By Michael Wax
The Lightning won a crazy 8-7 game against the Florida Panthers in the second half of their back-to-back to kick off the preseason. Despite a tough night for the penalty kill and goaltender Jonas Johansson, a great offensive performance from Darren Raddysh and a game-winner from Conor Geekie gave the Bolts an improbable win.
Here are five things we learned from the win.
Bro… Dureau
After an excellent Rookie Showcase, the 23-year-old Jaydon Dureau turned heads in his first period of preseason hockey.
Playing on familiar ice (70 games for Orlando over two seasons), Dureau set up two goals for the Lightning in their first-period comeback.
Dureau’s first helper came on a scramble, a play where he was the last person to touch the puck before it came out to a wide-open Darren Raddysh in the slot, and Raddysh made no mistake.
Dureau would help tie the game with less than 30 seconds to play in the first period, sending a backhanded feed to Tobie Paquette-Bisson, who fired it into the net to tie the game.
While Dureau faces an uphill battle to eventually make the main roster, his performance over the past couple of weeks has made it clear that he has the skills to be a Syracuse mainstay this upcoming season.
Bald Eagle
With the subtraction of Mikhail Sergachev this off-season, the need for a second offensive defenseman is certainly at the forefront for the Lightning heading into the start of this season. Instead of going out and getting one, the Lightning are banking on an increase in production from Darren Raddysh, who spent much of last season in an audition for that role while Sergachev was hurt. He started this second preseason game off, continuing to show his offensive output.
In the first, Raddysh pinched towards the middle of the ice at a bouncing puck, corralled it, and fired it over the shoulder of the Florida netminder to get the Lightning back within one:
His second goal would come on the power play, quarterbacking the main advantage very similarly to how he did with both power-play units last year. Raddysh took a bank pass off the boards from Conor Geekie and absolutely rifled a puck into the net for the Lightning’s first lead of the game:
As the Bolts try to find the right pairings going into the season, Raddysh will undoubtedly have an increase in offensive responsibility while others take on a more defensive role. After 33 points last season, the Lightning can probably expect an increase from the second full year of Raddysh.
Geeked Out
"Not everyone gets the opportunity to even be here and try and make the squad. I'm just gonna try and make the decision as hard as possible and play my game." - Conor Geekie on August 16 after the Rookie Showcase.
In Conor Geekie’s first preseason game in a Lightning uniform, he showed up and showed out.
Geekie started with his power-play assist on Darren Raddysh’s second goal of the game, making a simple drop back pass right into the wheelhouse of the defenseman.
Geekie would then show up on the other side of special teams by winning the face-off and being in the right place at the right time to take the puck away from the Panthers goaltender and wrap it around into the open cage to give the Lightning the lead.
His Mona Lisa would come on the power play with less than 10 seconds to go, going coast-to-coast after a failed drop back pass and sliding the puck underneath the pad of Ken Appleby to win the game with less than three seconds to go.
He certainly has the skills and the effort to be challenging for the open forward, roster spots, and this game was a perfect first step towards that direction.
PK, but not Paul Kennedy
After a solid enough performance on the penalty last night, the Lightning‘s PK went off a cliff in this one.
The Lightning visited the penalty box 4 times during the game, a low number, considering the amount of goals that were scored, but saw three power play goals against them.
Even with a shorthanded goal from Conor Geekie, the Lightning were unable to kill that penalty off and subsequently gave it right back to the Panthers.
As with most things in this high scoring game, this is probably just a blip in the radar. There were a lot of players that typically wouldn’t be on the penalty kill, it just was a very noticeable number after a shocking performance.
JoJo, Bro...
At some point, the Lightning are probably going to have a conversation about Jonas Johansson.
The back of netminder to Vasilevskiy gave up seven goals in this one, still getting the win after the Lightning put together an incredible comeback performance. This came with the fifth and sixth goals being sub-NHL caliber shots being let in after poor positioning.
That seems to be a theme for Johansson, who, after the return of Vasilevskiy from his surgery last season, put up less than favorable numbers.
It’s just the first game of the preseason, and Johansson has plenty of time to turn things around before the regular season starts. However, coupled with the numbers last season, this first preseason performance really shine the light on what could be a glaring issue for the Lightning heading into the season.
The Bolts will have an off day tomorrow before their second preseason back-to-back, starting at home against the Nashville Predators on Friday, Sep. 27 at 7 ET.
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