By Michael Wax
In their first game with mostly starters, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Florida Panthers 3-1 in Sunrise. It was a solid game all around, with the defense looking much better than it did in their previous outing and the Lightning getting goals from guys really trying to cement the roster spots.
Here are three things we learned from the win.
G Thang
In the final game of the Rookie Showcase, the Lightning had five goal scores, all with the last name G. Heading into this game, there was a similar roster makeup, as many of those guys were fighting for their roster spot. The G’s showed up and showed out again, helping the Lightning get their first road win of the preseason.
The 3G line of Gauthier, Geekie, and Goncalves were tasked with a defensive shift in the middle of the second period but quickly found themselves in a two-on-one after a brilliant stretch pass from Gauthier. As Geekie made his way down the right side, he let off an initial shot that was stopped by Sergei Bobrovsky before Gage Goncalves deposited the rebound to double the lead.
Maxim Groshev, who was flying around in this game and making his presence known in all three areas of the ice, was rewarded with the empty-net goal and assisted by fellow Russian Nikita Kucherov.
Slow But Steady
Maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to judge goaltenders off of one bad performance.
Over the past two games, Jonas Johansson has been spectacular, even if the numbers don’t back it up from the Nashville game. He was the best player on the ice in that game, and he did more than enough to make sure that the Lightning won in this game.
Early in the second period, when Florida was pushing back in easily their best stretch of the game, Johannson remained steady in net. The only blemish on his performance came on the penalty kill as well, meaning that he stopped every shot he faced at 5-on-5.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Lightning deploy their veteran backup, who seems to be stronger as he gets into more games, but really struggled after Andrei Vasilevskiy came back, and only played in seven games over 10 months before this preseason.
Man Disadvantaged
Much like with the penalty kill in the 8-7 game vs. Florida last week, you could chuck this up to this being a one. Specifically because many of the players on the power-play hadn’t been used to this new set up in game action.
Still, the bolt went over four on the power-play in this one (0/3 if you take away the 16 seconds at the end of the game), and it just didn’t look very crisp. Makes sense for a unit that has been so accustomed to having Steven Stamkos on the left side for over a decade and a half before this year.
Again, the Lightning should be able to figure this out before the preseason ends. But for a first showing, you would’ve liked to see a little bit more.
The Bolts return home to AMALIE Arena on Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 7 ET to take on the Florida Panthers.
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