Tampa Bay Lightning Preseason Game 2: Experience Trumps Youth

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The Tampa Bay Lightning hit the road for the first time this 2015 preseason to take on a foe that they had faced just one night earlier. The Nashville Predators, fresh off of their 3-2 overtime win at Amalie Arena Tuesday night, took the ice at Bridgestone Arena in front of Nashville’s home fans in what was their fourth game of the preseason.

Unlike last night, the Nashville Predators were the ones who came out firing and backed the Lightning into a corner early. Under eight minutes into the first, James Neal fired a wrist shot past goaltender Adam Wilcox, who had finished the second half of last nights game. Just under a minute later, Preds captain Shea Weber blasted a shot past Wilcox to put his team up 2-0. Craig Smith added the third goal of the period for the Predators as he slapped a puck past a screened Wilcox.

Things did not get any better for the Lightning to start the second as Smith scored his second goal of the night against Wilcox, this time on the power play. The Lightning finally got on the board when Vladislav Namestnikov backhanded a shot past Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne. Later, J.T. Brown added the second goal of the game to cut the deficit in half. Wilcox was replaced by Allen York halfway through the second period, just as Wilcox did last night when he replaced Ray Emery. Though the score sheet does not look pretty, Wilcox did not play that bad. We’ll get into his performance a little later.

The third period was the best for the Lightning tonight, but Pekka Rinne was just too strong in net. As the Lightning had three straight power plays, including a 26 second 5-on-3, Rinne closed the door as the Lightning tried to get back into the game still down by two. The key moment of the period was when Rinne stopped a Jonathan Marchessault breakaway later into the period after the Lightning forward recieved a perfect pass from Ondrej Palat. Colton Sissons added the Predators fifth goal of the night as he cleaned up a rebound and put the puck past goaltender Allen York. Tough break for York, as he had played really well after coming into the game.

One positive for the Lightning tonight was the win during the mandatory 3-on-3 overtime period during the postseason. Head Coach Jon Cooper sent the triplets out there and his move worked. Tyler Johnson, who was dead tired from a long shift, took a Nikita Kucherov pass and put a shot past Rinne to win the overtime period for the Lightning. It made the final score 5-3 as the Lightning are swept in the home-and-home with the Predators.

As for tonight’s standout performers, I really liked how Daniel Walcott and J.T. Brown played tonight. Walcott really impressed me during the Estero prospects tournament and carried over his impressive play to his first preseason game in a Tampa Bay Lightning uniform. He made a fantastic play to breakup an odd man rush as the Nashville forward got around defenseman Luke Witkowski and Walcott slid to breakup the scoring attempt. He will be a nice addition down in Syracuse.

As for J.T. Brown, it was nice to see him put a puck in the back of the net tonight. We have continuously talked about if Brown will be in the Lightning’s future plans and we mentioned that he would need to produce more offensively if he wanted to stick around past this season. If tonight was any indication of what will happen in the regular season, we should expect some added scoring from Brown.

Though Adam Wilcox was tagged with the loss and four goals against, the young netminder actually played pretty well considering the circumstances. He was screened on three of the four goals and like last night, his defense didn’t do him many favors when it came to staying on their man in the defensive zone. Not to mention that he had played the second half of last nights game.

As Lightning radio play-by-play announcer Dave Mishkin pointed out tonight, Nashville had a drastic edge in the experience category as their roster totaled over 5,000 games played while the Lighting roster barely surpassed 1,000. Just something to keep in mind as we analyze this game.

The team will be back home Friday night as the in-state rival Florida Panthers come to Amalie Arena. The Bolts will look to earn their first win of the 2015 NHL preseason as they continue to prepare for regular season action.

Next: Lightning Cut 10 Players From Training Camp Roster

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