There were so many positive numbers for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nikita Kucherov had two goals. The power play went 2-for-3. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 29 saves. Curtis Douglas knocked out a veteran fighter eight seconds into his first NHL shift. Yet, in the end, a lack of execution allowed two points to slip through their fingers as the Ottawa Senators scored four goals in a row on their way to a come-from-behind 5-4 victory.
The Lightning came out with verve and vigor in front of the home crowd as they played a north-south game that troubled the Senators early on. The ornery edge that they showed in the final two pre-season games against the Florida Panthers carried over as Douglas dropped the gloves against Kurtis MacDermid in a crowd-pleasing fight.
Oliver Bjorkstrand tapped home a pass from Jake Guentzel on the power play to open the scoring a few minutes later. Brayden Point doubled the lead shortly after with his first of the season. Ottawa got one back on their first power play of the season as Cozens redeemed himself in the eyes of the Ottawa faithful with his first goal of the season.
A scrum by Vasilevskiy’s net led to a host of penalties. A fight between Emil Lilleberg and Donovan Sebrango made for a crowded penalty box for both sides. The Bolts would extend their lead to 3-1 before the period ended as Nikita Kucherov begans his Hart Trophy campaign with a power play goal.
From there the tempo of the game changed. Midway through the second Ottawa started to take control and frustration seemed to seep into the Lightning’s game. Their forecheck dissipated and the turnovers increased. Head coach Jon Cooper summed it up after the game,
“When you don’t execute, it makes you look slow…Our execution has to get better”.
Ottawa’s execution wasn’t lacking, nor was their luck. Less than a minute into the period, Artem Zub launched a shot from the blueline that struck the crossbar, Vasilevskiy’s back, and then over the goal line. Shane Pinto would get behind the defense with just under five minutes to go in the period and he beat Vasy cleanly.
The third period was a continuation of the second as the Lightning’s forays into the zone were quickly defused and shunted away from danger. With a lack of pressure facing them, Ottawa’s defense quickly and easily moved the puck out of the zone.
Just when it seemed like the Lightning would garner at least a point out of the disappointing final forty minutes, an outlet pass by Darren Raddysh was picked off in the neutral zone by Jake Sanderson. The young defender drove the net and forced Vasilevskiy to make a tough save. The netminder was off-kilter and unable to stop the follow up shot by Pinto that crossed the goal line.
The ageless Claude Giroux found the empty net to make it 5-3 before a late shot by Kucherov glanced in and out of the net to make it a 5-4 final.
The Lightning will shake this one off and get back to work on Saturday against the Devils. Perhaps the loss will serve as an early season wake-up call after a fairly successful pre-season. It’s going to be a tough march through the Eastern Conference this season and the Lightning can’t afford to let too many more of these games to slip away.
The Goals:
Oliver Bjorkstrand (Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
Brayden Point (Jake Guentzel, Darren Raddysh) 2-0 Lightning
Dylan Cozens (Brady Tkachuk, Jake Sanderson) Power Play, 2-1 Lightning
Nikita Kucherov (Victor Hedman, Brayden Point) Power Play, 3-1 Lightning
Artem Zub (Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle) 3-2 Lightning
Shane Pinto (Artem Zub, Brady Tkachuk) 3-3
Shane Pinto (Jake Sanderson) 4-3 Senators
Claude Giroux (Shane Pinto, Artem Zub) Empty Net, 5-3 Senators
Nikita Kucherov (Darren Raddysh, Victor Hedman) 6-on-5, Senators 5-4
