Thursday, 4 a.m.
Do not be overly impressed with how many weapons the Tampa Bay Lighting brought to the rink Wednesday night.
Not when you consider that they were shooting blanks.
The Bolts fired 47 shots at the Arizona Coyotes. They missed them all. They had five power plays. They didn't score on any of them. They also missed two of their three shootout attempts. It left the scatter-shooting Bolts with a 1-0 loss to the Coyotes.
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All of this was against Connor Ingram, a former Lightning prospect who came in with just three victories on the year. Yet, Ingram answered every question until he allowed a shootout goal by Steven Stamkos to dribble into the net.
"You can beat the team, but you still have to beat the goalie," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "Their goalie had a hell of a night."
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The Coyotes got off one 26 shots -- and didn't score until the shootout -- off of Brian Elliott.
It was further proof that shots don't tell a lot of the story of a hockey game, The Bolts had 37 shots through two periods, but without a goal, who will remember? Ingram had lost six of his previous seven, but that will be forgotten, too.
"I think we got tired," Cooper said, "getting in at 3:30 in the morning. In the third period, we got tired."
The Bolts play again Saturday night against Las Vegas at 10 p.m.