Back to work for the Bolts

They sat in their locker room stalls socially distanced.

Not all of their teammates were in the same locker room either.

During meetings, they wore masks. Entering and exiting the building they wore masks. Walking around the facility they wore masks.

They were tested for coronavirus upon entering, a now daily occurrence.

The media who normally sit behind the home team bench for practices were now sequestered in an opposite corner of the arena stands, far enough away from the playing surface to eliminate the risk of contamination. Interviews weren't conducted face-to-face or in scrum settings in the locker room but over Zoom video calls, players entering a sterile, empty room inside the locker room corridor and sitting in front of a laptop while fielding questions from the socially-distanced reporters on the promenade level concourse.

The Tampa Bay Lightning opened training camp Monday at AMALIE Arena in preparation for the Stanley Cup Playoffs under the protocols of the new normal. And while everything outside of the actual action on the ice felt different and strange and unfamiliar, once the players laced up their skates and got to the playing surface, the familiarity of skating and drills and playing with teammates took over.

"I think we're still trying to figure things out as we go," Tyler Johnson said following the conclusion of the second session of Monday's training camp opener. "Once you're on the ice, it's pretty normal out there."

The Lightning spent their first day of training camp broken into two groups, each with an equal amount of 16 players. Having not played a competitive game since March 10, Monday's opener was about trying to ease back into action, getting used to the speed of practice, refamiliarizing with the systems and concepts the team will employ once the playoffs begin.

"Today was just a lot of flow drills, a lot of pace, some skating," Johnson said. "There wasn't too much rust out there I don't think just because it was just more designed to get some movement, get some passes. We really haven't done any team stuff or battles or anything like that. I think that's where the rust would come from. Today was a good day just to get our toes in the water a little bit and get going."

Training camp will continue through next Sunday, at which point the Lightning will head to Toronto to enter the Eastern Conference bubble and begin their quest to win a Stanley Cup nobody was sure would ever be awarded this season. They'll have three days off over the 14-day camp. Intra-squad scrimmages will also be mixed throughout to ramp up the intensity and simulate, as much as possible, the intensity of playoff hockey.

As for the opening day of camp, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was asked on one of those Zoom calls whether today's action was what he wanted to see from his team on the first day back from the pause.
"I'm not sure what I wanted it to be to be honest," Cooper answered. "But I know how I wanted to feel when I left, and I wanted to feel great and I did. That's a positive sign. I liked where the guys were at. I wasn't sure what my expectations were going to be, but it was all positive. Ultimately, I was really excited to be back, and I felt that vibe from the guys as well."

STAMKOS SKATES ALONE:Lightning captain Steven Stamkos was the only player on the 33-man camp roster who didn't participate during either of the two practice sessions.

That was expected. Bolts general manager Julien BriseBois said Saturday Stamkos had suffered a new lower-body injury during Phase 2 informal skates unrelated to the surgery he had in early March and wouldn't be a full participant when camp opened.

But between sessions one and two Monday, while the Zamboni was still cleaning the ice from the morning skate, Stamkos came out and did some light skating. Once the Zamboni exited, his skating got a little more intense and he took a few shots on an empty net.

Cooper said Stamkos probably would miss a couple practices to start training camp but there is no concern he won't be ready once the Lightning begin their round robin schedule August 3 against Washington.

"The plan in any of these situations is not necessarily to have him be on the ice full practice July 13," Cooper said. "The plan is to make sure he's in optimum position to go when we start playing games up in Toronto. And we've got a little bit of time up until then. It's always a good sign when your players are getting back out on the ice. It's going to be baby steps, but every day the report is a good one. There's no taking a step back, so that's a good sign for us."

LINES AND PAIRINGS: BriseBois said Saturday every player that entered the pause with an injury had recovered from that injury.

Monday's first day of training camp offered no surprises.

Jan Rutta was back to pairing with Victor Hedman during the morning session. Rutta missed the final 17 games before the pause with a lower-body injury. Hedman sat out the last two games of the regular season with a lower-body injury, but those two were back in their top pairing when camp opened.

Ryan McDonagh, who said he tweaked an injury in the final game before the pause at Toronto, skated alongside familiar partner Erik Cernak during the second session. Mikhail Sergachev and Kevin Shattenkirk were back together.

Among the reserve defenseman, Braydon Coburn partnered with Zach Bogosian. And Luke Schenn (morning session) and Cal Foote (afternoon session) rotated among the other defensemen in their groups.

With Stamkos out, Carter Verhaeghe got a turn on the top line alongside Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the morning session. Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn also skated as a formidable trio in the morning session as did Alexander Volkov, Mitchell Stephens and Mathieu Joseph.

In the afternoon, newcomers Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow lined up on the wings with Tyler Johnson at center. The fourth line trio of Pat Maroon, Cedric Paquette and Yanni Gourde that was so effective early in the season, particularly during the Bolts' Global Series wins in Sweden, re-emerged in camp.

Callups Alex Barre-Boulet, Gemel Smith and Luke Witkowski rounded out the forward lines from the second session.