GDT: 9/28/17 - 6:00PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Florida [Preseason Game 6]

[dechire]

Lucky goal but I'll take it

 

[Bandit Keith]

At least Sergachev is having a good game...

 

[Brie]

I take it the same way I took their talk mid-season about being focused on making the playoffs. A nice thought but ultimately meaningless if it doesn't show on the ice.

Yeah, all the talk they had comming into training camp about being focused and motivated I haven't seen much off at all. And who wants to bet what the comments after this game will be...?

 

[Bandit Keith]

nice goal by Stamkos =^)

 

[Sky04]

And to top off Stamkos's terrible game, he one times a shot wide with our net empty wraps around the glass and into our net.

This is about the 7th of 8th missed one timer this game.

 

[dechire]

Good news: Stamkos scored

Bad news: Wrong goal

 

[Sky04]

The good:
Point - Looks way stronger than last season and his shot looks a lot better - I think he could pass Johnson this season if things go right
Gourde - Guys a puck hound and always moving his feet
Killorn - Good game, good passes and putting shots on net
Kucherov - Creating a ton of offense

The bad:
Palat - If he's not flubbing a play he's falling on the ice
Stamkos - Couldn't hit the net on half a dozen one timers, the other chances he got this game were fanned and flubbed shots, the panthers left him open all night. And those turnovers.....
Budaj - Lets hope Vasi is up for 60+ games this season

Meh:
Namestnikov - some great plays, some great flubs I think he'll be fine for now
Johnson - more or less the same Johnson of the past 2 years
Sergachev - wish he would just bomb one from the point.. he goes for the tip shot way too often, he was gifted ice time tonight and didn't really make much of his oppertunity
Girardi - his skating is terrible, he's got good defensive instincts but anything involing speed will kill him

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

I think I'd add Hedman to the Bad category tonight. Sloppy, caught off guard and had to chase the puck a few times, huge giveaway behind his own net which allowed FL to score... His timing just seemed...off.

Cally scrambled pretty well, trying to create some opportunities.

And yeah, Stammer got a bunch of opportunities tonight and couldn't score on any of them.

 

[Bandit Keith]

I thought Sergachev was better than meh but I do agree he needs to shoot more...kid has the best shot from the point on the team, really needs to use it more.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

I thought Sergachev was better than meh but I do agree he needs to shoot more...kid has the best shot from the point on the team, really needs to use it more.

Agreed. Sergi has a great shot and doesn't use it nearly often enough. He and Strålman made a rather solid duo tonight. Coburn and Sustr played better than I expected. Sustr does seem to match better with Coburn than he ever did with Garrison. Girardi did make some nice defensive plays and a block, but I really don't think he's a good match with Heddy.

 

[Bolt 45]

Disagree that Sergachev was meh tonight. I thought he looked good, particularly when he was out with the first line. That ESP thing that Russians do was pretty evident when he was out there with Kuch and Vlad. If we keep him up there'll undoubtedly be some growing pains, but there'll be some highlights too. Nothing to lose, in my opinion. Besides, based on what I saw tonight, keeping him up would have absolutely no impact on our playoff chances.

 

[TampaJay]

After going to couple of the preseason games and watching a couple on stream, I’m convinced vet status and contract status forces us to ice a team that is less talented than it could be. Cernak and Thomas outplayed Girardi and maybe Sustr. JT Brown was outplayed by at least four guys. I’d rather see Erne or Volkov than Kunitz. Bringing in those vets is just blocking guys who are faster and better.

Maybe it is the case that the vets who know their jobs are guaranteed tend to coast a bit in preseason and the young guys are working harder because they are fighting for a job. But I suspect that by mid season we will see that some to the guys in the AHL are better than some of those on the roster.

BTW, Sergachev looks like our second best LHD and that is not because he has been super impressive. KK and Coburn have been very underwhelming.

 

[DFC]

This wouldn't be concerning if not for last season. Unfortunately, last season did in fact happen, so it's hard not to think of this as the same pattern continuing.

 

[Sky04]

On second thought I guess he just didn't impress with the high expectations I had and with the amount of minutes he got, he didn't seem like a very dynamic player and makes very passive plays. But he didn't make a lot of defensive mistakes and thinking about who else should get those minutes? We might as well spend them developing Sergachev. Playing whoever else in that slot offers marginal gains no long term benefit.

 

[Bolt 45]

After going to couple of the preseason games and watching a couple on stream, I’m convinced vet status and contract status forces us to ice a team that is less talented than it could be. Cernak and Thomas outplayed Girardi and maybe Sustr. JT Brown was outplayed by at least four guys. I’d rather see Erne or Volkov than Kunitz. Bringing in those vets is just blocking guys who are faster and better.

Maybe it is the case that the vets who know their jobs are guaranteed tend to coast a bit in preseason and the young guys are working harder because they are fighting for a job. But I suspect that by mid season we will see that some to the guys in the AHL are better than some of those on the roster.

BTW, Sergachev looks like our second best LHD and that is not because he has been super impressive. KK and Coburn have been very underwhelming.

I agree about the AHL guys, and that was the case last season as well. Paquette, Brown and Sustr all have their nights but they simply aren't good enough to warrant the ice time they get. I'd wager that Kuch was indirectly referencing this in his infamous comments over the summer. It wouldn't surprise me if the play we've seen is a result of guys tuning Coop out as it's become apparent that Coop's standards seem pretty inconsistent from player to player. I mean, skill players obviously get a bit more leeway from any coach, but that's not what we've seen from Coop. Obviously there's some character-type stuff that we're not privy to, which does matter, but if someone told me that Coop was rewarding ice time based on something totally arbitrary and unrelated to hockey, I'm not really seeing anything on the ice that would immediately discredit such a suggestion.

The veteran thing I get. Whether or not Kunitz or Girardi should have been signed is open for debate; but they were signed, and, along with guys like Coburn, they're going to get their ice time. They're generally going to be treated as established professionals who've paid their dues. I get it. Just one of those things that goes on everywhere, and which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because those guys are likely doing things on the bench and behind the scenes that are helpful. They probably do slow us down, however.

 

[MattM92]

They've got one more practice game to shake the cobwebs off and find their groove. In 7 days we start the real hockey and this isn't a roster that should need a few games to find it's footing. We aren't the up and comers anymore, so it's about time we play like the big boys.

 

[Bolt 45]

On second thought I guess he just didn't impress with the high expectations I had and with the amount of minutes he got, he didn't seem like a very dynamic player and makes very passive plays. But he didn't make a lot of defensive mistakes and thinking about who else should get those minutes? We might as well spend them developing Sergachev. Playing whoever else in that slot offers marginal gains no long term benefit.

That's fair. I really didn't know anything about him other than that he was a Russian kid with some talent, so my expectations were fairly modest. He didn't light the world on fire, but, particularly tonight, he provided a little offense without sacrificing defense. That being said, I still think he came alive a little bit when he was out there with Kuch and Vlad, so it's probably a comfort-level/confidence thing. If that version of Sergachev is the player we end up getting, I'll be satisfied; and, yeah, nobody else really stepped up to claim the minutes he'd get. The sooner we get him ready the better, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Maelmoor]

While I understand your concerns, with last season in mind it's so difficult to draw conclusions out of pre-seasons. Last pre-season Stamkos failed to score a goal, Kucherov missed the games and Nesterov was racking up points. We also won 3 out 5 pre-season games. We all know what happened then, Stamkos and Kucherov was on fire (until Stammer got injuried) and Nesterov is no longer in the NHL.

So I'm not gonna go into the doom and gloom mode yet!

Also I like what I seen from Vasy, that is worth a lot..if he can provide solid goaltending we will be fine (hopefully more than fine!)

 

[Stammertime91]

(First post on the new forums...not liking it)

Saw Drouin score the other night on a breakaway. Man I'm going to cry a lot this year. Lol.

 

[RegularSznAllStars]

More of the same crap effort from last year, with the same type of post game "we have to be better talk." If they start the year this slow, cooper gets like 15 games?

 

[FinnLightning26]

If we don't come out of the gates guns blazing I'm losing faith in this team. If last season didn't give a kick on their asses, nothing will.

 

[These Are The Days]

Agreed to all concerns. I can deal with sloppy play because preseason is all about getting players back up to speed and working out kinks in chemistry, performance and just general playing together for the first time since April. But if we're going to get the same apathetic, lackadaisical Lightning we've been watching since coming off of the Stanley Cup Finals then I'm gonna be calling for Cooper's head by Thanksgiving or sooner because this will be the THIRD year in a row we've started a season on cruise control acting like the regular season is this huge inconvenience and approach it with the same lazy attitude as a 9 year old being asked to clean his room.

I've defended Jon Cooper up and down against all odds to the point of determent. I'm not so sure some people here don't actually dislike me from all the thread hi-jacking and grandstanding I've done. But I did it because without getting too deep into it I know a tough break (that's out of your control) that messes everything up as well as anyone you'd ever find. And I felt last year had too many unpreventable injury factors and that the complacent nature of the locker room was due to the fact that there has been little to no roster turnover for years now and that missing both Stamkos and Callahan for almost an entire year was determental to the leadership we saw on the ice. All in all I felt Cooper deserved a mulligan. I'm not gonna fetch the ax from the woodshed because we've looked bad in preseason. But if the effort carries over and all we get is "We know we gotta play better" while we lose games we should be winning then you're going to hear an unpleasant grinding sound coming from the back of me sharpening an ax I haven't touched since Guy Boucher.

At the end of the day I honestly do not understand what is so hard about having your team ready to play.

 

[LightningStrikes]

If we don't come out of the gates guns blazing I'm losing faith in this team. If last season didn't give a kick on their asses, nothing will.

Coop won't last long if they start 2017-18 as they played in 2016-17.

 

[These Are The Days]

Coop won't last long if they start 2017-18 as they played in 2016-17.

QFT

 

[Leonardo87]

Agreed to all concerns. I can deal with sloppy play because preseason is all about getting players back up to speed and working out kinks in chemistry, performance and just general playing together for the first time since April. But if we're going to get the same apathetic, lackadaisical Lightning we've been watching since coming off of the Stanley Cup Finals then I'm gonna be calling for Cooper's head by Thanksgiving or sooner because this will be the THIRD year in a row we've started a season on cruise control acting like the regular season is this huge inconvenience and approach it with the same lazy attitude as a 9 year old being asked to clean his room.

I've defended Jon Cooper up and down against all odds to the point of determent. I'm not so sure some people here don't actually dislike me from all the thread hi-jacking and grandstanding I've done. But I did it because without getting too deep into it I know a tough break (that's out of your control) that messes everything up as well as anyone you'd ever find. And I felt last year had too many unpreventable injury factors and that the complacent nature of the locker room was due to the fact that there has been little to no roster turnover for years now and that missing both Stamkos and Callahan for almost an entire year was determental to the leadership we saw on the ice. All in all I felt Cooper deserved a mulligan. I'm not gonna fetch the ax from the woodshed because we've looked bad in preseason. But if the effort carries over and all we get is "We know we gotta play better" while we lose games we should be winning then you're going to hear an unpleasant grinding sound coming from the back of me sharpening an ax I haven't touched since Guy Boucher.

At the end of the day I honestly do not understand what is so hard about having your team ready to play.

From what I've been reading Cally seems to be back to form , Hitting hard ,creating chances , raising the PK level, and even showing up on the scoresheet, even with limited ES mins and no PP time.

Stamkos from what I've been reading seems off still. A lot of missed shots and turnovers. So may need more time which was expected with that kind of injury.

Palat and Johnson seem to be in their oct form which is not good. Killorn seems to be doing much better so that's a plus.

Wish I could of watched these games to get a better idea.