On Friday afternoon the Tampa Bay Lightning had its second and last scrimmage of the training camp at Amalie Arena. In comparison with Monday’s scrimmage Jon Cooper mixed up line combinations a little bit: Alex Killorn got more time on the first line with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson joined team Blue instead of Carter Verhaeghe and Mathieu Joseph.
Lightning lines from warmups. Steven Stamkos is not on the ice.
BLUE
Killorn-Point-Kucherov
Palat-Cirelli-Johnson
Barre-Boulet-Smith-WitkowskiWHITE
Maroon-Stephens-Paquette
Goodrow-Gourde-Coleman
Joseph-Volkov-Verhaeghe— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) July 24, 2020
With 5 defensemen on each team, pairings will be jumbled throughout. But first time through, Hedman partnered with Bogosian again. The rest of the pairs were the same: McDonagh-Cernak, Sergachev-Shattenkirk, Coburn-Rutta. #Bolts
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) July 24, 2020
If Monday’s scrimmage is remembered the most for solid defensive performances, both teams were more offensive orientated on Friday. Brayden Point opened the score in the first period, showing off his speed and beating Andrei Vasilevskiy on a breakaway. Later he scored another goal after a backhand Kucherov pass.
Turnin’ on the jets 💨 pic.twitter.com/MROdU3Y8cj
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 24, 2020
Cal Foote increased Team Blue’s advantage in the second period with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle. After that, Tyler Johnson scored a fourth goal for Team Blue, beating two defenceman on his way to the net. Team White answered with a lone goal by Cedric Paquette at the end of the scrimmage.
In a post-scrimmage zoom conference Jon Cooper noted Brayden Point’s explosiveness, adding that a four-month break helped him to fully recover from an injury which forced him to miss the first games of the last regular season.
Cooper on the scrimmages: “I think it’s time for us to go play somebody else.” 😂 pic.twitter.com/siIlo68kTA
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 25, 2020
Our reporter Matt also shared some thoughts on the bottom part of the Lightning’s roster.
Coburn’s looking a bit rejuvenated, Foote is looking more comfortable, these teams are wildly imbalanced, Verhaeghe deserves to not be scratched, Schenn shouldn’t see the ice come playoff time, a healthy Stamkos makes this F corps even scarier, and a partridge in a pear tree.
— Matthew Esteves (@mattestevesSBN) July 24, 2020
Curtis McElhinney was one of the players who caught my eye during both scrimmages; he allowed just one goal in 90 minutes of play.
#tblightning backup goalie Curtis McEhinney in midseason form – another stellar scrimmage. Four-five saves on this PP pic.twitter.com/ApV8WWhqDc
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) July 24, 2020
The Lightning have just one more day of the training camp ahead of them on Sunday. Later that day they’re leaving to Toronto to prepare for the exhibition game which is scheduled on next Wednesday.
Other News and Notes
Tampa Bay Lightning beat writer Joe Smith on why Zach Bogosian might deserved a spot on a top defence line [The Athletic, paid content]:
Bogosian, who has rehabbed from hip surgeries the previous two summers, didn’t play a ton of games this season (27 total and eight for the Lightning). But he started to feel more comfortable down the stretch with the Lightning, when he got shifts with Hedman, and carried that over into the four-month pause, when he didn’t skip a beat due to workouts in his home gym.
Accroding to Elliotte Friedman it is still not certain if the Arizona Coyotes current general manager John Chayka is coming to the hub city with a team. Reportedly Chayka also didn’t attend a dinner with Taylor Hall, who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, indicating that Coyotes and Chayka are probably heading into different directions.
While watching TOR/TB on @Sportsnet, a quickie blog on ARIZ/Chayka:https://t.co/IWPQOvxm5p
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 24, 2020
After presenting their name and logo on Thursday, the Seattle Kraken have reportedly sold 50% more merch than the Vegas Golden Knights did over the first 24 hours.
More @NHLSeattle_ Kraken good news: They sold over 50% more merch than the @GoldenKnights did for the same 24 hour period following both teams’ branding reveal. The Kraken are the top-selling team across all leagues on the Fanatics network of sites, per @Fanatics. pic.twitter.com/hjo06sK4IS
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) July 24, 2020
The NHL is planning to move the Arizona Coyotes to the Central Division when the Kraken join the league:
Just a reminder, and I just confirmed this with the NHL to make sure, but once Seattle enters the league for the 2021-22 season and joins the Pacific Division, the plan remains to move Arizona to the Central Division.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 24, 2020
Yesterday was the last day when the NHL teams could submit travel rosters for 24-team tournament.
NHL teams were told to submit their travel roster today, which is overall no more than 52 people total and no more than 31 players, per Bill Daly.
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) July 24, 2020
