The Tampa Bay Lightning wrapped up their 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase with a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers. Felix Robert and Maxim Groshev scored the the goals for the Bolts while Hugo Alnefelt stopped 18 of 20 shots in his second start of the tournament. For the weekend, Tampa Bay finished 1-1-1, with a win over Nashville, a tie/shootout loss to Carolina, and a regulation loss to Florida.
There was a bit of bad news from the game as Roman Schmidt left the game with about 11:30 to play in the first period. It looked like he tweaked something as he was skating off the ice on a line change and did not return.
It was a pretty solid three games for the youngsters, and while results are always secondary in these types of showcases, it was nice that they were able to celebrate a victory, something that didn’t happen last fall when they went 0-3. We’ll have a little more about how some of the players faired later this afternoon.
With the showcase over, the action returns to the Tampa area and the opening of the NHL portion of camp. The preludes are all done and it’s time for the real fun to begin.
Lightning / NHL News
Lightning Top 25 Under 25: #15 Maxim Groshev [Raw Charge]
After playing the last few seasons in Russia, Groshev will make his North American debut this season. Based on his play in the showcase, he should be spending the bulk of his time in Syracuse. An athletic forward with a bit more speed than opponent’s expect, Groshev plays a solid game that could translate well to a middle-six role in the NHL.
Raw Charge joins the For Hockey Fans Network [Raw Charge]
We’re back in the fold with some old friends from the SBNation days. Joining the network will help us bring more league-wide coverage to Lightning fans.
Steven Stamkos is 34th on the NHL Network’s Top 50 players [Twitter]
That seems like a fair placement. The man is still productive after all of these years.
Tomorrow 11am 👀
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) September 17, 2023
#GAMEONe pic.twitter.com/RovlSiFr0B
Camp opens up today at 11:00 A.M. Don’t expect too much action on the ice as Day One is usually filled with physicals, paperwork, and just settling into things.
Lightning announce season kick off celebration [Creative Loafing]
Opening night will have a ton of festivities surrounding the return of the NHL season, but the big news is that Big Boi, will be performing prior to the game. Sounds like fun.
The NHL Player Tiers 2023-24 [The Athletic]
TLDR:
Nikita Kucherov – Tier 2 (Franchise Player)
Brayden Point – Tier 2 (Franchise Player)
Victor Hedman – Tier 2 (Franchise Player)
Steven Stamkos – Tier 3 (All-Star Player)
Mikhail Sergachev – Tier 3 (All-Star Player)
Jarmo Kekalainen apologizes to Blue Jackets players [Aaron Potzline Twitter]
It’s not often that a general manager apologizes to his players, but the situation in Columbus is all but normal. Kekalainen stated that he apologized to the team in the aftermath of Mike Babcock’s resignation earlier in the week. The ownership group also released a statement regarding their deep frustration and disappointment in what took place.
The PWHL Inaugural Draft [The Ice Garden]
Taylor Heise has the distinction of being the first player drafted in the PWHL. The 23-year-old former captain of the University of Minnesota Gophers will be staying put as the Minnesota franchise used their first pick on the forward who put up 65 points (29 goals, 36 goals) in 38 games last year. The Ice Garden has all the results of the draft.
