Friday, 4 a.m.
The season is early yet. However, the first leak in the roster of the Tampa Bay Lightning seems to be obvious.
They’re top-heavy.
Oh, the Bolts (4-3) have stars. Nikita Kucherov has eight goals already. Brandon Hagel has five in his last two games. Anthony Cirelli has five assists in two games.
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The Bolts, however, don’t have enough depth scoring. That, and considering the Andrei Vasilevskiy has not played well in his last two games (seven goals allowed on 31 shots). Vasilevskiy has lost three straight games.
"There are some hard parts to this game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We were willing to pay the price."
Hagel and Kucherov scored back-to-back in 2:35 of the second period. That gave the Bolts a 2-1.
It didn’t hold up, however. Minnesota scored on a power play and an empty netter in the third period to win 4-2 and run their record to 5-0-2.
The Bolts play Washington at home on Saturday night at 7 p.m.