Everything Else

Nikola Tesla in his laboratory @ oldschool

Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!: Raw Charge

Last year, the Lightning were one of the more prolific scoring threats in the NHL. They averaged a  3.06 G/G, third best in the NHL (trailing only Pittsburgh and Chicago). They were led by perhaps the most dangerous 1-2 punch in the league with Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos leading the league in points (60 and 57, respectively) while Stamkos trailed only Alexander Ovechkin in goals for the shortened season. They’re going to be dangerous every time they touch the puck.

Now, scoring a bunch of goals every game is all well and good but it becomes a major problem for a team when you allow the other team to score the exact same number of goals every game. The Bolts scored 147 goals last year but allowed in 147 for perfectly matching 3.06 G/G and GA/G. Defense should have become a priority in the offseason for Yzerman but it still seems his defense is going to be a hell of a lot better skating forward than backward. 

Everything Else

This is a feature we’re going to try to do about once a month, maybe a little more often. We’ve gathered out blogging friends from around the division to give us a little more insight from those in the know about the teams the Hawks are competing with. Without further ado, this roundtable’s question is what can we expect from each team this season:

Everything Else

A few things to cover this week, some from Tuesday night’s affair and some that have nothing to do with Tuesday night.

–It only took about 15 seconds for the Capitals to put Joakim Nordstrom to the test. In their first four power plays, the Capitals were running their power play on whatever side Nordstrom was playing on. Nordstrom, understandably so, was caught in between a lot of times, having a difficult time deciding whether to take away time and space or give his man room.  Skill guys like Mike Green and Alex Ovechkin chewed that up.

Everything Else

The IceHogs’ 2013 preseason schedule only featured two contests. Both games were on the road as the BMO Harris Bank Center is undergoing seat renovations.  First up for the Hogs was a trip to West Meadows Ice Arena in Rolling Meadows for a tilt against the Wolves, and then it was up to the Kern Center in Milwaukee to take on the Admirals.