By Michael Wax
The Tampa Bay Lightning opened up their season with a 7-4 loss against the Carolina Hurricanes in game one of the 2024 Rookie Showcase.
It was a bit of a up and down, riding the wave a little," said assistant coach JD Forrest. "First game a long time for guys, some jitters early. We found our game midway through that first period, did a lot of good things, and then they pushed back, got a goal there, tied it up, and just weren't able to hang on."
Even though the results weren’t on the score sheet, the Lightning had a lot of positive moments to take away from this game. Jaydon Dureau, Max Groshev, Lucas Edmonds, and Ethan Hay all got on the board for the Bolts, who came back from 3-1 down to take a 4-3 lead into the third period.
"It's a young group, and first time playing together with everyone, we're all trying to find that chemistry together," said Jaydon Dureau. "But I thought we stuck with it for a while there. And I think Coach settled us in there in the second period time out. I thought we started to find our boots better there."
Here are three things that we learned from game one:
Conor Geekie is the Truth
When the Lightning traded Mikhail Sergachev to Utah this offseason, many looked at the return package as fair and highlighted Conor Geekie as a reason why. Through just one game, it's evident why the former 12th-overall pick was highly sought out.
Geekie had a plethora of chances, which started off on an excellent chance in the first, where he deked around Charles-Alexis Legault and got a clean shot on goal that was stopped.
All in all, Geekie provided a great linemate to Dylan Duke and Ethan Gauthier, a line that we could see in the AHL if Geekie doesn’t crack the roster.
Eddy Remains Steady
After an admittedly down year last year with the Crunch, Lucas Edmonds finds himself as one of the older prospects at the rookie showcase. With age comes experience, and Edmonds did his job, providing an assist and the game-tying goal as one of the leaders on the team. As leader, Edmonds knew the right message for the team:
I think the biggest thing would probably be just go and have fun," said Edmonds. I mean, it's pretty cliche to say, but it's a really awesome opportunity for a lot of guys to be here and kind of experience that at the pro level and kind of live a little bit of that lifestyle. So just trying to make the most of it."
With the Lightning down 3-1, Edmunds eventually used his forecheck to find the puck in the offensive zone. Without much thought, he saw a wide-open Max Groshev in the slot, and Groshev did the rest to bring the Lightning within one.
"I just kind of got in there, picked up the puck in the slot, and got him for a one-timer," said Edmonds. He was able to put him in, so I was happy about that."
On his goal, Edmonds got to the front of the net and got perfect positioning against his defender, tipping home a long-range shot from Jan Golicic to tie the game at three.
"I think that's kind of always been one of my strong suits," said Edmonds. "I played baseball a lot as a kid, so I think that kind of helped."
The Lightning are going to need Edmonds to take a step this year, whether that’s with the crunch or potentially making the big club at some point during the season. He’s an important cog in their prospect machine.
Maybe the Goaltending is Alright
There were (and still are, frankly) justifiable concerns about the Lightning's goaltending depth. As we saw last season, two big injuries can lead to your AHL starter book-ending the season for the team. Hugo Alnefelt got outplayed by both Matt Tomkins and Brandon Halverson in 2023-24, and subsequently signed overseas. The Lightning did draft goaltender Harrison Meneghin in the 7th round this past draft, but his counterpart stole the show in game one.
Ryan Fanti isn't necessarily a "prospect" anymore (24-year-old, 51 games in the ECHL over two seasons), but he sure played like a pro in his first game in Bolts' blue. Fanti played all 60 minutes, uncommon for a rookie in the showcase, and made 28 saves on 33 shots.
He was the reason why we were able to fight back and claw back and get a lead there, because we were on our heels for a while," said assistant coach JD Forrest. "They were pushing. And we didn't really have an answer, but he was there to help us out. Give us some time to gather ourselves and make a push."
While that doesn’t read well, he was easily the reason that the Lightning were in this game overall after a tough defensive performance.
He played a great game, said Edmonds. "We kind of hung him out to dry in a few instances there. So I think the biggest thing is just limiting our turnovers; trying to play a little quicker from our own zone."
The Lightning continue their 2024 Rookie Showcase tomorrow against the Nashville Predators at 6 EST.
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