The Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise has traditionally been a house of horrors for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Things did not get any better Saturday night, as the Lightning fell to the Florida Panthers 6-0, moving to 13-26-4-4 all time on the road against Florida. The loss ended the Lightning's 3 game winning streak and gave Tampa Bay their first loss of the year.
The Panthers used opening night momentum to jump all over the Lightning. Cory Stillman opened up the scoring, connecting on an odd-man rush and directing the puck past Dan Ellis for his first goal of the year; it all went downhill from there. David Booth connected on his first goal of the year at 14:25 of the first to extend the lead to 2-0. Steven Reinprecht gave the Panthers a three-goal lead less then a minute later at the 15:13 mark. Head coach Guy Boucher, trying to spark the team, replaced Ellis with Mike Smith in the hope that it would spark the team. It did not go as planned, as a little over three minutes later, Dennis Wideman extended the lead to 4-0.
The Lightning were able to pick up the pace a bit in the second period, putting more pressure on the Panthers, but Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun was there to stop the Lightning whenever they got close. Neither team scored in the second period, but one scary moment saw Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier block a slapshot off his hand. After being checked out by the trainers, and a visit with a bag of ice, Lecavalier was back out there, which is great news for the Lightning.
The third period saw the Panthers continue to roll, as David Booth added his 2nd goal of the game to go extend the lead to 5-0. Rostislav Olesz finished off the scoring for the Panthers at 17:25 of the third period to make it 6-0.
The Lightning will have to have a short memory, as they will take to the ice on Monday to take on the much-improved Dallas Stars teams, including former Tampa Bay Conn Smythe-winner and fan favorite Brad Richards returning to Tampa for the second time since he was traded. This will be a key, early-season test for the Lightning; it will be important for this team not to let one off-night snowball into something bigger. And it will be interesting to see how Boucher handles his first taste of adversity.
