The Tampa Bay Lightning will dress a very young lineup tonight as they take to the ice for a preseason tilt against the St. Louis Blues. Tonight’s contest marks the first of four straight preseason matches for the Lightning.

While a number of teams around the National Hockey League have already banked some exhibition game time, Jon Cooper’s Lightning have done nothing but practice. That being said, with so many young guns fighting for spots and scheduled to dress tonight, rust shouldn’t be all that much of an issue.

The Blues, on the other hand, opened their preseason on Sunday against the Dallas Stars. Thanks in part to two goals from Maxim Lapierre, the Blues ended up grabbing a 6-5 shootout victory. Jake Allen, who will sit tonight in favor of Brian Elliott and Jordan Binnington, got credit for the win.

Tonight’s contest will give Lightning faithful a chance to see some of the team’s up-and-coming young stars, new faces, and old favorites. The Lightning’s top line this evening features newcomer Valtteri Filppula in between Teddy Purcell and Alex Killorn. Based on observations from training camp, it seems like that trio could form the Lightning’s second line on opening night.

Interestingly, Cooper's lineup (shown below) features a number of other combinations that could find their way onto the Lightning's regular season roster:

Alex Killorn-Valtteri Filppula-Teddy Purcell
Dana Tyrell-Nate Thompson-B.J. Crombeen
Henri Ikonen-Mike Angelidis-Tom Pyatt
J.T. Brown-Cedric Paquette-Adam Erne

Matt Carle-Radko Gudas
Slater Koekkoek-Mark Barberio
Dmitry Korobov-Nikita Nesterov

Cedrick Desjardins
Kristers Gudlevskis

For his part, Ken Hitchcock will send out veterans Derek Roy, Chris Stewart, Ryan Whitney and Jordan Leopold, among others, to complement a young roster that is sure to impress. While neither the Lightning nor the Blues is icing anything close to an NHL-ready roster, tonight’s contest should give both organizations a chance to evaluate some young talent.

Enjoy tonight’s action, Bolts Nation! As always, thanks for reading.

(Apologies for the delay and brevity. Meetings ran longer than anticipated today.)

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