In their first game, the Tampa Bay Lightning started fast, then stopped skating in a 5-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators. In their second game they never got out of the gate as the New Jersey Devils outplayed them heavily in the first period, scoring three times, on their way to a 5-3 win. After a second period rally brought the Bolts within a goal, the Devils scored two goals in less than two minutes to reestablish their three-goal lead.
The Lightning made a small line-up change as Jack Finley made his season debut with Curtis Douglas cycling out of the line-up. Coach Jon Cooper also moved Max Crozier up to play with Victor Hedman while Darren Raddysh paired with Emil Lilleberg. The changes didn’t help the Lightning’s cohesion on the ice as they struggled to connect passes out of their zone and New Jersey was more than happy to poach the passes in the neutral zone.
Timo Meier kicked off the scoring eight minutes into the game as he fought through a scrum to poke home his own rebound. The play started in the neutral zone after Anthony Cirelli flipped the puck out of his own zone into no-mans-land. New Jersey recovered and entered the zone to start the play. Three minutes later, Arseny Gritsyuk blew through the neutral zone and centered the puck to Connor Brown who had beaten Emil Lilleberg to the slot.
While the penalty kill was the best part of the Lightning’s game, going 4-for-4 on the night, three of those penalties came in the first period and killed any type of flow Tampa Bay tried to muster. Still, it was the Lightning’s inability to connect in the middle of the ice that was their biggest flaw. Max Crozier tried to force a pass to center ice on a regroup. New Jersey controlled it and entered the zone. Nico Hischier would eventually wrap a shot around the net that Andrei Vasilevskiy deflected away with his stick. Unfortunately, the puck went right into Crozier’s skate and bounced into the net.
Two shots on goal were all the Lightning had on the board after the first 20 minutes. The middle frame went a little better as they were able to stay in the New Jersey zone. Coach Cooper shook up the lines, moving Brandon Hagel up to play with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. The better play paid off as Yanni Gourde beat Jacob Markstrom up high off of a rush for his first goal of the season.
Hagel came close on a rush of his own as he rang a shot off the crossbar. (A mic’d up Hagel chastised the gods as he went to the bench, exhorting “Go in the [expletive deleted] net for me!”) More sustained pressure late in the period led to Ryan McDonagh teeing up a shot and ripping it home to bring the score to 3-2. Early in the third the Lightning had a power play, and that’s where the game turned.
Nikita Kucherov had the puck along the boards and he floated a pass to the center of the ice where Raddysh was waiting. Kucherov threw a change-up when he needed to throw a fastball, and Jesper Bratt pounced on the puck and was off to the races. He juked Vasilevskiy and put it home for a back-breaking short-handed goal.
New Jersey smelled the blood in the water and pounced as Connor Brown wristed a shot from the left of Vasilevskiy that fooled the netminder. Just like that, the Lightning were down three goals again. Like they did in the first game, the Lightning would add one late to generate some false hope as Darren Raddysh wristed in a shot with just under four minutes to go. With the goaltender pulled, the Lightning padded their shot total a little, but couldn’t get it past Markstrom or the Devils defense.
With Jack Hughes in the penalty box after Markstrom fired the puck in the crowd, the Devils blocked nine shots in the final two minutes to seal the win.
The Lightning will head out on the road to try and right the ship as they take on the Boston Bruins on Monday afternoon.
Goals
Timo Meier (Dawson Mercer, Nico Hischier) 1-0 Devils
Connor Brown (Arseny Gritsyuk, Luke Hughes) 2-0 Devils
Nico Hischier (Timo Meier, Luke Hughes) 3-0 Devils
Yanni Gourde (Brayden Point, Max Crozier) 3-1 Devils
Ryan McDonagh (Brandon Hagel, Max Crozier) 3-2 Devils
Jesper Bratt (Unassisted) Short-handed, 4-2 Devils
Connor Brown (Arseny Gritsyuk, Simon Nemac) 5-2 Devils
New Jersey goal! Scored by Connor Brown with 13:31 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Arseny Gritsyuk and Simon Nemec. Tampa Bay: 2 New Jersey: 5 #NJDvsTBL #GoBolts #NJDevils
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 9:25 PM
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Darren Raddysh (Oliver Bjorkstrand, Gage Goncalves) 5-3 Devils
"Just shoot it!!!" – Phil Raddy gets the puck on net! #NJDvsTBL 🎧: boltsaud.io/live 📻: 102.5 The Bone
— Lightning Audio Network (@boltsradio.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 10:01 PM
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