If you’re looking for a bright spot in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s season-opening loss to the New York Rangers, it’s that it wasn’t as bad as last year’s 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. New York capitalized on special teams, scoring a power play goal and a short-handed goal (both by Mika Zibanejad) while Igor Shesterkin stopped 26 of 27 shots. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, several of the sparkling variety, in the loss while Steven Stamkos had the lone goal.
The Lightning had the first shot on goal as a long flip in by Nikita Kucherov was deflected by Steven Stamkos in front of the net, but Igor Shesterkin was able to knock it aside.