Everything you need to know from Monday’s practice: Cuts, line combos plus Dotchin/Stralman update

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
September 25, 2017

BRANDON – Monday proved moving day for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Plenty of players moved out before the team headed out of town for six days in order to prepare for the season opener on Oct. 6 against the Florida Panthers. Cuts were made as the roster was pared down to 30 (unofficially they are at 26) and the time to start final preparations for opening night are underway.

So here’s the ins and outs of what you need to know from practice at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon.

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First, let’s get to the cuts that were announced as the team took to the ice.

Brett Howden, the team’s first round pick in 2016, was reassigned to Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League where he will get ready for a big season in which he will be captain of the Warriors and is expected to be a big part of Team Canada for the World Junior Championships that start in December. Howden had a decent camp, but didn’t stand out, getting in a pair of preseason games before heading out of camp. He was the last junior eligible player not named Mikhail Sergachev in camp.

Tampa Bay also assigned 11 players to Syracuse, which opens camp on Tuesday at War Memorial. Those who were sent back: Matt Peca, Adam Erne, Anthony Cirelli, Tye McGinn (who was placed on waivers and will clear on Tuesday) Mitchell Stephens and Dennis Yan among the forwards. Defensemen who were reassigned to the Crunch were: Erik Cernak, Jamie McBain, Ben Thomas and Daniel Walcott

Though there are officially 30 players still on the active training camp roster, three of them are injured and unavailable: Erik Condra, Jonne Tammela and Dominik Masin while goaltender Nick Riopel is also still in camp, but did not participate in practice.

That leaves the following players still in camp: Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Vladislav Namestnikov, J.T. Brown, Ryan Callahan, Yanni Gourde, Chris Kunitz, Cedric Paquette, Cory Conacher, Michael Bournival, Gabriel Dumont and Alexander Volkov at forward. At defense: Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman, Braydon Coburn, Dan Girardi, Andrej Sustr, Slater Koekkoek, Jake Dotchin and Mikhail Sergachev. And of course the goalies remaining are Andrei Vasilevskiy and Peter Budaj.

And since we are now down to getting close to what the final roster will look like, we can now start to read a little more in to what line combinations might be (I even asked head coach Jon Cooper if it was time for us to start reading in to what we see on the ice in to practice, so here we go). This is how the forwards were grouped together for Monday’s practice with four groups of four: Killorn-Point-Stamkos-Kucherov; Gourde-Dumont-Bournival-Conacher; Brown-Johnson-Palat-Volkov; Kunitz-Vladdy-Callahan-Paquette.

DOTCHIN SUSPENDED? As mentioned following Sunday’s preseason game, Jake Dotchin has not played a preseason game due to the fact that he violated a team rule and is being held out as a form of discipline, according to a team spokesperson. It’s unclear of the infraction Dotchin committed or when he will have the chance to see some preseason action.

”I want to be out there, obviously, but it’s an internal issue and when Coop tells me he wants me in the lineup, I’ll be ready to go,’’ Dotchin said following practice on Monday.

Entering his first training camp with a somewhat established role, Dotchin said he’s disappointed in himself knowing he’s battling for regular role in the lineup.

”Obviously it’s hurting me, I want to be in there every night,’’ he said. “I’m doing what I can now, I’m working hard in practice and when I get the chance to go, I’ll be ready to go.’’

STRALMAN READY: Anton Stralman, who missed the first four preseason games while dealing with a nagging injury, said he’s ready to return and expects to be in the lineup for Tuesday’s preseason game at Florida.

”Every day it’s been getting better and I’m at the point where the injury feels good enough,’’ he said. “Now it’s about getting in to game shape, getting the timing and conditioning in and the best way to do that is to play games.’’

With only three games left in preseason, Stralman said he would like to play in at least two games to prepare for the start of the regular season.

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