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Lightning Morning News: Another free agent is off of the market
The Tampa Bay Lightning probably weren’t going to go after Charlie Coyle, the 34-year-old forward who finished the season with Columbus. Now, it looks like no one is going to get the chance. The Columbus Blue Jackets are re-signing Coyle to a six-year deal that carries a $6 million AAV. The new contract will keep him in red, white, and blue until 2032. Welcome to the new salary cap. Coyle was ranked 7th in The Athletic’s Big Free Agency Board and is solid, middle-of-the-lineup center. He ...
Lightning Morning News: Will Mitchell Chaffee be back?
Much like his Tampa Bay Lightning Opening Night teammates, Mitchell Chaffee’s season ended in disappointment. Unlike most of them, Chaffee’s year ended in Syracuse instead of Tampa. A season that started with the chance of a bigger role in the NHL ended 1,200 miles away when the Crunch fell to the Cleveland Monsters in their first-round match-up. As an unrestricted free agent, the 28-year-old will have to decide if his future remains in Tampa, or if there is another franchise that will give hi...
Lightning Morning News: Tampa Bay has decision to make on two prospects
Julien BriseBois’ could have one of the easiest summers of his tenure as Lightning general manager. Sure, he needs to find some depth scoring, make the team a little younger without sacrificing talent, and figure out what to do with Darren Raddysh and Nikita Kucherov, but at least he doesn’t have a lot of RFA’s to deal with. One additional task on his summer to-do list is decide if the Lightning are going to offer entry-level contracts to two of their recent draft picks. The draft rights ...
Lightning Morning News: J.J. Moser is heading home (for the World Championships)
Yesterday, we talked about Declan Carlile making the U.S. squad that is heading to the IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship, and today it’s J.J. Moser’s turn. The Lightning’s best defenseman this year will keep his season going as he will join Team Switzerland for the international tournament that will be played in Zurich and Fribourg. Team Canada also announced their roster , but there will be no Lightning players joining them (as of right now). So, for now, it’s just Moser and Carlile he...
Nikita Kucherov is a MVP finalist…and everyone wants to trade him
On Friday, the NHL released the names of the three finalists for the Hart Trophy, given to the player that scores the most points that the PHWA deems the “most valuable to his team”. The three finalists are Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, and the greatest player in Tampa Bay Lightning franchise history – Nikita Kucherov. Those names aren’t exactly shocking, and quite frankly seem to be among the finalists year after year. There was some talk that Macklin Celebrini might...
Lightning Morning News: Tampa Bay defenseman heading to World Championships
Just over a week from now, international hockey ramps back up as the IIHF Men’s World Championship gets under way in Switzerland. Sixteen countries will compete for the gold, silver, and bronze in the yearly tournament that runs concurrent with the Stanley Cup playoffs. The timing of the tournament prevents it from being a true best-on-best competition, but it usually features a nice blend of NHL players whose teams have exited the postseason, prospects, and top European players. With the...
Lightning Morning News: 2026-27 Salary Cap set at $104 million
With league revenues continuing to operate at a healthy clip, the NHL let their franchises know what their cap for next season is going to look like. As has been speculated for some time, the 2026-27 upper limit will be at $104 million, an increase of $8.5 million over the current ceiling. That also means that the salary cap floor is going up from $70.6 million to $76.9 million. The @NHL and @NHLPA announced that the Team Payroll Range established for the 2026-27 League Year, pursuant t...
Victor Hedman opens up about his absence from the Lightning
After just a handful shifts in Vancouver on March 19th, Victor Hedman left the eventual 6-2 Tampa Bay Lightning win. He would not return to the line-up for the rest of the season. On Tuesday, he spoke to the assembled media about his absence, “Obviously, after the first period in Vancouver was kind of the final straw. It’s a thing that’s been going on for a long time, and try to work through it, and find ways to get around it, but I wasn’t able to do that. So, that’s where the decision ca...
Lightning Morning News: Toronto Maple Leafs win draft lottery
Well, it’s been an interesting past few days for the Toronto Maple Leafs. First, they hired a new GM , and the reaction has been, well, mixed. Along with John Chayka they added Mats Sundin as a Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations. Chayka has been out of the league since 2020 after he abruptly stepped down from his role as the Arizona Coyotes general manager. Oh, yeah, and he was suspended by the league for a year as well. As for Sundin, this will be the franchise icon’s first job in hockey manag...
State of the Blog Update and Summer Plans
Hello and good morning everyone. It’s Justin, your faithful managing editor of Raw Charge. For the fourth year in a row, we’ve come to this point a little too early in the spring. With the Lightning getting bounced from the first round of the playoffs yet again, we all face an off-season that starts in May instead of June. Which is a bummer. That means I have to come up with a few extra weeks of interesting posts to keep y’all interested and reading. It was a good season for the website a...
Lightning season ends in Game 7 loss to Canadiens, 2-1
It’s now been roughly three hours since the final horn of the 2025-26 Tampa Bay Lightning season sounded. To this very moment, we’re not exactly sure how the Lightning lost this game. Yes, we grasp the concept that they scored fewer goals than the Canadiens. Still, it was such a well-played game, especially defensively, that we’re still kind of waiting for them to somehow find the equalizer. The Lightning limited the Montreal Canadiens to nine shots on goal. There was a stretch of roughly...
Play it like a road game: Canadiens at Lightning Game Seven Preview
Game Seven: Montreal Canadiens (3-3) at Tampa Bay Lightning (3-3) Time: 6:00 PM EST Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, FL (Lightning are 4-1 in Game 7 Home Games) TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, TNT, truTV, HBOMax, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App Odds: Lightning Know the Opponents: Habs Eye on the Prize There is a story, perhaps anecdotal, that occasionally circulates around the internets about George Lucas’ directorial style while shooting the original Sta...
Updating the Tampa Bay Lightning Game 7 Rankings
Are you ready? We said, Arrrrrrrreeeeeee you reeeeeeaddddddddyyyyyy? Game 7 is here! Well, almost here. We still have to wait 24 hours for the Lightning and Canadiens to engage in their winner-take-all battle. A few years ago, the Lightning engaged in a Game 7 against the New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference Finals. Prior to that game we ranked their previous Game 7s based on a completely arbitrary, poorly-thought-out system. Really, it is what we do best. Since the publ...
Andrei Vasilevskiy plays hero in Lightning 1-0 overtime win
Make absolutely no mistakes, Andrei Vasilevskiy was the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth star tonight. We’ll give Gage Goncalves the fifth star for his overtime, game-winning goal, but without the absolute stellar play of the Lightning netminder, this series is over. Vasilevskiy picked up his first shutout of the playoffs as he stopped 30 shots, including a brilliant two-save sequence on Ivan Demidov in the second period. He needed to make every last one of those stops as the Lightning ...
Lightning at Canadiens Game Six Preview: Just win
Game Six: Tampa Bay Lightning (2-3) at Montreal Canadiens (3-2) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Centre Bell, Montreal (Saw an excellent Oasis concert there once) TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN2, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App Odds: Lightning -115 Know the Opponents: Habs Eye on the Prize Win or go home. It’s that simple. Actually, if you think about it, it’s win and go home as well. It’s just a matter of the mood on the flight back to Tampa. A victory and the Lightni...
Lightning lose at home to Canadiens, 3-2, face elimination
The Tampa Bay Lightning battled back from one goal deficits twice against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five of their first round series. Unfortunately, they couldn’t answer Alexandre Texier’s early third-period goal as Jakub Dobes made 17 of his 38 saves in the final frame to preserve a 3-2 Montreal win. The series heads back to Montreal with the Lightning facing elimination on Friday. The too-long-didn’t-read version of the game is that Montreal scored all of the big momentum goals. Th...
Canadiens at Lightning Game Five Preview: It’s been Even Steven so far
Game Five: Montreal Canadiens (2-2) at Tampa Bay Lightning (2-2) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, FL TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN2, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App Odds: Lightning -160 Know the Opponents: Habs Eye on the Prize Prior to this series starting one of the things that perplexed us here at Raw Charge Worldwide Incorporated was the overwhelming notion by some, either national media or on social media, that the Lightning ...
Nikita Kucherov named finalist for Ted Lindsay Award
Its awards season! The NHL has kicked off its annual tradition of announcing the finalists for their major awards, and first up is the Ted Lindsay Award, earned by the player who was most valuable to his team as decided by the NHLPA. It differs from the Hart Memorial Trophy as that trophy is determined by the PWHL. By its very nature, the award is looked at as who the actual players believe is the MVP of the season. Yet, it doesn’t seem to carry the gravitas of the Hart. In the history of the ...
Game Four Post Game Interviews: “He’s the hottest player in the league”
Following their 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, the Tampa Bay Lightning were a little more relaxed in their post-game interviews. Coach Jon Cooper in particular was in a good mood, especially when talking about the penalties and his reactions. Jon Cooper On Max Crozier – “He has that in his game. That’s why Cro is in the league. Not necessarily all those hits, but he has that in the game. He’s a big-time gamer.” On shuffling the lines – “We’re getting mass pro...
Brandon Hagel’s late goal completes Lightning come back in 3-2 win over Canadiens
Two things happened on Sunday night that hadn’t happened in the series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens. In a series that was tied for 71% of the time through the first three games, and within a goal the other 29%, a team finally built a multi-goal lead as the Canadiens were up 2-0 in the second period. Second, it ended in regulation as Brandon Hagel’s second goal of the third period gave the Lightning the lead that they would hold on to despite a late 6-on-4 power play f...
Lightning at Canadiens Game Four Preview: The plot is thickening
Game Four: Tampa Bay Lightning (1-2) at Montreal Canadiens (2-1) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Centre Bell, Montreal, Canada TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App Odds: Lightning -115 Know the Opponents: Habs Eyes on the Prize If there have been any constants in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s season, the first is that if someone can get injured, they will get injured. The second is that they have played their best hockey when their backs have be...
Quick Cap: Lightning drop Game 3 in overtime to Canadiens on Hutson’s winner
There really are no bad shots in overtime. Just over two minutes into the third straight overtime game between Tampa Bay and Montreal, Lane Hutson proved that as he wound up and unleashed a shot through a forest of players that somehow eluded every stick, elbow, skate, shin pad, and blocker before finding the back of the net to give the home team the 3-2 victory. It was another tight game between the two teams that saw waves of momentum come and go for both sides. Montreal opened the scor...
And the boos shall rain down upon thee: Lightning at Canadiens Game Three preview
Game Three: Tampa Bay Lightning (1-1) at Montreal Canadiens (1-1) Time: 7:00 PM EST Location: Centre Bell, Montreal, Canada TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, TNT, HBOMax, truTV, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App Odds: Lightning -122 Know the Opponents: Habs Eyes on the Prize There are just certain sports venues that have a little extra energy to them. Notre Dame on a cool October Saturday, Yankee Stadium on a cool October night, Lambeau on a frigid January Sunday. Add Centr...
Lightning vs. Canadiens: Two games down and no closer to knowing who is better
With two games in the books the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens shift their series north to the Paris of North America. Lightning fans thought all was lost after a Game One overtime loss. J.J. Moser provided a dopamine rush with his OT winner in Game Two. With Montreal claiming home advantage for at least the next two games the only thing we know is that this series is coming back to Tampa for at least one more game. It has been, to say the least, an interesting series. At time...
Lightning return favor with 3-2 overtime win over Canadiens
For a first career NHL playoff goal, an overtime game-winner isn’t a bad one to hang on the mantle. J.J. Moser exorcised the Tampa Bay Lightning’s overtime demons as he snapped a wrist shot past Jakob Dobes at the 12:48 mark of overtime to give the Lightning the 3-2 win. The series heads to Montreal all tied at one game a piece. After their 4-3 OT loss in Game One, Coach Jon Cooper made a few line-up changes. Declan stepped in for the injured Charle-Edouard D’Astous while Scott Sabourin r...
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