Five takeaways from the game: Canes-Lightning

Thoughts, observations and notes from the Carolina Hurricanes’ 4-3 preseason loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

— Want to make the team? Dropping the gloves to defend a teammates never hurts and defenseman Haydn Fleury was quick to jump Anthony Cirelli of Tampa Bay after Cirelli took a run at Canes center Derek Ryan.

“That’s a kid who looks hungry and looks like he wants to be in the National Hockey League,” Canes coach Bill Peters said.

Fleury laughed after the game, saying he had eight penalty minutes all of last season. After the dustup with Cirelli, he got two minutes for instigating, five for fighting and 10 for misconduct. “That’s 17 right there and a long period,” he said.

Fleury, who landed the biggest blows, was left with a red spot over his left eye. He said it was his first fight since he was 19. Then again, he’s just 21.

He returned to make a nice defensive play, breaking up a two-on-one rush by Tampa after Slavin had fallen in the offensive zone.

— Odds are, Martin Necas will be headed back to the Czech Republic when the preseason ends. He’s dynamic and he’s fun to watch on the ice, but Ryan is playing well and there are other centers like Lucas Wallmark making a push for a roster spot.

Necas looked comfortable playing the point on the power play Wednesday, quickly moving the puck to Elias Lindholm, who found Wallmark open in the slot for a score. Necas said after the game that he played the point all of last season with Brno in the Czech league.

Necas, on his second preseason game: “It was faster and a good game and I liked it. It’s good to play on the smaller rink with more scoring chances. But we lost and we need to be better.”

— Jaccob Slavin has played the right side defensively before and often has said he doesn’t mind it. But Slavin, a lefty paired Wednesday with Fleury, another lefty, made some uncharacteristic errors playing his off side and was minus-3 for the game.

No worries for the Canes. Slavin and Pesce are a perfect fit on the back end and will play together again this season. They also were on the ice Wednesday when Mikhail Sergachev scored the Lightning’s third goal.

— Seven preseason games may seem two or three too many, but that’s how many the Canes have scheduled. A few years ago, Jeff Skinner suffered a concussion in a seventh preseason game, a needless injury that kept him out early in the regular season. There’s always that fear.

The Canes just completed three games in three days, with travel from Buffalo to Tampa, Fla., and then back to Raleigh. While the playing rosters changed, that’s considerable travel.

“The guys who have been playing a little bit of hockey are ahead of the guys who haven’t,” Peters said.

Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho and Lindholm put in their first game Wednesday.

— After all the buildup over the Canes trading for goalie Scott Darling, the wait will continue a few days. Peters said Darling was a “little banged up” — although not offering specifics — but might be able to get in Saturday’s road game against Washington.

Peters said Darling would practice Friday — the team is off Thursday — and said, “He should get some minutes in Washington, I think.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Five takeaways from the game: Canes-Lightning."