Raw Charge
Summary
Lightning News The Tampa Bay Lightning set a new franchise record with a 4-2 win over Detroit last night to start the year 7-0 at Benchmark International Arena for the first time. Brayden Point scored two goals, Nikita Kucherov recorded two assists and Anthony Cirelli potted the game-winning goal. Andrei Vasilevskiy made some huge saves down the stretch to hold on for the Lightning victory over the Red Wings. [ Raw Charge ] The NHL had each team come out with a “Hometown Remix” as a homage to the cities/states where they’re from. The Lightning dropped theirs on Monday with the Lightning skull logo as the centerpiece. Eduardo Encina from the Tampa Bay Times does a deep dive into some of the finer details. [ Tampa Bay Times ] Every time the Tampa Bay Lightning are mentioned right now, it usually involves Nikita Kucherov. He’s been making waves the last several days as he announced that he will not be re-signing with the Lightning and has requested a trade. He’s still making a difference on the ice with the Lightning with 5 assists in two games since the announcement. [ Raw Charge ] Keeping with the Kucherov talk, Eduardo Encina has a really good write up that includes a Jon Cooper quote that applies pretty well to the situation – “I truly believe I treat everyone fairly, but I can’t sit here and say I treat everyone equally.” The Lightning’s belief that no one is bigger than the team might be the biggest reason why they’re in the situation they are in right now. [ Tampa Bay Times ] League News There were some pretty interesting jerseys that came out in the Hometown Remix drops across the NHL. There were some really good ones, and some really bad ones. Find them all here and judge for yourself if you haven’t seen them all yet. [ Hometown Remix ] One of the names that has cropped up in trade talks over the past year or so was finally moved. Shane Wright is going from coffee, grunge music, and rainy weather to hot chicken, country music, and humidity as the Kraken deal their former first-round pick to Nashville for Matthew Wood, the fifteenth overall pick in 2023 (who always looked good against the Bolts in the prospect showcases). Will a change of scenery get Wright’s game back on track? [ Davy Jones Locker Room ] Last night produced one of the most shocking results in NHL history in Montreal. The Winnipeg Jets were coming into the game on a nine-game losing streak and found themselves down 4-0 with 2:39 left in the third period. The Jets miraculously scored four goals in 2:06 and forced overtime. Dylan Samberg completed one of the most improbable wins in NHL history 3:30 into overtime and the Jets came away with a 5-4 victory after being down by four with less than three minutes remaining in the game. [ Sporstnet ] When you think of the Edmonton Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind. But last night, Nugent-Hopkins set the franchise record in games played in Edmonton with his 1,038th career game with the Oilers. [ Oilers Nation ] As mentioned, Nugent-Hopkins is overshadowed by Connor McDavid, and for good reason. McDavid has 9 goals and 31 assists in only 16 games. The NHL broke down his EDGE stats and it does look at times McDavid is in a league of his own like Wayne Gretzky. McDavid is on pace for over 200 points this year, and only Gretzky has done that (four times!). [ NHL ] I stumbled across this random ESPN article of the most consecutive games played across the four major sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL). Cal Ripken playing 2,632 straight games is absurd. It’s always nice to see Phil Kessel mentioned with his NHL record of 1,064 consecutive games. Brent Burns is second at 1,022 and if things go well he could surpass Kessel this season with Colorado. [ ESPN ]