The Tampa Bay Lightning answered an opening-night no-show with the kind of hard, direct game Jon Cooper wanted to see, beating the Washington Capitals 3-1 in their home opener at Benchmark International Arena on Saturday.
Two nights after a 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, Tampa Bay came out with far more edge. Charle-Edouard D’Astous opened the scoring, Conor Geekie buried what stood as the winner, and the Lightning spent the first 20 minutes putting Washington under a sustained squeeze.
By the first intermission, Tampa Bay held a 14-5 advantage in shots, led 25-12 in attempts and had won the faceoff battle 12-2. Brandon Hagel, who supplied two assists, said the difference was less about systems than the willingness to win pucks.
“It was compete,” Hagel said. “That was probably what was missing in the last game. It was not really a structural issue. It was about competing, winning battles in the dot, throughout the rink and in our own end.”
Geekie made it 2-0 at 16:30 of the opening period, firing home from the right circle. The Capitals, playing for the second consecutive night after opening their season with a 5-2 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, found more traction in the second. Justin Sourdif tipped in a puck at 7:04 to pull Washington within one.
That was as close as the Capitals got. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 19 saves, and his most important stop came midway through the third period. With Washington on the power play, Vasilevskiy got his right pad on Tom Wilson’s chance at 10:50 to protect the one-goal lead.
Tampa Bay backed its goaltender with 19 blocked shot attempts and a 30-24 edge in hits. Victor Hedman delivered a notable block, while Emil Lilleberg added a fight as the Lightning kept responding when the Capitals tried to change the tone. Jake Guentzel sealed the result with an empty-net goal with 2:05 left.
A return to the Lightning’s standard
Cooper had criticized the club’s lack of pushback against the Rangers. After Friday off, the coaching staff reinforced its message before Saturday morning’s skate, and the response came quickly.
“That is what we expect,” Cooper said. “Our job is to put a thumb on them a little bit, and they responded. I’m not going to call two games adversity, but you learn things about your club, and we learned some tonight.”
Geekie said the group made sure Thursday’s performance did not follow it into the home opener.
“We came out a little flat on Thursday, but that one was behind us and we were not going to allow it again,” Geekie said. “Every player stepped up. Lilleberg with the fight, Hedman with the big block — you can go right through the lineup.”
The win looked more like the formula that carried Tampa Bay to second place in the Atlantic Division last season. The Lightning went 50-26-6 for 106 points, finishing three points behind the Buffalo Sabres, and their best nights were built on the same details: pressure on pucks, clean work through the faceoff circle and enough defensive commitment to let their skill take over late.
“We set that tone last year, and maybe we got away from it early,” Hagel said. “It begins with work ethic and having things click the right way.”
Charlie Lindgren kept Washington in range with 27 saves. Tampa Bay went scoreless on three power-play opportunities and is 0-for-10 to begin the season, though Cooper saw plenty to like in the chances created by a unit featuring Guentzel, Hagel, Brayden Point and reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov.
“The power play was outstanding,” Cooper said. “There are nights when you score three on four chances and it surprises you. Then there are games where you go 0-for-3 and cannot believe one did not go in. That is hockey sometimes.”
For the Lightning, the larger takeaway was the reset after New York. The finish came on Guentzel’s empty-netter, but the game was won earlier — with Tampa Bay establishing that it was ready to outwork somebody again.
“It comes down to winning battles,” Cooper said. “We won a lot of them tonight.”
