Savard joins Lightning for first practice

The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind for new Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman David Savard.
After being traded to the Lightning from Columbus Saturday afternoon, the 30-year-old flew in a private jet to join his new team late Sunday night in Nashville.
Monday, he got to meet most of his teammates in the morning. The rest he was introduced to during his first practice with the Bolts in the afternoon.

Savard said the situation is similar to when a player makes his National Hockey League debut. His came almost 10 years ago when he suited up for the Blue Jackets in the 2011-12 season opener October 7, 2011, ironically, also against Nashville, the same team he's expected to debut with the Lightning against on Tuesday. Savard spent the next 10 seasons with Columbus or the team's AHL affiliate at the time, the Springfield Falcons, so moving to a new locker room with different teammates is a position he's not all that familiar with.

"It was a little weird walking in. It felt like it was my first year again," Savard said of his first day training with the Lightning. "You're just trying to see everybody and say hi. They have a great group of guys here. I knew a few guys already. They made it really easy on me. I had a lot of fun today, and I think everybody worked hard, everybody looked good out there. I'm just so happy to be here and get going and go on a run with those guys. It's going to be awesome."
Savard already knows a few people on his new team. He trains during the summer with Yanni Gourde. And he sees Alex Killorn sporadically in the offseason in Quebec. Lightning backup netminder Curtis McElhinney played in Columbus from the 2013-14 season to 2016-17 and was a teammate of Savard's during those years.
"They all said the same thing, how great the group of guys was here and I'm so excited to be here," Savard said. "It's just going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to try to get to know everybody and go on a run and be part of the group and have some fun."
Savard partnered with Victor Hedman during Monday's practice on the Lightning's top pair. Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said the newcomer will likely start his Lightning career with Hedman, Savard's stay-at-home mentality combining well with Hedman's ability to drive offense.
But it's not set in stone those two will play together for the rest of the season either.
"We'll see what happens," Cooper said. "Victor's a 200-foot defenseman and helps create a lot of offense for us, and to have somebody back there that's reliable, they can be a good complement. It doesn't always work that way, but you've got to start him somewhere. For us, it seems like a pretty logical place to put him and see what happens. It's not to sit here and say two Victor Hedmans couldn't work well together, but to have somebody that can be back there and cover for Vic when he's out kind of helping us create offense, it's a good thing."
Savard said it was fun to get to play with Hedman rather than against him for the first time. The Lightning and Blue Jackets have faced each other in the First Round of each of the last two playoffs. And the two teams were placed in the same division for the first time this season with the NHL realigning the divisions due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and played six times already, most recently April 6 and 8 in Columbus. Savard was held out of that April 8 matchup in anticipation of a trade.
"The way he skates and the way he moves the puck, he's dominant out there," Savard said of Hedman. "To have the chance to practice with him and be able to play with him, it's going to be awesome. I think he's going to make my life really easy. I think it goes through the lineup, they have so much talent here I think the transition's going to be pretty easy. Everybody was welcoming this morning, so I feel right at home. I'm pumped to be here."
The Lightning play a different defensive system than Columbus, so Savard will need time to acclimate to Tampa Bay's style of play. But as a veteran in the League - he's skated in 597 games and will most likely reach the 600-game milestone Saturday when the Lightning host Florida at AMALIE Arena - the adjustment period shouldn't take too long.

"We tell our guys just to play hockey, and then we'll put you in our structure as we go," Cooper said. "The difference is it's not like this is his first game in the League. He's been around for a while. Even when you talk systems and you think our system is much different than Columbus, a lot of it's the same. I'm not worried in that regard. When you get new players, it just takes a little time for them to get comfortable. The least of the worries is what happens on the ice. It's what happens off the ice: where is the family, where are they going to stay, are they coming down, where's the hotel, the protocols, all these other things. Those are the things you have to worry about, and you try and look after for the player as much as possible. The hockey is the least of the player's worries."
STAMKOS STATUS: Steven Stamkos won't play in Tampa Bay's road trip finale Tuesday in Nashville, Jon Cooper said.
Stamkos is likely out when the Lightning return home to play Florida on Thursday too. The Lightning captain is listed as day-to-day.
"We'll see over the next week here how he progresses," Cooper said.
Stamkos was injured in the third period of Tampa Bay's 6-4 win in Columbus on Thursday and didn't play in the 3-0 shutout of the Predators Saturday in Nashville.