Lightning Round: Bolts fans won’t be seeing Ryan McDonagh on Thursday

Dec 7, 2022 - 12:00 PM

Tampa Bay Lightning v Nashville Predators" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cr32WKiz3x2R5ulDM-UHwknlvNs=/0x0:3000x1688/1920x1080/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71720721/1443307201.0.jpg" />

Lightning Links

Lots of Tampa Bay Lightning fans want to see — and thank — defender Ryan McDonagh when his team, the Nashville Predators, come to town on Thursday. Unfortunately, McDonagh took a puck to the face (typical) on the weekend. Get well soon, Mac. Stop being so on-brand next time!

The Lightning did get to have a reunion with Derek Lalonde, who was Jon Cooper’s assistant coach for both Cup runs and many many years before that. He took the top job for the Red Wings over the summer, with Jeff Blashill switching places and taking Lalonde’s job in Tampa.

The Lightning took a slow start and couldn’t do much with it as they lost to the Red Wings. The two teams are now tied with 31 points in 25 games. They hold the third and fourth spots in the Atlantic Division. [Raw Charge]

“There was some line shuffling to begin the game as Anthony Cirelli centered Pat Maroon and Vlad Namestnikov while Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was in the middle of Ross Colton and Corey Perry. The top six stayed as before.”

Yeah, he does that.

On this date 32 years ago, the Lightning were awarded an NHL franchise. And as they say, the rest is history.

Around the League

The Toronto Maple Leafs shutout the Dallas Stars, ending Jason Robertson’s point streak at 18 games. Meanwhile Mitch Marner extended his point streak to 20 while Matt Murray stopped 44 shots for his first shutout of the season. [Pension Plan Puppets]

The New Jersey Devils blanked Chicago 3-0 on a big night for Vitek Vanecek in net and Dougie Hamilton on defense. [All About the Jersey]

Rickard Rakell got his 200th career assist while Sidney Crosby scored twice in his return from injury as the Penguins beat the Blue Jackets 4-1. [Pensburgh]

The Senators didn’t have a chance to use their offense the likes of which the world has never seen because their defense spotted the Kings a three-goal lead early, allowing LA to coast to a 5-2 win. [Silver Seven Sens]

When there’s no goaltending for the Islanders, things tend to go pretty bad. Even the Blues beat them 7-4 after holding a 5-1 lead into the third. [Lighthouse Hockey]

The Jets beat their former head coach, Paul Maurice, who walked out on them in a 5-2 win over a very pedestrian Panthers team this season. [NHL dot com]

The Hurricanes played down to their opponent, the Anaheim Ducks, last night and were forced to play in their 10th overtime game of the season. The Ducks won, and the Canes now have lost 5 of their last 6 overtime games. [Canes Country]

Shane Wright scored his first career NHL goal last night on the Montreal Canadiens — who passed on him at the NHL draft last summer — but the Kraken ended up losing the game. The AHL conditioning stint for the 18-year-old seemed to do wonders as he found his scoring touch there and translated it right to the NHL. [Habs Eyes on the Prize]

I don’t even have anything to say, I’m just speechless that the quiet part couldn’t even be said aloud.

I found this thread on NHL virtual ads to be really enlightening and allowed me to put words beyond using “weird” to describe how the ads on the screen looked compared to real ones. The result is very simply that realistic looking CG takes time and a lot of complexity, especially in motion. And adding 2-D effects don’t do the trick either.