Raw Charge

Well now. This isn’t exactly what we were expecting out of the gates, now was it? The Tampa Bay Lightning are two games into the season, and for the first time under Jon Cooper’s tenure, they are still searching for their first win. That’s right, not since Steven Stamkos was a rookie and Barry Melrose was behind the bench have the Lightning woken up to see 0-2 next to their … [Read more...] about Some more thoughts on…the start of the season

With the NHL season officially under way, it’s time to look back and see where some old friends ended up now that the rosters have been finalized. It was a summer of try-out contracts for most of the players that left the team, but most of them have ended up as actual contracts. Conor Sheary – New York Rangers Sheary, who had his contract mutually terminated just prior to free … [Read more...] about Checking in on some former Bolts

The Lightning beat the Panthers 5-2 last night, picking up another pre-season victory. With a line-up that resembled what we’ll see on opening night (for the most part) the Lightning literally fought back from an early deficit to pick up the win. It was…not a great night to evaluate 5v5 play. The penalties started early and rolled all throughout the night as the teams finished … [Read more...] about By definition, that was a hockey game last night

If nothing else, the pre-season version of the Tampa Bay Lightning are showing themselves to be a team that can grind out victories. Heading into the third period with a 3-1 win on the backs of goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand (power play), Conor Geekie, and Jakob Pelletier, they stumbled, allowing a tally from Ryan McAllister, before shutting things down to pick up their fifth … [Read more...] about Lightning pick up another victory, 3-2

“We’re taking zero chances”. That’s how Coach Jon Cooper responded to a question about injuries (Pontus Holmberg in particular) in training camp. With Brayden Point and Holmberg joining Andrei Vasilevskiy on the sidelines, there was some concern about the health of the team overall. While Coach Cooper acknowledged that some of the players are a little dinged up, he didn’t seem … [Read more...] about Lightning Round: Coach Cooper relays some good news about Andrei Vasilevskiy