Conor Geekie has been a quick study in Lightning training camp. And whether the organization’s top prospect has done enough to crack the team’s opening night roster remains to be seen.
But he certainly won over his teammates Wednesday night in the Lightning’s 2-1 overtime preseason loss to the cross-state rival Panthers.
A key component of the Lightning’s championship teams was how tight knit they were, how they battled for each other through deep playoff runs, how they came to each other’s aid and put their bodies on the line when it mattered most.
Geekie is new to the organization, arriving this summer from Utah in the Mikhail Sergachev trade, but he showed Wednesday that he’s already learned that part of being a Bolt.
In the second period, he watched the league’s reigning scoring champion, right wing Nikita Kucherov, drag down Panthers prospect Josh Davies after Davies dropped Lightning captain Victor Hedman with a hard open-ice hit.
Kucherov received a roughing penalty, and Florida capitalized with Zac Dalpe’s power-play goal to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. But when Anthony Cirelli’s second line was called to go on the ice roughly 2 ½ minutes later, Geekie, who was centering the Lightning’s fourth line, jumped over the boards instead to settle some unfinished business with Davies.
“I looked back and his leg was over the boards, kind of assumed what he was going to do,” said second-line left wing Brandon Hagel. “So I just let him have it.”
Geekie found Davies, cross checked him and then dropped his gloves, landing five hard right-handed punches before taking Davies to the ground, a short-lived fight that woke up the Amalie Arena crowd and charged the Lightning bench.
“It’s one of those things, it doesn’t matter if it’s Heddy or whoever it is,” Geekie said. “I think anyone gets hit like that, someone’s got to step up. And I figured that I could be that guy. It worked out, but anyone could do it. I’m sure a lot of guys were thinking the same thing as me.”
“Whether it’s training camp or not, everyone’s got each other’s backs,” Geekie added. “And I think that’s why they’ve been so successful. I think I was just kind of playing in the moment. And I wasn’t letting get him in the way.”
Geekie drew a two-minute cross-checking minor, a two-minute instigating minor, a five-minute fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct penalty, but his action made a huge impression on teammates.
The Lightning have given Geekie his share of minutes this preseason, and the 20-year-old promised to do everything he could to force his way onto the regular-season roster. And he’s shown the skill and size that made the Lightning covet him so much that they were willing to trade away a piece of their future in Sergachev.
But the way Geekie jumped into an enforcer role Wednesday night might have been his biggest moment this preseason.
“It just gains so much respect and just shows ... he has in him understanding the culture in this dressing room,” Hagel said. “And as a young guy, everyone has to make their mark in some way or another to get noticed. … Everyone had to go through it as young guys — gain your elders’ trust, I guess — but yeah, I think it’s an unbelievable job by him.”
The moment wasn’t lost on Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
“First of all, Geekie is new to the organization. So it’s not like he’s been around these guys a ton,” Cooper said. “He’s been working through training camp. But just to see that come out of him — again in a game that really in the big picture doesn’t mean anything in the standings — but it meant something to the guys, and it meant something to him. And that goes miles in the locker room.”
