Verhaeghe beginning to shake off the rust caused by the pause

Tampa Bay Lightning rookie forward Carter Verhaeghe admitted his first time back on the ice last week was "rough" after three months without skating.

"It felt like we hadn't skated in a year," Verhaeghe recounted on a video conference call with local media Thursday. "You've been out for so long. Everything is kind of rusty. It feels like you can't skate right or you're losing the puck."

But with Phase 2 of the National Hockey League's Return to Play Plan nearing the end of its second week, Verhaeghe and his Lightning teammates are getting their legs underneath them, skating is becoming second nature again and players are rounding back into game shape with their eye toward a July 10 training camp.

"I felt pretty good out there," Verhaeghe said of his training session Thursday. "I just skated this morning. We were playing kind of small games. We only have six guys on the ice, but we're trying to make the most of it and play little games and stuff. It's actually been pretty fun. We're working out too. All the guys are in pretty good shape actually."

It's going to take time, however, for the Lightning to return to the form they were in when the NHL hit pause on the season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On-ice activities are helpful, but there are limitations too. Only six players are allowed on the ice at one time. With only Andrei Vasilevskiy in town, not all groups have a goalie to shoot on. Players can skate for only an hour a day. And no physical contact is allowed while training so battle drills and actual game play are out.

Still, there's an evident ramping-up process the Lightning, as well as the rest of the League, are going through to be ready for the opening of training camp, which will be needed to get the players further up to speed for the competitiveness of postseason hockey once the playoffs begin hopefully in early August.

"I think it's just kind of different work," Verhaeghe said of the voluntary workouts he and his teammates are going through right now. "A lot of times during the year, we're kind of focusing on our systems or the team aspect of where we've got to be position-wise. Now, we can work on little skills that otherwise we wouldn't have time to work on, maybe a little bit of shooting we want to get better at or hand stuff, passing. I think maybe the legs still have a little bit to go, and I think they will come once we start getting bigger groups on the ice. But other than that, at least our group, we're trying to take the time to work on little things that we don't normally get to work on which is actually really nice."

Verhaeghe's abbreviated first season in the NHL was a success. After capturing the American Hockey League's scoring title in 2018-19 by posting 82 points in 76 games with the Syracuse Crunch, Verhaeghe won a roster spot with the Lightning in training camp and regularly found a spot in the lineup in 2019-20. It took him 17 games to score his first NHL goal (Dec. 7 vs. San Jose), but once he got that initial tally out of the way, the 24 year old started to find the back of the net with increasing regularity. He recorded the 59th hat trick in Tampa Bay Lightning history after scoring three goals January 7 against Vancouver. Verhaeghe finished the regular season with nine goals in 52 games, the same number of goals and games reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov notched in his rookie season in the League.

Verhaeghe said starting back up again after the League had been in limbo for months awaiting word when it would be safe to resume play makes these Phase 2 on-ice sessions almost feel like the beginning of a new season rather than the resumption of the current one.

"It's definitely a different feel than normal," Verhaeghe said. "We were kind of rolling when the pause happened and starting to find our game and stuff. I think it takes a little momentum away from that. We're going to try to have to get back to it when it comes back. It's going to be different for sure."

Staying motivated and continuing to train during the pause without knowing when or if the season would resume was tough according to Verhaeghe. But the Lightning had an advantage in that the majority of the team stayed local, which kept players engaged and helped them overcome the monotony of another day of working out without an end goal in sight.

"I know other teams didn't stay in their city or whatever, but I think we had almost three-quarters of our team stay here," Verhaeghe said. "We're kind of working out and doing our own thing and social distancing and talking to guys and stuff. It's been really positive. It would kind of get a little lonely here if everyone went home and you're the only one here. But we kind of had a good team thing and all our buddies are here so that's nice."