Louis Domingue Jersey Card

I must say I wasn't impressed at all with the way the Tampa Bay Lightning handled the Louis Domingue situation that got progressively worse from the summer until now. By all accounts, he handled it like a pro, but we're talking about a guy who did his job well enough to suit up in 26 games (a decent number for a backup, a very good one for a backup playing behind one of the five best goalies in the league in Andrei Vasilevskiy), who won ten straight games last year while Vasi dealt with small injuries, and helped propel the Bolts to one of the best regular seasons of all time.

And yet on July 1st, Tampa not only signed the best free agent backup (Curtis McElhinney) but also Mike Condon, for some reason, and Scott Wedgewood, ensuring not only a logjam at the top level but also one in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch.

To put it in real estate terms, the Lightning had a mansion (Vasilevskiy) and wanted to buy a weekend country cottage for half a million; they had a million in their pocket (Domingue), went to the bank to borrow two million (McElhinney), then went to a low-level financial institution to borrow $250K (Condon) and a shylock for another $100K (Wedgewood).

In police terms, they used excessive force.

Then they further screwed their team chemistry by signing Brayden Point to a deal that will end up paying him more than captain Steven Stamkos and Art Ross winner Nikita Kucherov when he re-ups in three years - with Kucherov having three years remaining on his deal and Stamkos two at that point.

It's no wonder they're currently sixth in the Atlantic Division with 14 points in 13 games (6-5-2 record) and look like a team waiting for a shakeup.

And it's going to take more than today's trade - Domingue to the New Jersey Devils for a conditional seventh-round pick - to accomplish that.

For his part, Domingue will start with the Devils' AHL affiliate Binghamton Devils, but with Cory Schneider (0-3-1, 4.71 GAA and .847 save percentage) and - to a lesser extent - Mackenzie Blackwood (2-2-2, 3.31 GAA and .871 save percentage) both struggling in net, Domingue might actually become the spark that ignites a decent run to inspire confidence in that locker room when given a chance.

Here he is wearing the Arizona Coyotes' white (away) uniform on card #GJ-DO from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a matching (white) game-worn jersey swatch.