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...
about 12 hours ago
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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...
about 21 hours ago
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
On Monday, the AHL released their playoff schedule. Not only does that include the opening round match-ups, it also includes a few of the semi-final rounds as well, which means the Syracuse Crunch know when their post-season starts. For those not quite so familiar with the AHL playoff format, they have what amounts to basically a play-in series for their first round. However, the top seeds get an automatic bye into the semifinal round. With the Crunch finishing second in the North Division, th...
Game Two: Montreal Canadiens (1-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (0-1)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, Florida
TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN2, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -192
Know the Opponents: Habs Eyes on the Prize
“We know we have better in us.” If you’ve been around the Tampa Bay Lightning long enough then you’ve heard the phrase before. Much like you’ve heard “Process over Outcome” “Turn the Page” and several other p...
There were a couple of unwelcome regular season trends that carried over to the postseason in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Game One loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The Lightning were behind early. They came back to tie the Habs late, only to give up the go-ahead, and in this case, game-winning goal. The most unwelcome continuing trend was a Lightning player leaving the game early due to an injury.
Last night it was defenseman Charle-Edouar D’Astous who only played 9:35, leaving the game in t...