The power is back on Saturday after thunderstorms in Manitoba knocked out power for thousands of customers Friday night, Manitoba Hydro says.
A spokesperson told CBC News a lightning strike hit the Grand Beach substation around 7 p.m.
Hydro said 2,388 customers near Grand Beach, about 80 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, and Grand Marais, just south of Grand Beach, were affected.
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I highly recommend subscribing to the Athletic, lotta great hockey content and Tampa Bay Lightning content. I really wasn't a fan of Joe Smith's work at the Times, but its starting to look like they held him back more than anything. Here's the latest article from Joe Smith with some film and insight on what went wrong for Stammer and Kuch.
TAMPA, Fla. — Lightning GM Steve Yzerman has plenty of things to cross off on his summer checklist.
But re-signing star wing Nikita Kucherov isn’t expected to be one of them.
Kucherov, 24, a restricted free agent after next season, can sign an extension as early as July 1. But agent Dan Milstein said there have been no talks yet, and he doesn’t anticipate any until the season starts.
There’s no acrimony or issues. But with Kucherov still under team control, albeit having the leverage of arbitration rights, it makes sense for the Lightning to see the entire picture before finalizing the big payday. Kucherov will make $4.76 million in the final year of his three-year bridge deal and could look to double that annual average value in a long-term deal.
“He wants to stay in Tampa — he doesn’t want to go anywhere,” Milstein told The Athletic. “Worst-case, it’s arbitration, they’re not going to lose him. Both sides want him to be in Tampa.”
Kucherov is one of the game’s elite scorers, coming off his first 100-point season and scoring 39 goals to make his second All-Star Game. But Kucherov’s postseason left something to be desired, especially in the Eastern Conference final. Both Kucherov and captain Steven Stamkos were held without a point in the final three games of the series, when the Lightning went 159 minutes, 27 seconds without scoring a goal.
The fact the Capitals best players outplayed the Lightning’s best players was a reason Tampa Bay is not playing in the Stanley Cup final.
“It’s very frustrating,” Stamkos said. “You want to help your team win, and by not scoring a goal in the last two games, that falls on the offensive leaders to ultimately get it done. You feel like you let your teammates down. It sucks.”
“Definitely you want to score goals,” Kucherov said. “Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen, doesn’t go your way.”
What happened?
It was a perfect storm of issues that led the Lightning’s two top guns to be shut out when the team needed them the most. A lot of it was self-inflicted.
Kucherov is at his best when he’s engaged and moving without the puck. Opponents marvel at how deceptive he is, how he tends to get lost in the offensive zone. Case in point was Kucherov’s first goal in Game 4 of the first-round series against the Devils. It was his best game of the playoffs. Watch as Kucherov darts around the net and then drives to the middle, fighting for space with Devils defenseman Damon Severson. Kucherov pounces on the loose puck and beats Cory Schneider. It’s on and off his stick in an instant.
Kucherov Game 4 Goal vs Devils
Now the Capitals did a great job of covering Kucherov and Stamkos even when they didn’t have the puck. Kucherov wasn’t getting the open ice he got in the playoff runs in 2014-15, when he was still somewhat of an unknown, and in 2015-16.
“The Capitals will beat Tampa’s skill,” one NHL analyst said.
But Kucherov and Stamkos also didn’t earn as much offensive zone time. They were out of sync, with sloppy passes not even giving them a chance to get going. Normally, they were so good at making those quick little passes to beat pressure. But this clip shows how much of a funk the dynamic duo was in.
Stammer/Kuch out of sync clip
Kucherov passes the puck behind a streaking Stamkos in the neutral zone, forcing him to stop, turn and retrieve the puck. Goodbye rush. Stamkos enters the zone and forces a short pass to a covered Ondrej Palat. They finally get the puck behind the net to Kucherov. Instead of being patient and letting the rest of the Lightning players get set up, Kucherov rushes a pass up the boards, with defenseman Anton Stralman not yet there. The puck clears the zone and Victor Hedman has to retreat back into the Lightning zone. Moments later, Capitals forward Andre Burakovsky gets freed on a breakaway.
Stamkos can be really dangerous when he’s getting up to full speed in open ice. You saw a few times early in the Capitals series where he’d drive between a couple Washington defenders to create a scoring chance.
Kucherov is also one of the best at shooting off the rush, once he creates space. But he never really seemed to get into second gear. There wasn’t enough north-south skating. Part of that is due to his puck management. He’d try to get too cute at times and stickhandle his way through traffic instead of skating.
In this sequence in Game 6, Kucherov gets the puck with plenty of speed, then tries to deke around defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who easily picks the Lightning wing and puts the puck back in Tampa Bay’s zone.
Kucherov failed deke
It was Stamkos’ signature playoff moment, arguably the biggest goal of his career.
When Stamkos ripped a one-timer from the top of the circle in the third period of Game 4 against Boston, it forced overtime, sparking a series-changing 3-2 victory. Tampa Bay went up 3-1 and took the series in five.
Stamkos Game 4 Goal vs Boston
Both Stamkos and Kucherov have the type of elite shots where they sometimes can beat any goalie, from anywhere. But there wasn’t enough of that assertiveness, aggressiveness by the two in the Capitals series. They combined for just 10 shots in the final three games of the series.
When Stamkos and Kucherov are together, they can have special chemistry, as shown in the regular season. But Stamkos often deferred too much to Kucherov, the two seemingly trying to make the extra, unnecessary pass. Take this play from early in Game 6. The game was still scoreless. Stamkos got freed on the right side for a 3-on-2 rush, with Alex Killorn in the middle and Kucherov on the flank.
Bad 3v2
Stamkos was given the shot from the right circle, a wide-open look at goalie Braden Holtby. One rocket shot and it’s 1-0 Tampa Bay. Instead, Stamkos tries to force a cross-zone pass through two Capitals defenders to Kucherov. The pass is broken up, and there goes the scoring chance. It was also the end of a long shift, and Kucherov got stuck out there. Tampa Bay got pinned in their own end for 30 seconds.
So it’s not just Stamkos and Kucherov not scoring, it’s affecting everyone.
Coach Jon Cooper broke the two up during Game 6, reuniting them for the start of Game 7, along with Alex Killorn, hoping they’d do what they do best: skating and shooting pucks.
“When they’re on it, sometimes the scorers, they try and find open ice, that’s why they’re good at it,” Cooper said. “But when you get in some of these series, there’s not as much open ice. You’ve got to go to those dirty areas. When they’re on it, they’re shooting pucks. And shot volume becomes a factor.”
Both Stamkos and Kucherov said health wasn’t an issue for them in the playoffs. The good news for Stamkos is that his surgically-repaired right knee held up well over a full season and playoffs, and the captain hopes a full summer of training can have him even better next season.
Kucherov is headed back home to Russia for 10 days to see his family, but plans to return to Tampa for a summer of workouts. Milstein pointed out that Kucherov is taking off roughly half as much time as last year.
“So hopefully he’ll be twice as good,” Milstein said.
That’ll be good for Kucherov’s pocketbook, and the Lightning, which need their superstar players in Kucherov and Stamkos to deliver if they want to lift that elusive Stanley Cup. When asked what he plans to work on this offseason, Kucherov smiled.
“Score more goals,” Kucherov said. “When Game 7 happens next year, I need to score a goal and make sure we win. That’s it.”
