The Tampa Bay Lightning continue to struggle this preseason as they dropped another contest to the Nashville predators. Tampa Bay was outplayed, outshot and out-possessed. Few mainstays were in they line-up for the Bolts as the regular season draws near. Tampa Bay will play three more games  before the home opener on October 12th.

Its the Preseason

Despite a poor record in its first batch of preseason games there is nothing to worry about. Few regular season players were in the line-up tonight in Nashville. There were only 5 NHLers dressed for this constest and they were mostly apart of their bottom 6 and D- parings. They incldued Zach Bogosian, Ross Colton, Mathieu Joseph, Alex Barre-Boulet, and Brian Elliot. On the Flip side Nashville had mainstays such as Mattius Ekholm, Roman Josi, Nick Cousins, and Juuse Saros in net. They also had Nick Cousins had 3 points while Josi, Ekholm and Mikael Grandlund would all have assists. All the teams approach the preaseason differently and with the Lightning winning back-to-back cups, any extra rest for the mainstays is a good thing.

Rough Second

The worst period in this contest by far. They allowed 3 goals on 8 shots. Matheiu Olivier scored nearly seven minutes in to give Nashville a 2-0 lead. Although Boris Katchouk would score to cut lead to one, Cousins would score nearly two mintues later. With time winding down in the period veteran Luke Kunin would score on the powerplay to put the nail in the coffin. Nashville went on to score two more in the third and would finish the game 2-for-5 on the powerplay while Tampa Bay went 0-for-7.

Up Next

The Lightning will play 3 more preseason games against the Florida Panthers before their home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s contest will be at Amalie Arena while their final contest will take place in Sunrise. Roster cuts will likely come this week. In addition, expect to see mainstays make more appearances as the regular season approaches. Winning now means nothing as the Lightning look to three-peat.

 

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