SITREP: Morning Skate Updates, Ryan Greene, and the Tampa Bay Lightning

It's Wednesday. And I'm here with some Blackhawks updates. Just a couple of news items from morning skate, followed by some thoughts on Ryan Greene. At the bottom is some NHL news with some thoughts about the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Morning Skate Updates

• According to Ben Pope, Connor Bedard was on the ice this morning. Tuevo Teravainen was not and will miss tomorrow's game. Teuvo missed the last two periods during the Hawks' loss to the Oilers.
• Charlie Roumeliotis reported that Sam Lafferty (who hasn't played since Dec. 28) missed practice because he got the flu.

Since there's no game tonight, the lineup could change. Jeff Blashill isn't known to bust out the line blender anyway. My speculation about Connor Bedard centering Ryan Greene remains since we didn't get to see that last game.

Greene has impressed me this season. I didn't expect him to start the season with the Hawks. But he held down the 1C spot in Bedard's absence. Greene has a knack for finding scoring areas, but hasn't found his finish (five goals in 46 games). His individual expected goals rate per 60 is only .69 and Greene has an 8.06 shooting percentage (all situations).

While I'm sure Bedard will help Greene score goals (hello Philipp Kurashev), I'm more interested in Greene finding Bedard. We'll see how this goes.

NHL News

The Tampa Bay Lightning tied their franchise winning streak at 11 games following a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. The Bolts sit on top of the East with 61 points. Head coach Jon Cooper grabbed his 601st win and is the 25th head coach in NHL history to reach the 600-win mark.

Sure, two points separate them from fourth place in the East (Montreal has 59 points). And yeah, we'll have to wait for the postseason to see how far Tampa can go. But every season, the Lightning prove that you can't count them out. That's what you get with excellent roster construction and a phenomenal head coach. Every offseason (after they're eliminated in the playoffs), talk turns to their depleted prospect pool and how it might be time to start a rebuild.

General Manager Julien BriseBois will probably tell you that rebuilds are for the birds.

• Don't look now, but the Boston Bruins are somehow on another heater. A four-game win streak, 6-3-1 in their last 10, and a wild card spot (in a crowded race).
• Head coach Rick Bowness grabbed his first win in his debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets. 5-3 over the Calgary Flames.
• Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 20 games (a career best). But don't worry, their goaltending took a dump in a 4-3 OT loss to the Nashville Predators.

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