As it did last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning will embark on a long preseason road trip, but not quite as long as last year's six-games-in-seven-nights gauntlet. Not that four games in five nights is easy. Tampa Bay has just one home game, the preseason finale, Oct. 2 against the Panthers.

Here is the schedule (all times eastern):

Sept. 21   at Dallas, 8:30 p.m.        

Sept. 22   vs. Blackhawks at Winnipeg, 8 p.m.

Sept. 23   at Edmonton, 9 p.m.

Sept. 25  at Calgary, 9 p.m.

Oct. 1      at Florida, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 2      vs. Panthers at St. Pete Times Forum, 7:30 p.m.