Tampa Bay Thunder Past Florida to Make Franchise Preseason History

The best preseason start the Lightning have had was a 4-0 start in 2013; until Tuesday night. The Lightning have started their 2025 preseason slate in historic fashion.

Some may say, “it’s just preseason;” and they’re not wrong, but any time you face a rival opponent, the game means more. And that was the scenario for the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday when they faced off against their in-state rival Florida Panthers for the first time in the preseason.

It was a defensive battle between the teams, but at the end of the night, the Tampa Bay Lightning secured their fifth straight win with a 3-2 win over the Panthers. The Lightning are now a perfect 5-0 on the preseason. This is the first time in franchise history that the Tampa Bay Lightning have started 5-0 and the best start the team has had in preseason play since 2013 when they started 4-0.

Oliver Bjorkstrand put the Lightning on the board first in the first period on a power play goal just over 10 minutes into the period. He was assisted by Darren Raddysh

and Gage Goncalves.

The Panthers answered back in the 14th minute on a goal by MacKenzie Entwistle with assists by Wilmer Skoog and Marek Alscher.

Conor Geekie scored the Lightning’s second goal of the night with an unassisted goal at the 11:00 mark of the second period and was followed 28 seconds later by a goal off the stick of

Jakob Pelletier with assists by Max Crozier and Emil Lilleberg.

The Lightning took a 3-1 match into the third period looking to hang on for the win. 2:30 into the period

Ryan McAllister scored the Panthers’ second goal of the match to make it a 3-2 match with assists by Wilmer Skoog (his second of the day) and Jake livingstone. But Livingstone’s goal was not enough as the Lightning went on to defeat Florida 3-2 to secure their first 5-0 preseason start in team history.

In total, the Lightning out-shot Florida with 29 shots on goal compared to the Panthers’ 19 shots. The Lightning had 20 percent of the power plays compared to zero percent by Florida. The Panthers accrued 17 penalty minutes, while the Lightning accrued just 11.

Defensively, Tampa goalie Jonas Johansson saved 17 of the 19 shots against him. In 59:31 on ice, he saved .895 percent of the shots against him, allowing just two goals.

The 5-0 Tampa Bay Lightning return to Benchmark International Arena on Thursday when they welcome the now 2-3 Florida Panthers for their second matchup of the week. The Lightning will look to use home-ice advantage to take down the Panthers once again and improve to a franchise-best 6-0 preseason start.

Patrick Mouratoglou Says Novak Djokovic Has Lost His Drive Amid Decline in Form

After dominating the ATP tour for the past decade, Novak Djokovic is approaching the tail end of his career. The Serbian superstar has not won a Grand Slam title in over two years, leading French coach

Patrick Mouratoglou to speculate that Djokovic has lost his will to win.

The 38-year old lifted his last major trophy at the 2023 US Open, defeating Russian Daniil Medvedev in the final. Djokovic has since struggled to overcome the rise of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, with both men having a stranglehold on Grand Slam titles over the last two years.

Despite being one of the oldest players on tour, Djokovic is still a threat at every tournament. Although the 24-time Grand Slam champion often gets past the rest of the field, he tends to fall short when facing Sinner or Alcaraz.

After seeing two of his biggest rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, hang up their rackets, Djokovic may have lost the will to produce his best tennis, according to Mouratoglou. The renown coach elaborated on the matter in a video posted to his Instagram account.

Djokovic is not the same as he once was, says Mouratoglou

Outside of winning the elusive gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and prevailing at the Geneva Open, Djokovic has not won any title since the start of the 2024 season. Mouratoglou acknowledged Djokovic's greatness and achievements, but stated the former World No.1 may have lost his winning edge.

"He (Djokovic) achieved everything," said Mouratoglou. "So I feel that something broke the motivation, the drive that made him as the greatest of all time. He's not here anymore. How long is he going to stay in that position? I don't think long.

"I think he still likes to be there because I think he probably wants to find a great connection with the fans, which he starts to have. It was difficult while Rafa and Roger were at the top, because they had such a strong connection that it was depriving him from having that position and that connection.

"Definitely the drive doesn't look like what it was before. It's a different drive, but it's not a drive that brings the results that he could have before, and it makes sense, and I understand, but he's not producing the results he used to have."

After a heartbreaking loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals at the 2025 US Open, Djokovic's next appearance on tour will be at the upcoming Shanghai Masters tournament.

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