Erne tries to center the puck; he scored the Lightning goal./CARMEN MANDATO
Wednesday, 2 a.m.
The boys are back. At least, they're back in the penalty box.
The Lightning finally returned to the ice Tuesday night in Tampa, or at least very near it.
The Lightning and Carolina combined for 18 penalties in their preseason opener Tuesday night, a match won 2-1 by Carolina after Alexander Volkov twice had a tying goal disallowed. Carolina got power play goals from Justin Williams and Teuvo Teravainen in the victory.
Leighton makes one of his 20 saves./CARMEN MANDATO
Adam Erne scored for the Bolts.
Tampa Bay played backup goalie Michael Leighton, who stopped 20 of 22 goals.
Officials have said they will crack down on slashing calls this year, and Tuesday night's game followed the plan.
Volkov had two goals called off for Bolts./CARMEN MANDATO
"That's the whole thing, the game's not fun, it's not fun to watch," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. “There's 30 minutes of special teams. I don't think that's what's intended for our game is for it to be a game of special teams.
"I don't know how long this will last, but it is going to change a lot of the way the game's played, that's for sure. The tough part for it is, some of these kids are getting one exhibition game, maybe two. That's it, and this is your one time you get to evaluate them against not your own players but against other players. And some of them it's hard for them to get on the ice because there's so many special teams. I guess from an organization standpoint it's a little tough. I don't know, we'll see how this plays out. I can't imagine this is going to continue the way it is."
The Lightning plays at Carolina on Wednesday for its second preseason game.
Cooper looks in at the Lightning loss./CARMEN MANDATO
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