The Tampa Bay Lightning closed their preseason tonight with a 4-1 victory over the Florida Panthers. Buoyed by some stellar goaltending from Ben Bishop, the Bolts were able to thwart off a Florida team that wasn’t afraid to throw the puck on net; Tampa’s state rivals fired a whopping 37 shots (!) on goal. The win moved the team’s preseason record to a shining 5-1-0.
While they did eventually grab the “W,… things didn’t start out overly well for the Lightning. With Brett Connolly in the box for tripping, Aleksander Barkov tipped the puck home with help from Brian Campbell and Dmitry Kulikov. That marker, which made it 1-0 at 3:21 of the opening frame, was the Panthers’s first and only of the evening.
It was Nikita Kucherov who got the scoring party started for the Lightning. The electric Russian’s league-leading sixth (!) goal of the preseason, an unassisted tally, knotted things up at one. As noted in my pre-game blog, it’s impossible to argue or ignore the results from Kucherov here in the exhibition season. He’s not only potting goals at a torrid pace; he’s playing smart hockey too.
Cooper said that Kucherov is night-and-day better defensively when compared to last season. #TBLightning
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) October 5, 2014The Lightning took the lead they wouldn’t relinquish about five minutes after Kucherov scored, when Steven Stamkos slapped the puck home on a power-play. That goal, assisted by Victor Hedman and Ryan Callahan, was a vintage Stamkos bomb. As Jon Cooper noted in his post-game comments, the man-advantage unit looked good.
More from Cooper: "Tonight was the best we’ve been on the power play in a while." #TBLightning
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) October 5, 2014That Stamkos goal was all the Lightning would need to seal the deal on their victory. J.T. Brown added a late first period goal, with help from Brian Boyle, to make it 3-1. And Anton Stralman followed that up with an early second period marker, assisted by Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn.
The bottom line? It all added up to a 4-1 win for the good guys. The preseason is fairly meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but winning games is always better than losing them. The Lightning have to be incredibly happy with the way their exhibition season played out.
Moving away from the boxscore-like recap, here are some observations and tweets from the game:
1. Ryan Callahan, Anton Stralman, and Brian Boyle all helped out in the offensive department again tonight. Each represents a fairly significant addition for Lightning GM Steve Yzerman. To see them getting in on the action is a positive for the team.
2. The hockey world should probably take note. Steven Stamkos is feeling good and looks ready to dominate the league once again. After breaking his leg early last year, Stamkos is finally getting that explosiveness back in his skating. It’s abundantly clear that he’s feeling better about his own game now than he did at the end of last year.
#tblightning @RealStamkos91 said tonight was the best he's felt in the preseason, had a few chances, glad one went in
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) October 5, 2014Kucherov and Namestnikov continues to look good tonight; Could that chemistry help Vlad make team, like Panik-Johnson-Palat last year?
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) October 5, 20144. And there’s another young player to keep in mind, in case you’ve forgotten…
According to Steve Yzerman, X-rays on Jonathan Drouin show the healing process is continuing as planned
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) October 5, 2014Cooper said the earliest final roster decisions will be made is Monday, and those who must clear waivers need to be on wire by Monday @ noon
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) October 5, 2014--
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.