Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images Luckily Brayden Point still doesn’t have to pay state tax for home games, so that’s worth at least a few million less, right? The RFAs The big news yesterday was not Tampa Bay Lightning news, although it impacts our team: the RFA everyone was waiting for, Mitchell Marner, has finally signed a contract worth $10.9 million over six years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now the rest of this year’s RFA class should be able to negotiate what they think they are worth in relation to Marner. Where do we think Brayden Point falls on the continuum of Kucherov’s RFA deal to Mitch’s? Mitch Marner re-signs [PPP] ”To be precise. Marners AAV is $10.893 x 6 years.” This deal is going to cause some cap headaches. Kyle Dubas mostly solved the cap crunch in the offseason, but he didn’t quite leave a hole big enough for Mitch Marner’s view of what he’s worth. The solution is going to be running a short roster of less than 23 players most of the time. The potential downsides of that is one of the costs of this deal. Uh, Julien BriseBois offered Point what? Now let’s see how the Marner contract impacts other negotiations. It’s believed Tampa’s last offer to Brayden Point was around three years and $5.7 M AAV... both sides far apart.— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 14, 2019 Lest we forget, here’s the available cap space for Young Point: Tampa Bay Lightning made masterful offseason moves [Puck Prose] Those re-signings plus free-agent acquisitions had a combined cost of $11.5M. Add in the fact that the cap went up from $79.5M to $81.5M, which gave them an additional $2M, they were able to add more this off-season, for a far cheaper price. They are currently left with $8.476M (roughly) to bring back Point. Lauren transcribed Uncle Bob’s conversations about how Marner sets the market for Point: Bob McKenzie from back in May: “The interesting things vis a vis Marner in Toronto are Brayden Point in Tampa and Mikko Rantanen in Colorado ... in theory, those guys should get more than Marner.”Well, we’ll see what happens now. https://t.co/Y7jnRTKOfC— ???Lauren Kelly ??? (@laurkelly24) September 13, 2019 Lauren, you have good eyes: Matthews wears 34 with the Leafs. His AAV ends in 34.Marner wore 93 with London. His AAV ends in 93.Nylander wore 62 with the Marlies. His AAV ends in 62. https://t.co/NYDeGIVSx7— ???Lauren Kelly ??? (@laurkelly24) September 13, 2019 The Bolts and Prospects Yesterday Geo wrote a little about how goalies Louis Domingue and Mike Condon will be treated by the organization heading into the regular season. Lightning to be strategic with goalie logjam; will manage Domingue and Condon’s practice time [Raw Charge] During that earlier conversation, BriseBois indicated that the team was trying to find a landing place for Louis Domingue. This firmly signals that they have not found a trading partner and will be placing him on waivers at the earliest possible day. The waiver period starts on the 12th day prior to the start of the regular season. So this season, that will be September 21st. Sergachev, Cernak learn from World Championships experience [Tampa Bay Lightning] To that end, their inclusion at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships - Sergachev for Team Russia, Cenak for host country Slovakia - should help accelerate their development and give them even more confidence as they enter Lightning training camp as established starters in the National Hockey League. Can ‘high-octane’ Lightning buy in to new reality of being more disciplined on defense? [The Athletic, paid content] Former Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman was pretty candid in our summer conversation about how the team’s defense wasn’t good enough, and how if it weren’t for Vasilevskiy, the 62-win team would have probably had just 45. Not surprisingly, Vasilevskiy won his first Vezina Trophy. “His stats hurt from our lack of defensive awareness,” Stralman said. “That’s kind of stupid.” and yes... my favorite season is HOCKEY SEASON!! #Tblightning on the first day on the ice during @tblightning #nhl training camp in Brandon. pic.twitter.com/bZK7ZSqNBb— Dirk Shadd (@DirkShadd) September 13, 2019 The Crunch are ready too! Ok, we're ready for the season to start. #AHLOpeningNight pic.twitter.com/2KKLWH7O7i— AHL (@TheAHL) September 13, 2019 J.P. Cote wants to boost Syracuse Crunch careers like he revived his own [Syracuse.com] The Lightning hired Cote, 37, as its new director of player development in the off-season. It’s a natural transition from his previous job as a scout for San Jose, and a role that will bring him to work in Syracuse roughly eight to 10 days a week. This is lovely. Lightning hosting week-long 50/50 raffle to benefit Hurricane Dorian relief [WFLA] The Tampa Bay Lightning will be hosting a 50/50 raffle this week to help benefit Hurricane Dorian relief and recovery. Half of the proceeds raised from the Bolts 50/50 Raffle will be donated to the relief and recovery effort in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. The Game Boy those Sens. Report: Mohegan Sun casino is suing Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the National Hockey League’s #Ottawa Senators over a $900,000 gambling debt. #ottnews #Sens https://t.co/5HDWPTKo60— Matt Harris (@mattfharris) September 13, 2019 Boy those Ducks. NEWS: Executive Vice President/General Manager Bob Murray confirmed today both Patrick Eaves and Ryan Kesler will miss the entirety of the 2019-20 season. pic.twitter.com/Ut29xH8ZfF— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) September 13, 2019 Boy those Jets. MEDIA ADVISORY: The Winnipeg Jets announced today that defenceman Dustin Byfuglien has been granted a personal leave of absence from the hockey team. #NHLJets— Winnipeg Jets PR (@WpgJetsPR) September 13, 2019 Boy those Panthers. Not that this is a bad thing of course...I’m just worried about them in general. #FlaPanthers agree to terms with defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok on a three-year ELC. More » https://t.co/gCVdBOuPCN pic.twitter.com/zLPVFZpkXH— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) September 13, 2019 Panthers need to ‘stop talking, start acting,’ GM says [NHL] Caldwell said the Quenneville hiring and the Bobrovsky signing each spiked season-ticket sales 8-10 percent, and he would be shocked if the Panthers averaged fewer than 14,000 fans this season. He said they are at about 7,500 season tickets, up from about 3,000 when Viola bought the team in 2013. And to end on a high note: Alright stop... STAMMER TIME! ? (Steven Stamkos, @RealStamkos91) pic.twitter.com/jOmOclnqhh— NHL (@NHL) September 13, 2019

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports Now that’s more like it. For a very brief moment in the second inning, when Charlie Morton gave up a single to Luis Rengifo to score Albert Pujols for the first run of the game, I was really worried I would need to write a recap that would disappoint everyone who went to bed early. I can still disappoint you, but at least it will only because of my questionable late-night writing abilities. The Rays did what they needed to do tonight, with a heavy-hitting game that brought great results from every end of the batting order. After that early RBI to Rengifo, the Rays responded with a a spectacular top of the third. First Willy Adames hit a solo home run to tie the game. Then Austin Meadows hit his 30th home run of the season—the second youngest Rays batter to hit that milestone—scoring Tommy Pham as well. Then Jesus Aguilar hit one of the most bonkers home runs I’ve watched all season. Center fielder Brian Goodwin made a good effort to catch the Aguilar homer over the centerfield wall, only to lose the ball AND his glove over the edge. Things wouldn’t be easy for the Rays, though. In the bottom of the third, Goodwin tried to behead Ryan Yarbrough with a foul ball, and then Kole Calhoun hit a two run homer to score himself and Fletcher, bringing the Angels back to one run. In the fourth inning the Rays recouped and gained more momentum, first with a Avisail Garcia RBI single to score Roberston, followed by a Tommy Pham groundout to score Adames. In the sixth inning Heredia got a home run of his own, and boy oh boy was he miffed when the Fox Sun cameras cut off of him in the dugout too soon. Let them man preen, Fox. Charlie Morton went a solid six innings, with only a few minor issues early in the game. He gave up three runs on three hits, and had a single walk. He also collected four strikeouts. All in all, the results the Rays needed from CFM. In the seventh Travis d’Arnaud fought through a sixteen year at bat to score Tommy Pham on a single. Pham was removed from the game afterwards, moving Heredia to right and bringing Kiermaier into the game. No new injuries were announced on Pham, so it seems precautionary more than anything. In the eighth, Garcia hit a long double to score Adames and Duffy, further extending the gap for the Rays. Kole Calhoun couldn’t let the K in his first name be for a strikeout, and hit another home run in the bottom of the eighth. At least it was a solo shot. It was the one red mark in an otherwise great relief outing from Andrew Kittredge. In the ninth, Johnny Davis made his first major league plate appearance. A native Los Angelino he got to take hacks with his family in the crowd, and what do you know he hit a standup triple. He didn’t stay there too long, either, as Aguilar scored him on a sac fly. Side note here, they must have mic’d the Rays dugout for this game because dang it was loud in there. Jalen Beeks came on to close things out for the Rays in the bottom of the ninth. He got through the first two batters quickly, with only some difficulty locating pitches, but gave up a single to Rengifo. Thankfully they were able to put the Angels to bed with the next batter. Rays win 11-4. They remain a half game behind Oakland, and a full game ahead of Cleveland.

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