Preseason Game 1: Tampa Bay Lightning versus St. Louis Blues in Orlando

With most of the familiar faces (Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, Victor Hedman and Ryan Malone among others for Tampa Bay) back in their respective home cities of Tampa and St. Louis, the Lightning began the exhibition portion of the 2013-14 preseason, overcoming a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Blues 4-3 in a shootout win in front of 6,162 fans at the Amway Center in Orlando Wednesday night.

During the first period, the Lightning were outshot 11-2, with starting goaltender Cedric Desjardins stopping 10 of those shots. Dmitri Jaskin got the Blues on the board, scoring at 12:52 on assists from Pat Cannone and Ty Rattie.

The deficit doubled early in the second when Jaskin scored again at 1:52, this time getting help from Taylor Chorney.

At 11:51, Desjardins was pulled for the sake of giving some work to Kristers Gudlevskis.

St. Louis spread their lead to 3-0 at 15:56 when Jaden Schwarz scored on a shot taken between the blue line and the face-off circle. He was assisted on the play by Christian Hanson.

The Lightning finally got on the scoreboard at 18:46 on a powerplay goal from Adam Erne that ricocheted off the post and in. Mark Barberio and Valtteri Filppula chipped in with the helpers.

The Lightning tightened things up at 1:31 of the third, scoring another power play goal from Erne. This time, Cedric Paquette and J.T. Brown offered assistance.

Tom Pyatt tied the game up at 9:11 on assists from Brown and Matt Carle.

Regulation ended with the teams tied at three and nothing was resolved in overtime, so the teams headed to the shootout. There, Erne capped off his great night, along with Filppula, notching goals while the Blues were unable to convert.

So what is one to take away from the first exhibition game of the year, a game that is, let's face it, a glorified scrimmage?

"You look for guys to compete. There isn't a team in the league right now that's mastered any of their systems, so you're just looking for your guys to compete. If they make mistakes, you want them to make mistakes of commission. We made a few tonight but the guys hung in there. They had probably had every reason to sit back and look at the score of 3-0 and say 'it's not our night' but they didn't do it and that's what we're looking for." - Lightning head coach Jon Cooper

Game notes:

• This was the sixth exhibition game the Lightning have played in Orlando, The first was when they hosted the Philadelphia Flyers during the inaugural preseason of 1992.
• If you're considering buying a Radko Gudas sweater, be advised that he has swapped #75 for #7.
• While the official announcement on who will be the next team captain is slated for October 1st, tonight's assistant duties were shared between B.J. Crombeen, Matt Carle and Nate Thompson,
• The Lightning didn't record their fourth shot on goal until the 10:11 mark of the second period.