Raw Charge
Summary
Lightning News The Lightning placed Jansen Harkins on waivers yesterday and intend to send him to Syracuse. Harkins filled in nicely in his role in the preseason and ended up playing in the season opener as a result. His demotion signals the likely return of Dominic James. The Lightning could use James’ youth and speed in the line-up. [ Raw Charge ] The Hockey Gods have a funny way of making their presence known. When one player is healthy enough to play, another inevitably goes down. Unfortunately for the Lightning Emil Lilleberg was the player who is now out after getting injured in a fight against Washington. Fortunately for the Lightning they still have seven healthy defensemen to fill in while Lilleberg is out. [ The Hockey News ] Andrei Vasilevskiy is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner and will be going for his third Vezina this season. He recently played in his 600th game against Washington and has the most wins of any goalie in their first 600 games after improving on that number against the Capitals. Vasilevskiy tied Andy Moog at 20th in NHL history with his 372nd career win on Monday. Vasy needs three more wins to pass John Vanbiesbrouck for 19th place in career wins. [ Yahoo! ] “I wanted it.” That’s the attitude the Lightning need out of Conor Geekie as he looks to become a permanent part of the Lightning line-up. Through three games, he’s shown signs of what made him such an intriguing addition to the organization. [ Tampa Bay Times – subscription required ] Justin and Jason are back to talking about actual action on the ice! They talked about the first two games of the season and preview the next two (it was dropped before the Philly win). Download, like, share, all that stuff. [ Backchecking the Bolts ] League News Aleksander Barkov’s injury prognosis finally became more clear yesterday when the Panthers announced Barkov will be out 6-8 weeks. The Panthers were actually somewhat relieved by that news thinking it could have been much longer. Coach Paul Maurice also said “Could be a little less, could be a little more.” Barkov was hurt on October 1st – six weeks from that date would be November 26th. [ ESPN ] Speaking of injuries and the Florida Panthers, Brad Marchand recently returned from one. Unfortunately, he might be right back on the injured list as he took a spill near the net in a game against the Los Angeles Kings and had to be helped off of the ice. [ Florida Hockey Now ] The NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer announced that this year will be his farewell tour. Alex Ovechkin is calling it quits after 22 seasons and 929 goals (and counting). He’s led the league in goals nine times coming into this season and is the all-time leader in goals, power-play goals, game-winning goals and shots on goal. It’s hard to imagine the NHL without him in it. [ Bleacher Report ] Gavin McKenna finally got his first goal in the NHL last night as the Maple Leafs made quite a comeback in Toronto against Nashville. Steven Stamkos scored twice for the Preds but the Leafs tied it at four midway through the 3rd Period and Auston Matthews scored in the final seconds of overtime for the Leafs win. McKenna picked a great time to get his first which should make the Leafs fans breath a sigh of relief for a minute or two.[ NHL ] Speaking of first goals, Dylan Larkin suited up for the Red Wings in his first game this season. The disgruntled star faced a chorus of boos the first time he touched the ice and first several times he had the puck on his stick. Larkin won back the crowd later in the game when he scored at 13:14 of the 1st Period to give the Wings a 2-1 lead. He set up another goal in the 2nd Period and the Wings got their first win of the season defeating the Senators 5-3. [ The Detroit News ] There were still a few big names remaining without contracts as the NHL season began this year. The Flyers struck a deal with one of those players by signing 31 year-old winger Michael Bunting to a one-year deal yesterday. Bunting had 19 goals and 54 points with the Hurricanes and Penguins last season and plays a rough brand of hockey to help out the winless Flyers. Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrik Laine are both still without NHL contracts. [ Broad Street Hockey ]