Lightning work to get back on track after sluggish start
A struggling Lightning team returned to practice Tuesday at the TGH Ice Plex after two days off with clearer heads and fresher legs. They’ll try to rebound this week from the worst start to the season many of the players have ever seen.
The Lightning have lost five of their first six games, tied with Ottawa for last place in the Atlantic Division based on point percentage entering Tuesday. They rank in the bottom third of teams in most categories, including 30th of 32 in shots per game.
“It’s obviously not ideal,” captain Victor Hedman said. “But what we’ve got to come back to is we’ve got to trust the process. And if you look at the five losses, four games were by one goal, but it’s obviously not good enough to our standard.”
They’ve played winning hockey in flashes, but they’ve also gone long chunks of time without registering a shot on net. That includes one period in each of the last two games in which it took more than 13 minutes to record their first shot on goal.
The condensed schedule hasn’t allowed for much practice, so having two days on the ice to work out the kinks before their next game Thursday against the Blackhawks, the first of three matchups in four days at Benchmark International Arena, was certainly welcome.
While practice only goes so far, Tuesday’s return to work was fast-paced. The Lightning mostly worked on small-ice drills.
“A lot of it was pace and execution,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That’s the big thing. And pace and execution happen without the puck as well. So something we were trying to emphasize.”
”Some guys just played one (preseason) game and I only played a period, so now you’re starting to feel like you’re back in the rhythm, and you’re starting to trust yourself even more,“ Hedman said.
Even though their first two periods of Friday’s loss in Detroit were forgettable, the Lightning would like to build on a third period in which they outshot the Red Wings 19-6 and had 37 shot attempts. (They had 11 shots on goal and 34 attempts in the first two periods.)
“I think we’ve shown in those periods that when we have that shooting mentality, we retrieve pucks,” Hedman said. “Our forwards are some of the best in the league at getting into battles and winning those puck battles and getting the pucks back. So for us on the back end, we just got to make sure we get shots through and make sure that we convert on the net.
“And that what we did against Detroit, we kept coming in waves.”
Tuesday’s practice was also the first since a subtle roster shakeup Monday.
The Lightning sent highly-touted prospect Conor Geekie to AHL Syracuse and recalled defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous from the Crunch.
With veteran forward Zemgus Girgensons’ return on the horizon, forward minutes were going to dry up, and Geekie — the only healthy player who is waiver exempt — was averaging just 10:02 of ice time playing mostly on the fourth line.
The 21-year-old Geekie’s future is as a top-six forward, and he wasn’t getting those kind of minutes early in the season. Sending him back to the minors, where he’ll be able to play in that role and continue to improve his game, was an underlying reason for the move.
“That kid, he’s going to be a heck of a player in this league, and there’s just some situations where you need the roster spot and it’s an organizational move that has to be made,” Cooper said. “But on the other side of things, then Geeks gets (to play) much more minutes and will be in situations, for his skill set, he needs to be in.” .
The Lightning could have Girgensons back as soon as Saturday against Anaheim, Cooper said.
Girgensons was a full practice participant for the first time since he was knocked out of the Lightning’s final preseason game Oct. 4 in Sunrise from an illegal hit by Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe.
The Lightning want to see more of D’Astous, who was signed to a two-way contract after spending the past three seasons playing in Europe, to find out if he can contribute at the NHL level after impressing the organization in the preseason.
The 27-year-old went to Europe to rebuild his career three years ago, and he put up impressive offensive numbers for a defenseman, tallying 17 goals and 46 points in 54 games for KooKoo of Finland’s top pro league two seasons ago and then recording 12 goals and 39 points in 45 games for Brynas IF of Sweden’s top pro league. In four games with Syracuse, D’Astous recorded a goal and two assists with nine shots on goal in four games.
“Listen, that kid, he came to our team, and made an impression in camp,” Cooper said. “ ... This is one kid we haven’t really seen, so you get to know him a little bit better and see what he can do.”
That would indicate that the Lightning will play an 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup for the first time this season on Thursday night, giving D’Astous his NHL debut in his seventh pro season.
“It’s quite a journey, I would say,” D’Astous said. “But I always believed in myself, and I knew one day I would be here, and here I am. It’s been years and years of working hard and believing in myself. I think I’m getting rewarded for that.”
1 Quiet Reason the Raiders' Offense Has Struggled This Season
The Las Vegas Raiders' offense has struggled this season for various reasons, mainly subpar play along the offensive line and at quarterback. However, the lack of playmakers at skill positions, for various reasons, have held the Raiders' offense back.
Raiders Rookies Must Improve
The Raiders invested a second-round pick into drafting Jack Bech, proving how much they believed in him before he ever put a Raiders jersey on. However, Bech must do his part and work through the growing pains only the Raiders' coaching staff knows about.
Bech and Dont'e Thornton were brought in to be two of those playmakers but have yet to make much of an impact. Bech's lack of playing time on an offense in desperate need of help at wide receiver speaks volumes about where Las Vegas' coaching staff believes he is developmentally.
“The more plays that we can log with the new guys, Jack [Bech] and Dont'e [Thornton Jr.], we can show them the things that they need to improve on and the things that they're not quite as sharp on. It helps them. And there's some pain in that too. There's some pain in there that we have to undergo. But it's how you do it,” Carroll said.
“By the time you get to the middle of the season, these guys should have things really cleaned up, and they should be ready to go and we can count on them and they can come through and not be error repeaters, you know? And that's what we're working hard at."
During the Bye Week, Raiders' Wide Receivers Coach Chris Beatty gave an update on the development of both of Las Vegas' wide receivers. If the Raiders can get Bech and Thornton up to speed quickly, it could alleviate some of the issues they are having on offense.
"Some ups and downs. We have got to be more consistent. Both of those guys are learning a lot. Theres good and bad in everything. First couple of games, Dont'e had an explosive play in every game," Beatty said.
"He has kind of fell back a little bit and some of the fundamentals, we have got to continue to build on. Same thing with Jack. They have done okay but there is a lot more out there. So, we will keep pushing them and getting the most out of them."
