more of this year just to free him up and and to get him lost on the ice. You you hear coaches talk about that sometimes. Like you you want to get your good Players lost a little bit where the the opponents are looking for them and they're not where they think they're gonna be. And ⁓ that usually helps out a lot. So yeah, a lot better. ⁓ you know, still staring at that Ofer in the face. And I think once they get one, I feel like this power plate unit's gonna, you know, start stacking them up pretty quick quickly. We talked about the way the lineup is constructed, the what John Cooper likes to do. He likes to go eleven seven from time to time. Opening night it was twelve six, but he made a lineup change in The second game against the Capitals. He took out Harkins. He put in Emile Lilleberg. What did you see out of Lilleberg's game? Because I thought he looked really good about out there. I thought he was I thought his skating looked a lot better. ⁓ there was one play where the Lightning got kind of caught, it was it was second or third periods later in the game, and he busted down to break up a a a play on on a back check. You see the seven at first I thought it was Cirelli ⁓ doing it, then it kind of turns and like, whoa, that was Lilleberg skating like the wind. ⁓ he got into a fight. It was more of a wrestling match, but it was Nick D ⁓ DesLA, so you know you're you're going against some guy who's six foot seven. ⁓ kind of pumped the crowd up a little bit, but he kind of brought in a little bit more of that physical edge. ⁓ Caps are a big team. I think they're the tallest, biggest team in the I think they're the biggest team in the NHL history. They are big. But it except for, you know, a few moments here or there, kinda, you know, the second period kind of ended with with a few ⁓ scrapes. The Lightning weren't pushed around at all. ⁓ and I think Lilleberg was part of that. And it gives Cooper a chance to rest some of the big guys a little bit with those pairings. ⁓ you know, he can change things up. I know McDonagh. was playing with ⁓ I think Hedman for a little bit. So you kind of look down on the ice every once in a while and it's like, ⁓ that's a weird combination. ⁓ D'Astous ⁓ opened the scoring with a really nice shot. he had his ups and downs. The fun thing about Chucky is, you know, he does have kind of that wild cardin nature to him, so he's gonna make some bad passes. I think it was his clearing pass that was picked off that led to the the Washington goal, but he's also got that kind of offensive, you know, flow that you don't see a lot from the Lightning defensemen. So it's it's fun to watch him play out there. I thought the the lineup mix was pretty good. I don't know how often he's gonna go to the eleven seven this year, especially once Gordon James come back, but it does break things up a little bit. And it's part of the reason why you carry the eight defenseman. We talked about it ⁓ last game that, you know, he doesn't like to have people sit. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Crozier in. on Monday's game just to get him some time and get him playing. If Crozier goes in, who goes out? Probably DeStu or Lilleberg. ⁓ you know, it's little bit different team. I think Philly probably you want some guys that can skate a little bit more. ⁓ and at this point I think they he kind of sees those those last three as pretty interchangeable. ⁓ so I don't think you lose too much when you take one of them out. Going into the year, and you and I talked about this in the preview, you needed Brayden Point to Coming back to be Brayden Point after coming off the injury last year, only eighteen goals, and you needed Victor Hedman to be solid on the blue line after he took his personal leave. Real quick assessment. How did both players look in the first two? pretty solid. ⁓ you know, Hedman's kind of doing those Hedman things again where he's never gonna be the most physical player, but he's gonna be in the right spot. He's gonna push people off. ⁓ I thought he had a couple of really nice stick checks ⁓ in the slot against the Rangers and then He came really close to scoring ⁓ last night. He he got a pass, cut through the slot. And yeah, they'll say in the stat book that Charlie Lindgren made the save. Charlie Lindgren got a w in the way of the shot. ⁓ he was flailing all over I think he was trying to make a glove save and it like hit him in the body. ⁓ it was just a really good shot. So it felt like Hedman's kinda slowly getting back. ⁓ he's moving a lot better on the ice, so it's definitely a night and day difference. ⁓ as for point, you know, he you're starting to see that speed again, ⁓ where he can push people back. He you know, he hasn't found the net yet, ⁓ but I think it's pretty close. So it's definitely better than what we saw towards the end of last year. So they're coming back. Justin, it's time for the three stars of the week. These are the three Lightning stars in the mind of Justin Godfrey. Number three, you have Pontus Holmberg. Why? ⁓ just i it's just the Pontus Holmberg way he plays. he was one of the top Players with as far as generating chances, but you don't notice it. He's just there. He's he's got the puck. Last night Cooper said Homer's kind of a puck magnet. And and that's true. It's wherever the play is, Homer's gonna be there doing something. ⁓ I thought he had a really good game against Washington. Again, he doesn't show up on the score sheet a lot, but he's always there. Like if if you need a forward to to back check to break up a play, he's there. If you need a forward to keep a puck in a zone, he's there. ⁓ And he kind of bounced around on lines. So sometimes it's hard to get that consistency, but he's still there. He's generating chances. ⁓ he just doesn't make many mistakes. And I thought he had a really good two games for someone who didn't pick up a point. Number two, Andrei Vasilevskiy, one win, one loss, gave up four against the Rangers, but only one against the Capitals. What'd you like about his game? ⁓ you know, it's that economical movement in that he's tracking the puck really well. And you know, he gave up four against the Rangers. Let's see, one's on a breakaway, one's on a rebound off a post, ⁓ one's on a high slot deflection. One's off a D'Astous. ⁓ one's off a D'Astous, which if I think if ⁓ if cap had touched it, they'd probably challenge ⁓ for Cooley kind of pushing his pad out of the way. So ⁓ it's know and then even the ⁓ goal against ⁓ Washington, I think, was ⁓ a high slot deflection. So it's not like he's getting beat by routine shots. So ⁓ Yeah, that's good to see from Vasileschia early on. ⁓ Washington, you know, after the Guentzel goal to make it three one, it was an absolute, you know, carnival shooting gallery ⁓ to to close the game out. And I know they hit the post on one, but Vasi made two or three really nice saves at the end. ⁓ so when you look at the stat sheet, you're like, ⁓ look at all the chances Washington had. ⁓ but a lot of that came in that flurry at the end. But, you know, you you just watch him play and he doesn't get bothered by anything. Like You there can be five guys in his crease and he's got his head up and he's just kind of calmly pushing his way over to make a save. So, you know, to see Vasilevskiy in that form early on is is a good sign. Justin, the number one star, you said you liked his game against the Rangers. You thought he was the best Lightning player against the Rangers. He had two helpers in the Capitals game, was Brandon Hagel. Yeah. ⁓ it's Brandon Hagel doing Brandon Hagel stuff. ⁓ just attacking the net. ⁓ pretty sure he took out a goaltender last night. I know Girgenson's did as well. But you know, he's gonna always be around the net. ⁓ he's gonna be helping. He had that really nice pass to set Geekie up for the goal, and then he also had the pass that set up ⁓ D'Stu. ⁓ so I think we're gonna see that kind of ninety point season out of him that that everybody knows he has in him and just makes that second line so much better. and he's gonna get that power play. I think they like him on that first power play because he is a disruptor up there. He's always digging in for pucks, keeping things going. So it's gonna be another good season for Mr. Hagel. So he got off to a good start, and ⁓ the rest of the team will catch up to him at some point. But yeah, he kinda is the heartbeat of this team now. So as he goes, so go the Lightning. Justin, you're doing a l new new segment this year. It's called Eighty Four Bets and Eighty Four Games. You're gonna be taking a look at the possible wagers on Tampa Bay Lightning games, and we're gonna see how you're doing. So far this season, ⁓ for two. First game you had First game he had Kutcheroff getting an assist. He did not get one. And yesterday you had over six and a half for the Lightning and the Capitals. Of course, you can probably thank Charlie Lindgren at least early on for keeping the under in play. Any initial thoughts going into the Philly game? not not yet. I haven't really looked at the Philly matchup too much yet. ⁓ probably do that a little lot later this afternoon as we get our preview ready. ⁓ probably leaning towards Maybe a brain point night. Maybe do a little ⁓ in game parlay with him and and some totals. ⁓ it it hasn't been a great defensive effort to start the season for Philly, so do they do they get around to it? Do they get into their regular season form or to the Lightning, you know, get to v feast on some points maybe ⁓ Monday night. So we'll take a look. ⁓ yeah, the over was a bit aggressive at six and a half, but you know, I just thought some some stars were gonna line up for the Lightning and Hindsight probably should have just taken the first period over, but ⁓ that was my that was a that was my secondary bet. ⁓ but ⁓ yeah. So expect them to build a build a nice wing at at at whatever casino I'm gambling through pretty soon on my eighty four dollars this year. Justin, for those of the those who want to follow along and see who you are wagering on each and every game, are you gonna put those out there on social media? Yeah, I'm I'm putting it the list together on on I'll I'll have a tracker on the website probably Monday and then ⁓ Yeah, I'll start ⁓ letting folks know, either on Instagram or Facebook, ⁓ what what bet I'm going with for the game. So look forward to that. And ⁓ yeah, feel free to bet the opposite. So you can tail Justin or you can fade ⁓ So Justin's saying to fade ⁓ So the Lightnings have a couple Justin, they have a couple games coming up. They got Philadelphia on Monday night. They end the homestand with a tough game against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. The Wild are going to be coming from Buffalo, who they play Tuesday night, but let's talk about Philadelphia real quick. The one thing I want to talk about with Philadelphia is Dan Vladar. He was in that the opening night against the Penguins, gave up seven goals. Rick Tochett kept them in there. It's been Joseph Wall ever since. And the Flyers have lost two games in. in the extra time, so they have two of the charity points. They have yet to get their first win. Are you a little bit surprised that Talkett, knowing that they signed Vladar to a nice deal, he's their goaltender, that he would immediately after one game give Wall back to back starts. Yeah, you have to wonder if there's something lingering with Vladar right now. You know, he he lost some time in training camp. And I feel like that seven nothing game, it's once it gets out of hand, you're like, hey I gotta get my number one guy some playing time. ⁓ so even though we are getting shelled, maybe he's not having the best night. I want him to see Pucks out there at game speed. ⁓ but since you gotta have to wonder if if something's just kind of lingering with him right now. I have a feeling they'll work it out. They are a y a little bit younger team, so maybe the shortened training camp hurt them a little bit more than a veteran team like the Lightning. So I still think they're gonna be something to deal with. So the Lightning can't take this game for granted right now. Gotta go out, kinda play like you did against Washington, put it to ⁓ you know, and force them to beat you. So, you know, be the bully, if you will. ⁓ if not physically on the boards than on the scoreboard. So make them have to counter your attacks, keep the pressure on ⁓ pick up another win, establish the the home, you know. I think kinda last year the the the Lightning as a home team wasn't quite the aura it used to have. You know, you peop teams used to come into Amelie Arena, benchmark, whatever you want to call it, you know. And it would be a tough place to win. I don't think it was quite that last year. And Lightning need to get that back ⁓ if they want to go ahead and go far this year. Well, they'll end the home stand with the Minnesota Wild. The Wild 3-1 win over Nashville, 4-1 win over Boston. Yes, per Wallstedt looks really good. 2-0 in net, but everything that you read about Wallstedt right now, he's standing tall, looks really good, seeing the long shots well. Kap Resolve has three goals already. Quinn Hughes a goal and two assists. This is a very talented Minnesota team, and I think this is going to be the Lightnings' first true test against a top notch opponent. Yeah. And ⁓ well, you know, I wouldn't say Washington's a bad team. So ⁓ No, Washington's not good, but min but Minnesota, they have cup aspirations. I think it would surprise everybody if Washington is in the conference finals. ⁓ Pre offseason press. I think I think the difference, the main difference is this is a a Minnesota team that's played together before. ⁓ the one thing with Washington is you had so many new pieces coming in. And yes, they're really good pieces like Alec toot. But with Minnesota, I mean this is pretty much the same team you saw last year. And they were really good last year. They were just kind of like the Lightning, they're just in a tough division. So you know they made it out of the first round of the playoffs last year, so they broke that kind of jinx. And Kaprizov's a really good player. I mean I remember those brief few days when he was the highest played p p player in the league. And now he's what fourth. Didn't last long. No, no, he didn't he didn't even play a single game as the highest played player. But ⁓ you know, he's got that scoring instinct. He's a he's a finisher. ⁓ it's a deep team that that defense, even with Brock Faber being out, you know, that's still a pretty deep defense. So yeah. So it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be a good matchup. It's gonna be a speed matchup. We'll see how the Lightning do with a team that plays with a lot of speed. ⁓ something that's troubled them in the past. So looking forward to that. It's a good way to cle ⁓ close things out. You know, they got so many games out of conference, out of division early on here. You know, rack up those points. You're not splitting it with anybody else in your division. It's a good way to kind of boost yourself up in the standings so when those indivision games two come around, you're in a good spot. And the Lightning will have the rest advantage in that one. They play Monday. Minnesota plays Tuesday in Buffalo and then we'll be traveling down to Tampa. So Not that it's big this early in the season, but that extra day. Final question, Justin, any chance we see Hilda be in either one of these two games. I was kind of thinking maybe the Islanders on Saturday. Possibly. I was thinking either the Flyers or the Islanders. ⁓ the season does start off pretty nicely for the Lightning in terms of rest for Vasilevskiy, but at the same time, you know, Coop doesn't want him out there sixty five games this year. So kinda wanna get Hildeby a little action early on. So like I said, Philly may be a possibility. I definitely don't think it's gonna be ⁓ Minnesota. think that's a Vasile game. ⁓ so we'll see how how it rolls. But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see him start on on Monday. I think last year we got into the habit of saying, Okay, it's a back to back. Which one is Vasilesky gonna rest and which game is Johansson going to take over? ⁓ Justin Tell us what's going on over at Raw Charge. You got a late night at the press box. So when's that article coming out? ⁓ so we had the recap go out this mor or last night, so that's all up to date. We'll have ⁓ probably just a little recap of the weekend go up ⁓ today at some point. ⁓ we'll have the recap of the Atlantic division as a whole on Monday. We're gonna start dropping that every Monday, ⁓ where Mantis goes ahead and recaps what's going on in the division, keep people up to date on that. ⁓ probably talk about the Crunch,. You know, they had their season openers this year. They they split a series up in Laval. ⁓ Sam O'Reilly picked up his first assist. ⁓ Thomas ⁓ Kravelik picked up an assist as well. So kind of delve into how their season's gonna look. ⁓ still got a couple previews to push out. But yeah, we'll keep writing. ⁓ only two, you know, th only those two games throughout the week. So plenty of time to put some stuff out, catch up on the Lightning, see if anything crazy happens in the NHL. ⁓ you know, the All of a sudden there's a new suitor for Dylan Larkin possibly in the league. ⁓ but ⁓ yeah, and figure out what's Connor Hel Hellibuck doing these days. It'll be interesting to see what b both what happens to both of them. I still think Winnipeg's gonna basically s they're gonna hold firm and they're gonna tell Hellebuyck,, you either play for us or you're not playing for anyone else. Detroit's in a different situation. Not only do you have the Larkin situation, Simon Edvinsson is back in Sweden, the twenty three year old defenseman. He's saying, Hey, trade me. So now you have multiple people on Detroit who want out. It was interesting how that that ⁓ how Edmonton's r request was worded. I think it was Elliot Friedman who broke it. He said he'd prefer to be traded. ⁓ so it's not an outright trade demand like we've seen some from some other players, but the resolution looks like would be him playing somewhere else. And you know, at this point, do you wonder do does Carolina just swap him with ⁓ their holdouts, ⁓ Nishken in and ⁓ just say, hey guys, here you go. You know, here's some new environments, go out and play. I would I would think if if Edvinsson is sitting out, you're still gonna have to give him a contract. He's still I mean depends what you're gonna have to sign him for. He plays twenty minutes a night, led the team in plus minus. He's not gonna come cheap either. I don't know if Carolina's going to be willing to pay the price that's needed because they're up against the cap right now as it is. I could see teams that, you know, have a ton of cap space. The Penguins, the Flyers, the Islanders, those teams that need s that extra defenseman, I think they could step in and possibly make a pitch for him. But again, it just depends what Detroit is looking to give. That being said, I saw the Penguins game last night as the Lightning game was going on. Declan Carlisle looked really good. Yeah. He had an he had a nice goal, but He played really well with Eric Karlsson out there. He's someone to keep an eye on. Justin, we are gonna be back later on in the homestand. We're gonna let everyone on social media know when we are going to be back. You can follow Justin each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. I'm Jason Linkes.. Thanks for joining us today. Please hit that like and subscribe button and go Bolts.. Go Bolts.. 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