GDT: 9/26/17 - 7:30PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Florida [Preseason Game 5]

[HoseEmDown]

Point is a center, he played his best at center last year and made the team last pre-season being a center, I'd argue he'd be more effective as a 3C than 2RW, what does it matter anyways? Cooper plays his 3C 15-18mins a night...it's not like he'd be lacking minutes.

With Stamkos hopefully healthy and Johnson as well, I can't see the 3C getting the the same minutes. The reason Filpulla or Boyle were getting those minutes too was because they were our best at faceoffs and we used them in a lot of our defensive situations, we don't want Point in those situations. He would get 16-18 in the top 6 with better offensive players to put up better numbers.

 

[These Are The Days]

Who has this amazing scouting staff of ours found? Palat is the only legitimate one I can think of. Kucherov was a top 10 talent but fell because he was Russian, Point was a 1st round talent who fell because of his size. They really haven't found a ton of gems and haven't done too hot with their early picks.

Not every draft pick needs to be Zetterberg and Datsyuk. The sheer quality of our prospect pool speaks for itself no matter where any of these players were drafted. And you know our pool as well as anyone, Hose and you should know it's somewhere in the top 5.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Not every draft pick needs to be Zetterberg and Datsyuk. The sheer quality of our prospect pool speaks for itself no matter where any of these players were drafted. And you know our pool as well as anyone, Hose and you should know it's somewhere in the top 5.

Yes our pool is great but that needs to start translating into the big club. still have some questions on if there's a top line or top pair player in the group.

 

[DFC]

Nooooooo! Good God man. I know I can be a little out there sometimes but I'm not insane. What I mean is that I was not surprised that this mystery man turned out to be a good player after all because our track record of drafting Russians has been outstanding for a few years now. Thus my comments about how if you're a good Russian we are going to take you and that if anyone was gonna shock the world, it might as well be a Russian player because we hit BIG on those guys. Because of that odds seem in favor of a Russian being the guy to make the team out of his draft year.

If Volkov makes the team I'm gonna fall out of my damn chair. I think James Wright was the last guy to make the Lightning out of his draft year back when Boucher was still coach.

Okay. Apologies for being snappy.

 

[DFC]

It's hard to gauge Volkov's chances right now. We've seen guys put up big pre-seasons before only to be surprisingly sent down (Connolly), and then last year we had Point defy all expectations and stick around.

I mean, it LOOKS like Volkov might fill a team need, which is a check in his favor. But he still was a complete unknown coming into this camp, so we're basing all this off limited viewings. I don't know that I'd call him a favorite to make the team, but it seems to at least be realistic that he does.

 

[CupsOverCash]

It's hard to gauge Volkov's chances right now. We've seen guys put up big pre-seasons before only to be surprisingly sent down (Connolly), and then last year we had Point defy all expectations and stick around.

I mean, it LOOKS like Volkov might fill a team need, which is a check in his favor. But he still was a complete unknown coming into this camp, so we're basing all this off limited viewings. I don't know that I'd call him a favorite to make the team, but it seems to at least be realistic that he does.

Will be interesting to see how he does playing with Palat and Johnson tonight. If he can keep up with them and make some plays it would be hard to keep him off the final roster.

 

[Sky04]

Do you think anyone will make the roster straight from camp this season?

That's a good question Rick, I think Claude Belioux has a good chance.

 

[DFC]

Will be interesting to see how he does playing with Palat and Johnson tonight. If he can keep up with them and make some plays it would be hard to keep him off the final roster.

That's what I'm hoping.

It might have been a bit of a mirage measuring him against AHLers last game (although he was taking a lot of NHL Panthers to task). Assuming our NHL squad does more than coast tonight, it should give us a more accurate sense of where Volkov's at.

I'd be excited to see him in Syracuse too. Lots of new faces there to be excited about.

 

[Bolt 45]

It's hard to gauge Volkov's chances right now. We've seen guys put up big pre-seasons before only to be surprisingly sent down (Connolly), and then last year we had Point defy all expectations and stick around.

I mean, it LOOKS like Volkov might fill a team need, which is a check in his favor. But he still was a complete unknown coming into this camp, so we're basing all this off limited viewings. I don't know that I'd call him a favorite to make the team, but it seems to at least be realistic that he does.

If he keeps playing like he did the the other night, he deserves a shot. The level of skill he displayed would seem to rule out it being an outlier type of performance. Tonight will be really interesting in the sense that the element of surprise is gone, as the Panthers know what to expect from him. I'm definitely pumped to see him with Palat and TJ.

 

[These Are The Days]

Okay. Apologies for being snappy.

You're fine. I don't always do the best job of explaining myself

 

[DFC]

If he keeps playing like he did the the other night, he deserves a shot. The level of skill he displayed would seem to rule out it being an outlier type of performance. Tonight will be really interesting in the sense that the element of surprise is gone, as the Panthers know what to expect from him. I'm definitely pumped to see him with Palat and TJ.

Yeah. That was the surprising thing. He didn't just put two goals. He made something happen just about every time he was on the ice, was constantly driving the net, and made a couple of Panthers look silly 1v1.

I still think, in all likelihood, we wind up calming down a little. Usually these guys can't maintain that level of play into the season if they're coming completely 100% out of the blue. But that "out of the blue" factor is also what makes it fun to follow Volkov.

I remember all the head-scratching we did after he was drafted.

 

[These Are The Days]

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
GDT

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs FLORIDA PANTHERS
* * * P R E S E A S O N - G A M E # 5 * * *

7:30 PM - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH 2017
BB&T CENTER - SUNRISE, FLORIDA

RADIO:
AM 970 WFLA > http://www.iheart.com/live/2823/?autoplay=true
Lightning Power Play > http://www.iheart.com/live/lightning-power-play-6683/

- STARTING LINEUPS -



21 BRAYDEN POINT - 91 STEVEN STAMKOS - 86 NIKITA KUCHEROV
79 ALEXANDER VOLKOV - 9 TYLER JOHNSON - 18 ONDREJ PALAT
14 CHRIS KUNITZ - 90 VLAD NAMESTNIKOV - 24 RYAN CALLAHAN
89 CORY CONACHER - 37 YANNI GOURDE - 13 CEDRIC PAQUETTE

98 MIKHAIL SERGACHEV - 6 ANTON STRALMAN
55 BRAYDON COBURN - 62 ANDREJ SUSTR
5 DAN GIRARDI - 29 SLATER KOEKKOEK

88 ANDREI VASILEVSKIY
31 PETER BUDAJ



.
.
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- PRESEASON STATS -

# | Pos | Player | GP | G | A | PTS
63|C|Matthew Peca|4|0|3|3
17|LW|Alex Killorn|2|0|3|3
79|LW|Alexander Volkov|2|2|0|2
73|LW|Adam Erne|3|2|0|2
89|LW|Cory Conacher|1|0|2|2
86|RW|Nikita Kucherov|1|1|1|2
91|C|Steven Stamkos|1|0|2|2
98|D|Mikhail Sergachev|3|1|0|1
41|LW|Boris Katchouk|2|1|0|1
44|LW|Tye McGinn|2|1|0|1
21|C|Brayden Point|2|0|1|1
23|RW|J.T. Brown|2|0|1|1
67|RW|Mitch Stephens|2|0|1|1
37|C|Yanni Gourde|1|1|0|1
24|RW|Ryan Callahan|1|0|1|1
18|LW|Ondrej Palat|1|0|1|1
71|C|Anthony Cirelli|3|0|1|1
40|C|Gabriel Dumont|3|0|1|1
77|D|Victor Hedman|2|1|0|1
90|C|Vladislav Namestnikov|2|0|0|0
52|D|Cal Foote|2|0|0|0
43|D|Libor Hajek|2|0|0|0
2|D|Jamie McBain|2|0|0|0
38|RW|Dennis Yan|1|0|0|0
62|D|Andrej Sustr|1|0|0|0
13|C|Cedric Paquette|2|0|0|0
29|D|Slater Koekkoek|2|0|0|0
81|D|Erik Cernak|2|0|0|0
56|D|Ben Thomas|2|0|0|0
5|D|Dan Girardi|1|0|0|0
55|D|Braydon Coburn|1|0|0|0
64|D|Matt Spencer|1|0|0|0
75|D|Daniel Walcott|2|0|0|0
36|C|Alexey Lipanov|1|0|0|0
46|RW|Taylor Raddysh|1|0|0|0
48|C|Brett Howden|2|0|0|0
7|C|Mathieu Joseph|2|0|0|0
9|C|Tyler Johnson|1|0|0|0
14|LW|Chris Kunitz|1|0|0|0
15|LW|Michael Bournival|1|0|0|0
76|D|Oleg Sosunov|1|0|0|0

# | Goalie | GP | W | L | SOL | SO | GAA | SV%
49|Michael Leighton|1 1/3|0|1|0|0|1.00|.917
88|Andrei Vasilevskiy|1|1|0|0|0|1.00|.967
31|Peter Budaj|1 1/3|0|1|0|0|1.00|.889

- PRESEASON SCHEDULE -

Date | Visitor | Home | Time (ET) | TV Network | Results
Tue Sep 19, 2017|Hurricanes| Lightning |7:30 PM|| 2-1 L
Wed Sep 20, 2017| Lightning |Hurricanes|7:00 PM|| 4-3 W
Fri Sep 22, 2017|Predators| Lightning |7:30 PM|| 1-3 W
Sun Sep 24, 2017|Panthers| Lightning |4:00 PM|| 4-2 L
Tue Sep 26, 2017| Lightning |Panthers|7:30 PM||
Thur Sep 28, 2017| Lightning |Panthers|7:30 PM||
Sat Sep 30, 2017| Lightning |Predators|7:00PM||

- QUOTES -

JON COOPER:
"The first game (Volkov) played, he scores two that don't count, but they're right around the net. That first one he got tonight, right around the net. The second one he got tonight, going to the net. I think probably in the end, that's what has drawn him to us. That's a good trait to have because that's kind of a trait you don't teach. You can tell guys all you want, 'Go to the net. Go to the net.' A lot of guys don't do it, and he's come in here a couple days and done that. So that's probably the impressive part about him."

"Most of those players, it was either their first or second pro game ever. And so I think nerves come into it. There were so many things that come into it. Every game we've played, we've gotten better as the game went on. We had a really young lineup in tonight. You can't really sit here and expect these guys for what they did in junior all of a sudden to come to a NHL preseason game and do the same thing. It's an entirely different league. You want to see improvement, and that's what we saw as the game went on. So, it was good."

LET'S GO BOLTS!​

Looking at the forward lineup, that might be the best possible roster of players we could possibly put out. All I'd do is switch Paquette for Killorn and keep J.T Brown as a spare for nights we scratch someone and send Paquette to the AHL. Maybe we can switch the combinations up a little bit but on paper that might just one of the deepest lineups we've put out over the years

 

[DFC]

Watching the D will be interesting too. Waiting for Sergachev or Koekkoek to pull ahead of the other. I'd say Serg is ahead right now, but probably not by enough to assure him a spot.

 

[These Are The Days]

Watching the D will be interesting too. Waiting for Sergachev or Koekkoek to pull ahead of the other. I'd say Serg is ahead right now, but probably not by enough to assure him a spot.

Indeed. They're definitely battling it out for that 7th spot. If Koekkoek happens to lose out then I think it's probably to go to the AHL while we get a preview of Sergachev and ultimately he'll go back down to the OHL and then Koekkoek comes back up. That would mean Koekkoek having to clear waivers but I don't think he's a huge risk to get claimed. No matter what happens keeping Sergachev is gonna come at a temporary cost to someone. It really would just be easier to outright send him back to the Windsor but then again that may not be the best choice.

I think tonight ultimately decides Sergachev's fate. No matter what he probably finishes the year in the OHL but where he starts the year probably depends on how he does tonight.

 

[Brie]

I doubt we'll get a stream but hopefully someone will let us know how they all look and maybe we'll get some videos tomorrow.

 

[Felonious Python]

 

[DFC]

Well that's disappointing...

Was looking forward to this one.

 

[Everblades13]

Interesting. Reddit and vipleague both have links for streams, but obviously the game hasn't started yet. Just gonna have to wait and see if they're actually showing anything.

 

[These Are The Days]

Oh well. It's too bad the games cannot be broadcast on TV.

 

[DFC]

Does anyone know how to listen to the games outside the US? iheartradio doesn't work for us up here.

 

[Leonardo87]

Not quite a sellout.

 

[DFC]

No streams I'm guessing?

 

[Brie]

No streams I'm guessing?

No, and I can't find a radio that works either (since iheart radio doesn't wotk here i Sweden).

 

[DFC]

No, and I can't find a radio that works either (since iheart radio doesn't wotk here i Sweden).

Gamecenter tracking it on NHL.com. Best we can do, I think.

 

[Leonardo87]

Gamecenter tracking it on NHL.com. Best we can do, I think.

Radio is like a min behind the NHL tracking, so it's kinda annoying, lol.