NASHVILLE -- Ryan McDonagh and Jonas Johansson each will be in unfamiliar territory when the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning start the 2023-24 season on Tuesday (5:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS).
McDonagh, a defenseman for the Predators, will play a regular-season game at Amalie Arena in Tampa for the first time since he was traded to Nashville from Tampa Bay on July 3, 2022.
McDonagh played five seasons for the Lightning and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021. He was injured and unable to play when Nashville played at Tampa Bay last season. He did play a preseason game there Sept. 30.
"Obviously it's a special place," McDonagh said. "Great memories, great group of guys that are still there and the coaching staff and whatnot. That's why I wanted to go there for a preseason game, just to get some of the emotions out. Get into the visiting room there so it's not too foreign to me when I walk in there [Tuesday]. I think it was good that we played them a couple of times during the preseason.
"At least I got the emotions of the first time being back in the building and the tribute video and stuff out of the way so I can just focus on playing. Obviously, Tampa still holds a special place in my heart with all of the success and memories that we had. But at the end of the day, it's a great place to start for Game 1."
Johansson likely will have different emotions. He'll make his regular-season debut with the Lightning, replacing Andrei Vasilevskiy, their No. 1 goalie who will miss the first two months after having a microdiscectomy Sept. 28 to address a lumbar disk herniation.
Coach Jon Cooper confirmed Monday that Johansson will start. The 28-year-old was 2-0-0 with a 2.10 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in three games with the Colorado Avalanche last season, and 14-9-2 with a 2.33 GAA and .920 save percentage in 26 games with Colorado's American Hockey League affiliate.
Johansson has played 35 games in four NHL seasons with the Avalanche, Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres, but never more than the 15 he played in 2020-21 with the Sabres and Avalanche.
It's the first time a goalie other than Vasilevskiy will start the season opener for the Lightning since Ben Bishop started against the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 13, 2016.
"I'm surprised he hasn't played more in the NHL to this date," Cooper said of Johansson. "That being said, I do believe goalies develop later, so maybe this is his time and everything he's done before this is to get to this point. Again, it's just preseason, so you can't read too much into it, but he definitely deserves to be in the net [Tuesday]."
Forward Ryan O'Reilly will make his debut with the Predators against the Lightning. O'Reilly signed a four-year, $18 million contract ($4.5 million average annual value) with Nashville on July 1. He'll likely start at center on a line with Filip Forsberg and Juuso Parssinen.
"I think it's been really nice the past few days being down to our group and skating together and seeing what we have," O'Reilly said. "I think there's excitement here. Especially going against Tampa, a team that's established and knows their identity. I think for us, this is a great test for us to start. We've got a lot of good pieces. We're ready to start the season. I think guys are ready to go and we're hungry."
