By Five Things We’ve Learned About the Lightning After Training Camp and Two Preseason Games
By Ken Filler | Tampa Bay Sports Journal
TAMPA — Two preseason games won’t tell us what the Lightning will look like in April or even what kind of team we will have when the puck drops on the regular season next week.
They have, however, given us our first real look at the new faces, the young players pushing for jobs and the decisions that Jon Cooper must make on this roster.
The Lightning beat Nashville 2–1 at home Sunday, then let a two-goal lead slip away in a 3–2 overtime loss in Nashville on Tuesday.
The Lightning have also made their first seven camp cuts. Here are five things we’ve learned so far.
1. The new additions can help right away
Ilya Mikheyev needed all of 93 seconds to make an impression. Skating with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the opener, he tipped a John Carlson shot past the Nashville goaltender Justin Aunnen for Tampa Bay’s first preseason goal and a 1-0 Lightning lead.
That combination is worth watching.
Mikheyev doesn’t have to be the star on a line with Point and Kucherov. He has to get to the right spots, keep up with the play, and give that line another way to score. His first shift offered a glimpse of how it could work.
Carlson, meanwhile, played 21:56 alongside JJ Moser. After all the talk about what the Lightning lost when Darren Raddysh departed, it was good to see Carlson make an immediate contribution on his own terms. He helped create a goal and took on a substantial workload.
2. Sam O’Reilly has earned a longer look
No young player made a stronger case in the opener than O’Reilly. The 20-year-old centered Benjamin Rautiainen and Conor Geekie, helped pressure Nashville into the turnover that led to Geekie’s winning goal, won six of eight faceoffs and got meaningful penalty-kill time.
Cooper liked what he saw. “I thought he was excellent all the way around,” the coach said afterward.
O’Reilly is making this interesting because his game has more than one use. He can make skilled plays, but he also showed he can win a draw and play without the puck. For a rookie trying to crack a veteran team, those details matter.
Has he made the opening-night roster? No decision has been announced.
He remains in camp and has put himself in the conversation. That is a meaningful first step, even if two preseason games are far too early to hand him a job.
3. Jeffrey Viel brings more than his reputation
Viel arrived with a reputation for bringing a physical edge. In Nashville, he supplied goals, too.
Playing with Pontus Holmberg and Zemgus Girgensons, Viel scored twice and helped the line turn forecheck pressure into offense.
One goal came after Girgensons forced a turnover at the blue line; the other came on a Holmberg pass to the left post.
“We’re trying to build some chemistry,” Viel said of the line. “It’s a process, and it’s about building on it.”
That’s the encouraging part for the Lightning. Viel doesn’t need a two-goal night every time he dresses.
If that line can retrieve pucks, spend time in the offensive zone, and occasionally finish a chance, it can give the Lightning something they need further down the lineup.
4. Dennis Hildeby made a strong first impression, but the finish still stung
Hildeby stopped 23 shots in Tuesday’s overtime loss. He made enough difficult saves that Viel called him “the biggest reason we were in the game for the whole game.”
Hildeby is expected to join Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa Bay’s goaltending tandem, and his first preseason appearance offered some reassurance.
The rest of the team still has something to take from that game. The Lightning led 2–0 before Nashville scored twice in the third period and won it in overtime.
It was preseason, but the Lightning need to build the habit of protecting a lead now. Goaltending can rescue a breakdown; it cannot be the plan for surviving one.
Cooper called the loss “a growing moment for a lot of the players.” That sounds about right.
5. The first cuts tell us who is headed back to junior hockey—not who has made the team
The Lightning assigned Ethan Czata, Aiden Foster, Oleg Kulebiakin, Stepan Shurygin, Cooper Soller, Grant Spada and Max Vilen to their junior clubs Monday.
Czata and Kulebiakin had both appeared in Sunday’s preseason opener. Those seven players are out of NHL camp, leaving 58 on the camp roster at the time of the announcement.
The team assigned them rather than releasing them.
Which rookies have made the Lightning? None have officially secured an opening-night spot yet.
O’Reilly remains the rookie with the clearest early case based on his preseason opportunity.
Rautiainen is still in camp after playing alongside him and Geekie in the opener, while rookie defenseman Tomas Kralovic picked up an assist on Viel’s second goal Tuesday.
That is where this camp stands after two games.
The established players have begun fitting the new pieces around them. A few young players have given coach Cooper reasons to keep watching them.
And with two preseason games against Florida still ahead, the toughest roster calls are coming.
For Lightning fans, that’s the fun of September: seeing a player earn one more shift, one more game, and perhaps, eventually, a place on the team.
