{"id":542152,"date":"2026-04-05T14:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542152\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:21:14","slug":"tampa-bay-lightning-salute-unlikely-stars-franchise-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542152\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning salute unlikely star\u2019s franchise record"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, April 4, the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> clinched an NHL<\/a> playoff berth for the ninth consecutive season.<\/p>\n

Because of the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 loss earlier in the day, Tampa Bay knew it was in the postseason before taking the ice against the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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But that didn\u2019t prevent the Lightning from making history of another type during the 3-1 victory.<\/p>\n

Late in the third period, undrafted free agent Darren Raddysh knocked the game-winning goal through the underarm of Boston goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman.<\/p>\n

MORE: Buffalo Sabres\u2019 turnaround ends NHL\u2019s longest playoff drought<\/a><\/p>\n

That shot sent the Lightning into sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division. Also, it set a franchise record for Raddysh. His 21st goal of the season lifted him past current captain Victor Hedman and former player Dan Boyle for most goals ever by a Tampa Bay defenseman.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the franchise celebrated<\/a> the accomplishment on X.<\/p>\n

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Overall, it is fair to characterize the 30-year-old Raddysh an unlikely team record-holder. To illustrate, entering the 2025-26 campaign, Raddysh owned career totals of 13 goals and 73 points in 176 games. In 69 games this year, Raddysh collected the 21 goals and 67 points.<\/p>\n

Nearing the end of a two-year, $1.95 million contract<\/a>, Raddysh has yet to earn $1 million in a season. Undoubtedly that will change this offseason when Raddysh becomes an unrestricted free agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fortunate to play with a lot of good players and be put in this position,\u201d Raddysh said, per NHL.com<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bleacher Report Open Ice shared video of Saturday\u2019s goal while commenting on Raddysh\u2019s shocking rise.<\/p>\n

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Raddysh, who boasts a powerful slap shot, emerged amid early-season injuries to veteran Tampa Bay defensemen Hedman, Erik Cernak and Ryan McDonagh. Raddysh paired with J.J. Moser on the top line and earned a spot on the top power-play unit. When the veterans returned to action, Raddysh retained his prominent position.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 3 in a 7-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks, Raddysh became the third Tampa Bay defenseman to record a hat trick.<\/p>\n

The Lightning lead the Buffalo Sabres by two points for the Atlantic Division lead. The teams square off at 7 p.m. ET Monday, April 6, in Buffalo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, April 4, the Tampa Bay Lightning clinched an NHL playoff berth for the ninth consecutive season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[95,229,16855,2580,93,2312,5,6714,156,189,4,4085,168,540,92,5168,5167,1498],"class_list":{"0":"post-542152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-dan-boyle","11":"tag-darren-raddysh","12":"tag-detroit-red-wings","13":"tag-erik-cernak","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-j-j-moser","16":"tag-jeremy-swayman","17":"tag-lightning","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-ryan-mcdonagh","20":"tag-san-jose-sharks","21":"tag-tampa-bay","22":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","23":"tag-tampabay","24":"tag-tampabaylightning","25":"tag-victor-hedman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116352547820135660","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}