Friday, 4 a.m.
If you are looking for a lesson from a disappointing opener for the Tampa Bay Lightning, try this one.
They've got to learn to slam the door.
The Lightning opened their new season Thursday night in horrible fashion. The Bolts blew a 3-1 lead and lost 5-4 to the Ottawa Senators.
"That's a cardinal sin to be at home and have the lead and lose it," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "It was probably creeping up on us. In terms of third period, we had nothing goint on either way. We were getting tothe end it looked like "let's go ot overtime and see who gets the other (point).
"It was Game One. I don't know if our execution was there as teh game went on. When you don't execute it makes you kind of slow. That kind of crept into our game. They executed better than we did down the stretch.
Granted. it is just one of 82 games. Still, it had a particular sting. The Bolts lept to leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in the first period. But after that, Ottawa controlled the play. The Senators outshot the Bolts 34-24.
Ottawa's memorable goals were a rebound off the post and off of Andrew Vasileveski's back. Ottawa's fourth goal came with 1:47 to play when Jack Sanderson intercepted a pass and drove to the net. Shane Pinto poked the puck into the net.
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed four goals in 33 shots.
The Bolts jumped to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Oliver Bjorkstrand and Braydon Point early. After the Senators scored a goal, Nikita Kucherov scored his first of two goals.
In between the goals by Kucherov, Ottawa scored four straight, two of them by Shane Pinto.
Kucherov had two goals and Point had a goal and two assists.
The Bolts play again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. against the New Jersey Devils at the newly named Benchmark International Arena (formerly Amalie Arena).