Wednesday, 4 a.m.
Yes, their star was missing. And their star after that. And the one after that. And the goaltender sat out. You could refer to this team as The-Rest-of-the-Lightning.
On the other hand, they led 3-0.
How does a professional hockey team lose a 3-0 game?
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The Tampa Bay Lightning allowed another comfortable lead to turn into an uncomfortable loss Tuesday, falling 4-3 in a shootout to the St. Louis Blues. Ryan O'Reilly scored the winning goal in the shootout.
The Bolts jumped off to one of their best starts of the season, taling to a 3-0 lead in the first 5:31 of the game. Anthony Cirelli scored the first goal, and Corey Perry and Erik Cernak scored two goals in five seconds. The Bolts had three goals in the first nine shots.
But then the scoring dried up. The Bolts didn't score on their next 30 shots, and missed on all three of their shootout shots. The Blue scored twice in the second period and once in the third to force overtime.
Perhaps the defeat was expected. The Bolts, already without Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, didn't have Steven Stamkos who was in Tampa for the birth of his second child. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had the night off.
Backup goaltender Brian Elliott stopped 30 of 33 shots.
The Lightning have lost five straight games to St. Louis. They are 4-15-3 lifetime in St. Louis.
The Bolts and Blues will play again Thursday night, this time in Tampa at Amalie Arena. The puck is scheduled to drop at 7 p.m.