The Tampa Bay Lightning have another day off before they play host to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. They aim for their third straight win.
Wednesday brought roster and injury updates, as well as some other changes that appear to be on the way. Here are the Lightning rumblings from practice and transactions from the day.
Harkins clears waivers
After placing him on waivers to make space for Dominic James, Jansen Harkins is expected to be reassigned to the Syracuse Crunch. He, along with James, was present for practice on Wednesday.
Keeping him around allows the Lightning to have a veteran forward ready and waiting. Harkins had a solid preseason, highlighted by a two-goal game in a 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sept. 24.
Power play unit is getting a shakeup
Two defensemen were seen practicing as part of the top power-play unit: John Carlson and Charle-Edouard D’Astous. The former was on the left side, and the latter was playing up top.
The second power-play unit consists of JJ Moser, Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, Conor Geekie and Gage Goncalves.
Head coach Jon Cooper expresses his openness to trying anything and seeing what works.
“Like, listen, it's early in the year, and we you know we don't get a ton of practice time, so you have to try different things. So who knows? Maybe this is something we'll go with,” he said, via the Tampa Bay Times.
Through three games, the Lightning are 0-for-13 on the power play. It’s early, so there isn’t much concern, but it became clear it wouldn't hurt to shake things up.
"Do we deserve to be 0-for-13? We don't. But still, you wake up in the morning, and we don't have a power-play goal. The good thing is we've won two of our three games, and we haven't had one. But we don't want this to go on too much longer because you take pride in your special teams. It's a slow start statistically, but they've had some good ones. It just hasn't got in yet,” Cooper said via Lightning reporter Benjamin Pierce.
Lilleberg in non-contact jersey
The Lightning defenseman was out practicing with the team on Wednesday in a red non-contact jersey.
They’re being cautious, but the expectation is that he isn’t out for long. Cooper said, via Lightning reporter Gabby Shirley, that he should be back in about a week.
Lilleberg was injured in the second game of the season, when the Lightning beat the Capitals 3-1 on Saturday. Max Crozier played in his place on Monday.
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