Lightning work in more regulars vs. Preds

More players got their first taste of preseason action on Thursday night in Nashville, Tennessee when the Tampa Bay Lightning battled the Nashville Predators.
The Bolts fell to the Preds 2-0, but there were some positives to take away from the matchup for Tampa Bay.
"It was good to get back into a game," said Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. "Physically, everything felt good tonight.
"We'll shake off a little bit of rust. But under the circumstances we've had in the last week, it was just nice to get into some game action. We'll work on a few things, get back home safe and sound and go from there."

Stamkos skated on a line with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point and the trio performed very well for the duration of the game. Additionally, the three saw time together on the power play, along with Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn.
While the power play didn't score a goal, the top unit was snapping it around as if it were the middle of the season, which is a good sign for the Lightning as they approach opening night on October 11.
"I liked the fact that we got that four-minute power play," said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper. "In these situations, you want to get reps. We had a really good unit out there, so for them to get those type of reps is great.

"I'm not so worried about the puck not going in the net. Did they get zone time? Were they getting looks? They were.
"They didn't go in tonight, but if you're going to pick a game for them not to go in, preseason's the one. It serves its purpose and it's good for us."
The Bolts recorded 30 shots on goal on Thursday night and the Preds recorded 31. Brian Elliott got the start in goal and made 29 saves.
Nashville opened the scoring late in the first period and found the back of the net a second time late in the third to seal the victory.
For veteran players like Stamkos, Point, Hedman and Killorn, these games serve as a good opportunity to get back into the physicality of a hockey game that you most likely don't get much of in the summer.
"There's no way to replicate that in practice against your own guys," Stamkos explained. "That's another thing is just getting some bumps and feeling what that's like on the body. You don't get a lot of that in the summer.
"That is a big part of it. You want to put your bodies in positions that they probably weren't in for a while and take some hits, get some blocks and just get that confidence back knowing that the body's going to feel good."

Sixteen of Tampa Bay's 18 skaters recorded a shot on goal in a tight-checking, hard-fought game on both sides. Hedman led all Lightning skaters with 25:23 time on ice and recorded six shots, four hits and one blocked shot. Kucherov, Stamkos, Point and Killorn all recorded multiple shots on goal as well. It was a good kick-start to game action for the veteran players in the lineup.
"It's the first game, like you said, so there's going to be some things that need to get ironed out," said Stamkos. "But we've got some time here. We've got a couple more games coming up and you just want to make sure you're progressing well every single game. We'll take it from there."
The results aren't the most important thing in the preseason. What's important is getting game reps, gaining chemistry and staying healthy in preparation for the regular season. I thought tonight was a valuable experience for the Lightning, who had a lot of players making their preseason debut and playing well.
"Like any game, there's some good things that happened out there and then there's a few mistakes" Cooper explained. "They're correctable. Some guys are getting their feet wet. Some guys are playing their first ever NHL preseason game. You want to come out of these relatively healthy and we did, so that's a good thing."
Tampa Bay will be right back in game action at 6 p.m. ET tomorrow night with a rematch against Nashville at Bridgestone Arena. The game can be streamed live at
www.TampaBayLightning.com
.