One of the more heralded Tampa Bay Lightning prospects of the last few years made his NHL debut last Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Conor Geekie, the 20-year-old forward who worked his way onto the opening night roster with a strong training camp skated in an NHL game that counted for the first time in his career. On the night he had 14 shifts and totaled 10:07 of ice time with 8:56 coming at even strength and 1:11 of power play time. Despite being heralded for his defensive acumen, he did register a shift shorthanded.
He wasn’t credited with a shot attempts or scoring chance and went 2-for-8 in the face-off dot. He was credited with one hit on the night. After one game he shouldn’t be dusting off a spot on his shelf for the Calder Trophy just yet, but there were plenty of signs that he is adjusting to the speed of the league just fine. As his head coach said after the game,
“He got thrown into the fire pretty quick, and he definitely passed.”
Coach Cooper noted that the Hurricanes are not the easiest team to play against as they are constantly skating at their opponents, which limits the amount of time and space players have to make decisions. It’s tough for veterans, let along a 20-year-old playing in his first game.
With Geekie being such a special prospect, we figured we’d take the time to go back and break down his night shift-by-shift. Let’s go!
First Period (5 shifts)
1:48 – 2:19 (31 seconds)
For a neutral zone face-off, Geekie is centering Cam Atkinson and Nikita Kucherov. As the puck rolls into the Carolina zone, Geekie leads the forecheck and forces a play up along the boards that the Lighting keep in. A shot from the point is deflected up and into the crowd.
He’s chased from the offensive zone face-off by the ref. The puck eventually worked it’s way out to the neutral zone where Geekie has the puck poked off of his stick. Kucherov ended up with a partial breakaway that was stopped by Freddie Andersen. Thus ended the shift.
6:06 – 7:13 (1:07)
Second shift of his NHL career and Geekie is rumbling through the neutral zone with the puck on the power play. He’s on the second unit with JJ Moser, Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli, and Brandon Hagel. The rush ended with the puck knocked off his stick shortly after he entered the offensive zone.
On the forecheck he helped the Lightning win one board battle, but is shoved out of the play when the puck came back his way a second time. The shift ended with Brandon Hagel taking a penalty.
10:33 – 11:11 (38 seconds)
The next shift started with an on-the-fly change. Atkinson joined him again, this time with Brandon Hagel. Hagel started a transition play and Atkinson came within a stick blade of sliding a puck to Geekie cutting through the slot. Geekie stayed with the puck, circled out to the top of the circle and flung a shot at the far post with the intent of getting a deflection. It didn’t happen. Another shot is covered up and the shift ended in the offensive zone.
13:32 – 14:27 (55 seconds)
Another on-the-fly start for Geekie as the Bolts controlled the puck on a delayed off-side. An errant pass by Emil Lilleberg ended up as an icing as the trio of Geekie, Hagel, and Atkinson retreat to the defensive zone. Geekie won the face-off and the Lightning clear. Later in the shift, the youngster tried to bounce a lead pass to Atkinson, but it hopped over his stick for another icing.
He lost this face-off, though, and it led to some possession time for Carolina. Geekie made a nice play along the boards to cut off William Carrier. Tampa Bay gained possession of the puck and Geekie skated off, but Hagel wasn’t able to clear, then he turned it over and Carolina scored.
18:08 – 19:02 (54 seconds)
His final shift of the period starts on-the-fly again as the Lightning have the puck in the defensive zone. Geekie is able to chip a puck out to center ice to alleviate some pressure, but Carolina quickly brought it back into the zone. Geekie made a nice play to deflect a centering pass that would have found a wide-open Shayne Ghostisbehere in a shooting location.
Second Period:
3:22 – 3:52 (30 seconds)
The first shift of the second period for Geekie came shortly after the Lightning tied it up on the power play. He lost a neutral zone draw with Nick Paul and Atkinson as his wingers. As the puck was rimmed around the near boards, Geekie found himself in a skating puck battle with Carrier. The former Vegas forward is able to get inside of Geekie and pry the puck away. As the play continued, Geekie dropped behind the net and engaged with a Hurricane, preventing him from clearing the puck around the boards. The play ended up being an icing by Carolina.
6:03 – 6:49 (46 seconds)
Geekie had to hustle onto the ice for this shift as the Bolts were caught in a bad line change. Nothing horrible happened and he cruised in behind a scrum in front of the Lightning net to collect the puck. As he skated it out of the zone, he tried to dance around Brent Burns at the blueline and turned it over. Rookies are going to rookie at times. The Lightning are able to prevent the mistake from turning into a goal.
11:14 – 12:29 (1:15)
Geekie jumped onto the ice with Anthony Cirelli and Atkinson for this shift and despite it being one of his longer ones, he wasn’t involved in the play all that much. The puck just wasn’t in his area, although he did make a nice play to force Ghostibehere to pitch-fork the puck out of the zone instead of giving him time to make a tape-to-tape pass.
15:38 – 16:07 (29 seconds)
A neutral zone face-off is controlled by Carolina and Geekie is back to playing defense. Again, there isn’t much heading his way until the end of the shift when is at the end of a nice cross-ice pass in the neutral zone. With a little space he fed the puck to Atkinson in the slot, but the shot is deflected out of play.
Third Period
2:35 – 3:23 (48 seconds)
Geekie jumped on the ice for his first shift of the final frame just in time for Erik Cernak to ice it. He lost the defensive zone face-off, but made up for it with two nice plays. The first was from behind his own net as he didn’t rush things and found Hagel along the boards for the easy clear. A few seconds later he has the puck in the neutral zone without many options so he eased it into the Carolina zone after making sure the puck was over the red line. The shift ended with a Lilleberg penalty.
6:44 – 7:59 (1:15)
Geekie popped onto the ice at the tailend of a Lightning power play. He brought it through the neutral zone and instead of just dumping it deep, threaded a pass to Hagel at the blueline which allowed the Lightning to maintain control a little longer. There wasn’t much involvement for the rest of the shift.
10:30 – 10:40 (10 seconds)
A quick shift ended with the puck deflected into the crowd. With the TV timeout, Coach Cooper elected to swap lines.
12:52 – 13:25 (33 seconds)
With the lead, Geekie is out there with Hagel and Zemgus Girgensons. He got involved on a forecheck and disrupted a breakout, but is back on the bench quickly as Coach Cooper is rotating lines quickly.
19:44 – 20:00 (16 seconds)
He took the face-off following Kucherov’s third goal (and lost it). Time ticked away as the Lightning skated away with the vicotory.
Overall, it was a solid game. Sometimes he looked a little tentative, opting to stay back rather than engage on a play. That confidence will come as he gets more comfortable on the ice. It’s not easy playing in an 11/7 rotation since he had to constantly adjust to different linemates.
While his 20% CF% isn’t pretty, the actual shots while he was on the ice was 3-3 and the scoring chances were 4-3 in favor of Carolina. The high-danger chances were 2-1 in favor of the Lightning while he was on the ice. Not too shabby, especially against the Hurricanes.
It was a solid start, and there was a lot to like about his game.
