Bolts and Cats add preseason chapter to already charged rivalry

The in-state rivalry between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers added another chapter to what's quickly becoming one of the National Hockey League's top grudge matches on Tuesday when they combined for 96 penalty minutes, five fights and two misconduct penalties in the Panthers' 3-2 preseason victory at Orlando's Amway Center.

The ire between the two teams stemmed from Sam Bennett running Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy behind the Bolts' net early in the second period, that egregious act resulting in a near line brawl as all the Lightning players on the ice went after Bennett. Corey Perry and Owen Tippett dropped the gloves to cap that melee. Bennett ended up fighting both Boris Katchouk and Mikhail Sergachev in separate bouts in the third period. Ross Colton and Radko Gudas squared off as did Zach Bogosian and Mason Marchment in the game's closing minutes.
The two teams already didn't much like each other following their highly-contentious First Round matchup last postseason, a series the Lightning won in six games on their way to winning back-to-back Stanley Cups. Tuesday's preseason game was a powder keg waiting to explode. And when Bennett unnecessarily ran into Vasilevskiy behind the net, the fuse had been ignited.

"That all probably escalated from the goalie bump, and it kind of went from there," Lightning assistant coach Derek Lalonde said following the Bolts' morning skate Thursday. "It's part of it. You learn many things in training camp. A lot of it is Xs and Os. A lot of it is compete. And that's another part of it, sticking up for teammates is all part of it. They're a really good team. They're not going to back down from anything either. No one's going to give an inch. Preseason or not, you're going to run into games like that. That's just the reality of it. I don't think either team thought a whole lot of it after the game, moved on from it and we'll see what tonight brings."
The Lightning and Panthers will play again tonight at AMALIE Arena, the second of three-straight games between the two teams to close out the preseason schedule. Whether there's any carryover from two nights ago remains to be seen.
But safe to say, these meetings are not your run-of-the-mill preseason game.
"It's something that will probably be a reaction of the game," Lalonde said. "Just like the other night."
There's a delicate balance between wanting to see your team stick up for a teammate and making sure not to put yourself in a dangerous situation for a game that is essentially meaningless. Following Tuesday's game, Lightning head Jon Cooper said he was proud of his team for the way they rallied around one another and didn't allow an opponent to take liberties.
Lalonde echoed that sentiment Thursday and said Tuesday's fisticuffs gave him and the coaching staff a chance to see what the makeup of this version of the Tampa Bay Lightning will look like. Every team has its own identity. Players like Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman, who would have been right in the middle of every scrum on Tuesday, no longer play for the Lightning.
For the coaches, the nastiness against Florida gave them a chance to see who are the players that will be in the thick of those melees, who will be there for their teammates this season.

"We liked the way the guys responded," Lalonde said. "And, again, every year you're looking for a different identity of a team. Some players that would have been in those type of situations as a response if you will are not here, so you're looking for possibly some other guys to do that. A couple guys, Boris and Bogosian and Perry, were in the middle of it. Again, you don't want to see things escalate in a bad way, but to me it's just all part of it, preseason or not. It was good to see some guys step up."
The Lightning's game group tonight will look as close to the Opening Night roster as we've seen so far this preseason. Tampa Bay's top power-play unit of Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn spent a sizable portion of morning skate running through drills, indicating all five will play in tonight's contest.
There's still a handful of prospects like Katchouk, Taylor Raddysh, Alex Barre-Boulet and Simon Ryfors trying to earn a spot on the roster too. These last two games remain an opportunity for them to play their way in.
"It was really encouraging that all four of those bubble guys who are battling for that spot improved," Lalonde said. "They all did very well the other day within that game. And I just thought as a whole, it helped our entire team. It was our best game that we played the entire preseason. We just looked way more in sync. Our structure looked good. We were skating. We looked fast, faster to the puck, faster in structure. And I think it helped that those players kind of on that bubble stepped their game up too. We're still evaluating. We'll keep evaluating through these two games and ultimately make that decision on Monday."