The Bolts

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 in the final game of the season. [Raw Charge]

With another multi-point game (1G, 1A) Victor Hedman continues his race up the Tampa Bay Lightning record books with a total of 301 career points, passing Brian Bradley for sixth all-time among Lightning players (not just defenseman, 6th among all players). Reminder: He’ll be in Tampa for (at least) eight more years.

Point #300:

Point #301:

Learn about Yanni Gourde’s unusual path to the NHL. “It was tough, but I gave myself a good year to make it back to the American Hockey League. I wanted too, so bad, to get a NHL chance at some point. I focused on that and I finally got my chance.” [Raw Charge]

Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy will be playing for Russia in the IIHF World Championships. [Russian Ice Hockey Federation]

The Bolts re-assigned Michael Bournival and Joel Vermin to the Syracuse Crunch as well as placing Gabriel Dumont on waivers. [Tampa Bay Lightning]

The Lightning send a heartfelt final message to the fans.

You make home ice a hometown.



Thank you, #Bolts Nation. ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/vDNWXdUM8F — Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 9, 2017

The Prospects

The Syracuse Crunch are heading to the playoffs! “With a big win against the Albany Devils on Saturday night and a little bit of help from North Division rival St. John’s on Sunday, the Syracuse Crunch have clinched a berth in the 2016-2017 AHL playoffs.” [Raw Charge]

Boris Katchouk (#12 in white) scored the only goal for the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds as they lost 4-1 to the Owen Sound Attack. The Greyhounds lead the series 2-1.

Christopher Paquette (#12 in black) picked up a goal and an assist as his Peterborough Petes defeated the Kingston Frontenacs 4-1. Paquette was named first star of the game. Peterborough leads the series 2-0.

The Game

“The Dallas Stars have made the inevitable official: Head Coach Lindy Ruff will not return to the team in 2017-18. A multitude of factors sent the team from the 2016 regular-season Western Conference championship to a possible 2017 lottery pick. Undeniably, coaching was one of them, and in a results-oriented league, it’s the one that can be acted upon the most quickly.” [Defending Big D]

Scotty Bowman dishes on the Joe, the Cups, the Russian Five and Steve Yzerman. “When I went to Detroit, I mentioned it to Steve [Yzerman] that the only way - we're talking about a player that scored 65 goals and had a 160 points and the team still couldn't get through the playoff rounds - I said, ‘Steve the only problem is we're going to have to play better defensively and you can lead the charge and at the same time it's really going to affect your individual statistics’ and he said, ‘I don't care about individual statistics.’” [NHL]

The Detroit Red Wings bid farewell to their classic Joe Louis Arena in style. Steve Yzerman performed the ceremonial puck drop, Henrik Zetterberg scored a goal in his 1000th career game, and Riley Sheahan finally netted his first and second goals of the season.