The Tampa Bay Lightning closed its 2013 preseason in uninspiring fashion on Saturday night against the Florida Panthers. A shaky performance from Anders Lindback and an effort that failed to generate much offense combined to seal the deal on a 5-3 loss. The disheartening defeat moved the Lightning’s exhibition record to 5-2-0, with three of the victories coming in either overtime or a shootout.

Just like it did on so many occasions last season, the second period really hurt the Lightning on Saturday night. After opening the game and building up a two goal lead, the Lightning simply didn’t do enough to knock the Panthers into submission. As the boxscore shows, the Cats fought back and outplayed the Lightning through the final forty minutes of play.

The Lightning received offensive contributions from likely sources on Saturday, with Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, and Brett Connolly all notching tallies. Despite the fact that the Lightning’s performance left a lot of questions unanswered, it is positive to see that the team’s dynamic duo is in midseason form.

It was Stamkos who opened the scoring just over three minutes into the first frame when he tipped a Martin St. Louis feed past Tim Thomas, the Panthers’ new number one goaltender. Jonathan Drouin, who is still fighting for a roster spot, was credited with the second assist.

After taking a feed from Radko Gudas, Brett Connolly fired the puck past Thomas to double the Lightning lead with his fourth goal of the preseason. As stated in yesterday’s roundtable post, Connolly has done everything asked of him and more. On nearly any other National Hockey League team, the young forward would be a lock for an opening night spot. However, with the glut of forward talent that exists within the Lightning system, there are many who believe that the team will be forced to send Connolly back to Syracuse. This blogger thinks that would be a mistake.

Training camps and preseasons exist so that players can earn roster spots. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the hockey world who doesn’t believe that Brett Connolly has done exactly that. While Richard Panik, Ondrej Palat, and Tyler Johnson may share chemistry and Jonathan Drouin may carry name weight, the fact remains that Brett Connolly has been the team’s most impressive prospect throughout camp.

The Panthers scored three unanswered goals before Martin St. Louis tied the game at three just two minutes into the third period. Unfortunately for the Lightning, Kris Versteeg stepped up in a big way for the Panthers and scored two final frame goals (one into an empty net) to win the game for his club.

While the score was unflattering for the Lightning, there were some positives that came out of Saturday’s performance. As mentioned, the Lightning got production from its two big guns. That, while expected, is so important. Another positive is the fact that Valtteri Filppula had yet another impressive night in the faceoff circle; he won 74% of his draws. For a team that has struggled on the dot for the last couple years, the addition of Filppula could be huge. The positives may not amount to much, but they’re enough to keep this fan coming back for more.

Last night’s game gave certain Lightning players one final opportunity to show off their skills and attempt to win over Jon Cooper and the team’s coaching staff. As Cooper said after the game, some guys made certain roster decisions easier with their performances last night; others made things even more difficult. The reality is that the Lightning has more NHL ready forwards than it has spots on the roster. Tomorrow’s final round of cuts is going to leave a number of players heartbroken.

Does Jonathan Drouin make the Lightning? Does Brett Connolly stick? Does the Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Richard Panik line make its way onto the opening night lineup sheet? These are all questions that will be answered today. Sleep well, Bolts Nation.

As always, thanks for reading.

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