Sunday, 4 am.
If you're wondering where the Lightning's points have disappeared to, the solution is easy.
Just look in the sin bin.
The Lighting penalized their way out of another point Saturday night, losing a 3-2 overtime decision to the Nashville Predators. The Bolts led 2-1 with 5:36 to play, but allowed the Preds to come back and win.
The Bolts took five penalties in the game, including a too-many-men on the ice penalty in overtime. It was the Lightning's second too-many-men penalty of the night.
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"That probably happens how many times a game?" Lightning coach Jon Cooper askedd. "Especially the first one. If that's the way it's going to be, there would be 25 too many men (penalties) every night."
The Bolts fell to 5-3-2 after 10 games, a pedestrian start for the best team in the NHL's regular season a year ago.
A common refrain this season has been a protest against comparisons to last season, suggesting that "this is a new group." Maybe. But it isn't an expansion team. The Bolts seem to be clearly underperforming.
“A missed opportunity," Cooper called it. "It was. a game I felt we had in control of from the drop of the puck until the end. That’s what’s really, really disappointing about it. We played well. To come away with one point,
that’s too bad. We can’t take five penalties. If you do you have to find a way to kill it off, especially that last one. The game tying goal, we have to kill it off. On the tying goal, we have the puck on our stick and we don't get it out."
Ryan Ellis scored 3:15 into overtime for the winner. Calle Jarnkrok and Roman Josi also scored, and Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots for the Predators, who are 13-1-2 against Tampa Bay in the last 16 meetings.
Tampa Bay got goals from Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson. Curtis McElhinney made 37 saves.
"I think five on five we played well enough to win, but again, we took some unnecessary penalties, some untimely penalties." Stamkos said. "We have
to find a way to kill those off. We’ve got to be smarter. We took some offensive zone penalties, some too many men penalties. Those are easy, easy fixes. "
Tampa Bay begins a stretch of five-straight contests on the road. First up is a three-game-in-four-nights trip to New York City, starting with Tuesday’s matchup at the New York Rangers (7:30 p.m. puck drop). The Lightning won’t play again at Amalie Arena until a rematch with the New York Rangers on November 14.
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