More positives to be found for Lightning despite latest preseason setback

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
September 28, 2017

SUNRISE – Preseason results can prove to be about as helpful as a screwdriver to pound in a nail.

They don’t really tell the story.

Thursday’s preseason loss to the Florida Panthers looks lopsided as the Lightning lost the game 5-2. On the surface, it’s not good.

But let’s pull out our shovel and dig a little deeper than that. Because this was probably Tampa Bay’s best game of the preseason with plenty to build off of heading in to Saturday’s preseason finale at Nashville.

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First, let’s preface this by saying that Florida’s lineup on Thursday was a far cry from where it was on Tuesday and what it will be when the two teams face off with back-to-back games to start the season beginning on Oct. 6. Aaron Ekblad, Alexsander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Evgeni Dadanov and Roberto Luango were all given the night off by the Panthers while Tampa Bay had a good percentage of its opening night lineup on the ice.

But regardless of who was on the other side of the ice, the Lightning needed to be better than they were in the previous game when there was no flow, not a high enough compete level and sloppy play with the puck.

Those areas needed to be addressed, and for the most part, they were on Thursday.

For stretches, Tampa Bay controlled the play by establishing a forecheck, something that was almost non-existent on Tuesday. At one point, all four lines had the Panthers hemmed in and the Lightning were buzzing in the offensive zone creating scoring chances.

”We had some good looks and we did somethings and you can sit here and say we hit some posts and missed some nets,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Ultimately it’s the consistency of our play and for some parts of it we were consistent. Our effort level is there, which is good, but we just have to keep trying to get our system down.

“We didn’t get the results we like tonight, but there were some good things that came out of this and we’ll just build on that.’’

Perhaps the brightest spot was the line of Steven Stamkos with Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov, who were so good together before Stamkos suffered a knee injury last season, were reunited for the first time this preseason and looked like they didn’t miss a beat. All three were at or above the 20-minute mark and combined for nine shots on goal and 18 shot attempts.

The power play also continues to build up as the main components were all in the lineup together while Kucherov and Stamkos were together on the top unit with Victor Hedman running the point, a unit that provided the first goal of the game as Alex Killorn found a soft spot in the low slot to shovel in a pass from Kucherov.

”I think our power play looked the best it’s looked all preseason,’’ Cooper said. “We had some good looks so that part of our game I was pleasantly surprised with.’’

Overall, Tampa Bay looked a lot crisper in their passing – but the timing is still not all the way there as several passes failed to stick to the tape and bounced off resulting in lost possession – which allowed that flow which was missing on Tuesday to return. The Lightning looked like a team that used its speed to get through the middle areas of the ice, which resulted in the puck possession game they want to be able to play and equated to 36 shots on goal, which were a lot more balanced compared to Tuesday when they finished with 40, most of those coming later in the game.

”We probably created a few more chances and had the puck a little more and had a little more flow in our game maybe,’’ said defenseman Anton Stralman, playing his second consecutive game in preseason. “But I still think we make it hard on ourselves, trying to do a little extra when it’s not the right time and that hurts.’’

Certainly it’s not all rosy, how can it be when you give up five goals in a game – even if one was an empty netter – as there continues to be areas that Tampa Bay needs to clean up. There were two breakaways after missed assignments – the first when a puck was chipped past a pinching Dan Girardi that sent in Radim Vrbata alone after he collected the puck along the boards, the second when Jared McCann split the seam in the neutral zone and beat Peter Budaj to finish off a hat trick.

And as any coach would do, those plays were the point of emphasis that Cooper pointed to after the game before reluctantly mentioning some of the positives that came out of the game.

”We still gave up five goals so I don’t know how you can feel better,’’ he said. “We are still struggling to score, but you can struggle to score and still win games, but you can’t give ‘em up like we’re giving ‘em up and still expect to win games.’’

But let’s not let the coach be too much of a buzz kill following the game, which dropped Tampa Bay to 2-4 in the preseason and 0-3 to the Panthers. There were plenty of things to like in this latest game.

”The intensity was there, I think we battled hard for all three periods,’’ defenseman Victor Hedman said. “We had some bad breaks, but I think there were plenty of positive signs. We score a power play goal, the PK was good. So we need to clean up a few things and we’ll go from there.’’

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