What to look for in Tampa Bay Lightning preseason Game No. 5

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

SUNRISE – Tampa Bay returns to the ice in preseason action on Tuesday at BB&T Center against Florida with the final roster decisions looming before facing the Florida Panthers in the regular season opener on Oct. 6.

The team pared the roster down to 26 players, so the lineup for the final three games will start to give a glimpse in to what might be on the horizon not only for the final roster spots but the line combinations and defensive pairings as well.

So with that in mind, a quick look at what to look for tonight as Tampa Bay faces Florida for the first of two preseason games at BB&T this week.

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ANTON STRALMAN DEBUTS: Veteran defenseman Anton Stralman has missed all of the preseason to this point while dealing with a nagging injury that cropped up on him at the start of training camp. He was held out of practices for the first week and only returned to the ice as a full participant with the team on Friday. Now he’ll get his first action and is expected to be paired alongside Mikhail Sergachev for Tuesday’s game. Stralman said on Monday he feels rested and is to the point that whatever he was dealing with will be fine, though it will have to be managed properly moving forward. He hopes to be able to get in at least two of the final three games.

VOLKOV GETS ANOTHER LOOK: Rookie RW Alexander Volkov, the team’s second round pick in 2017, is the surprise of camp to this point. Not only is he still around following Monday’s big day of cuts, Volkov is going to get a look on a top line in tonight’s game as he took morning line rushes with Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. After an impressive showing in his first two preseason games – he scored twice in Sunday’s game against Florida – he’ll get a shot to play with top players to see how he handles it as the team is taking a long look at the young Russian forward.

“You have to see if he can play with these guys,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said following Tuesday’s morning skate. “But you have to look at the big picture, as well, he’s more than earned his right to be with this team right now. You keep putting him to these games and see how it goes. He’s a little bit of an unknown to us just in the sense that he was recently drafted and hasn’t come through our system and we haven’t got to see a whole ton of him, but what we have seen we’ve really liked.”

POINT TAKEN: Brayden Point was the surprise of training camp last year but this year he’s an established member of the team, even if his goal coming in to camp is to just make the team. Not only is he a lock to make the team, he’s vying for a top-six role as he’ll skate alongside Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov for the second this preseason. After starting camp at right wing with Johnson and Palat, Point is getting a look at left wing to see if he can thrive in that role, just as he has with every role he’s been given to this point in his brief career.

“We are going to give this another look,” Cooper said of putting Point on the line with Stamkos and Kucherov. “The one thing about Pointer is he is a puck hound. You have a couple of skilled scorers on that line and we have somebody that can go in there and get those guys pucks. So we are going to see if that combination works. Pointer can erase a lot of mistakes made by anybody on the ice out there because of his quickness and tenacity. We want the puck on Stamkos’ stick, we want the puck on Kucherov’s stick and we need guys who can get it. We’ll see if Pointer is one of those guys.”

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