Alan Tays

On the day Denis Shvidki got out of immigration limbo, Brad Ference and Stephen Weiss went into Mike Keenan's doghouse.

The Florida Panthers' coach described Shvidki's play as "one of the bright lights" in Friday night's 5-2 exhibition loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Office Depot Center. For center Weiss and defenseman Ference, the picture was darker.

Keenan chided Weiss for not responding to the Lightning's physical play.

"They got a pretty good lick on him early in the game and he really didn't compete after that," Keenan said. "That's something he's got to get accustomed to in the National Hockey League. He's a small man to begin with (6-0, 183) and he's going to be a marked man - if indeed he makes the grade."

"I didn't get a lot of ice time," said Weiss, who logged just one minute, one second in the third period, "and when I did I wasn't productive enough."

Keenan's view of Ference's play was even more blunt. "Ference didn't play well and hasn't played well and is going to have to show something to his teammates. He's letting his teammates down by not competing at the level that he's capable of."

"Obviously he's trying to motivate me to be a better player," Ference said.

Keenan did like what he saw from two Panthers playing in their first exhibtion game - - Shvidki and Valeri Bure.

"I liked Shvidki's play tonight," Keenan said. "Valeri's Valeri. He's a threat when he plays and he played a pretty good hockey game for us for his first game in quite some time. He was an effective forward for us. He didn't finish, but he certainly played a game that was somewhat inspiring."

After a long wait, Shvidki solved his work-visa problems with an early-morning trip to the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Miami with Mike Santos, the Panthers' director of hockey operations.

"It was just paperwork," said Shvidki, who assisted on the Panthers' first goal, "but it was kind of a scary situation. I didn't want to lose my job."

"The thing with immigration is, you have no control." said Panthers General Manager Rick Dudley. "It turned out all right, obviously."

The Panthers had been bringing Bure along slowly after he underwent two surgeries on his right knee last season.

The Lightning broke open a 2-2 game with three third-period goals, including an empty-netter. Defenseman Pavel Kubina scored twice, including the final goal.

The Panthers got goals from Olli Jokinen in the first period and Viktor Kozlov in the second. Each wiped out a one-goal deficit.