Sunday, 4 a.m.
The season is still new. The ice is still fresh.
Why, then, do the Tampa Bay Lightning seem lost already?
The Lightning dropped their second game, both at home, losing to the New Jersey Devils 5-3. The Bolts have given up ten goals in their two losses.
This time, the offense struggled. The Bolts fell behind 3-0 in the first period, getting off just two shots. Tampa Bay rallied with two goals in the second period to narrow the deficit, but gave up two goals in a two-minute period as the Devils closed it out.
The awful first period came as a surprise to coach Jon Cooper.
"We were totally fine," Cooper said of the early minutes. "I actually liked the way we were playing. We gave one (goal) up, and it seemed like we lost our confidence. We kind of played more not to loses than to win the game. It's a tough league to go down three in.
"Urgency won't be a problem with this team. We didn't go from a good team to a bad team in two games. We have a lot of veterans in that room."
The dagger for the Devils came in the third period when Jesper Bratt scored a short-handed goal.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 22 shots, but he gave up five goals. In two games, he's given up nine goals after a preseason when his play was limited.
Scoring for the Bolts in the second period were Yanni Gourde and Ryan McDonough.
The Bolts play at Boston Monday at 1 p.m.