Off to a flat start: Bolts fall to Pens on Opening Night

Opening Night began with plenty of pomp and circumstance inside Amalie Arena. The Lightning were introduced to the home crowd at center ice before an emotional ceremony sent the 2021 Championship banner to the rafters with the Stanley Cup on hand.
But when the puck was dropped and the new season officially got underway, the Bolts couldn't match the pregame energy, falling 6-2 to the Penguins.
The loss snaps a streak of seven-consecutive season-opening wins for Tampa Bay.

Pittsburgh opened the scoring 12 seconds into the middle frame. Andrei Vasilevskiy gathered a dump in behind his net and tried to clear up the left boards. Jeff Carter managed to knock down the clearing attempt along the wall and found Danton Heinen below the right circle for the goal before Vasilevskiy could scramble back to his net.
Former Bolt Brian Boyle struck four minutes later to double the Penguins' lead. From the right point, Sam Lafferty sent a beautiful saucer feed to Boyle streaking through the middle of the ice, and he slipped a shot through Vasilevskiy's five-hole.
Dominik Simon stretched Pittsburgh's lead to three just past the midway point of the third period. Simon gathered the puck at the right point and fired a seeing eye shot on goal that Vasilevskiy couldn't keep out.
Tampa Bay briefly had life when Anthony Cirelli cut the deficit to two with over five minutes remaining in the third. With the extra skater on, Cirelli found space in the slot and deflected Victor Hedman's point shot past Tristan Jarry to break up the shutout. It was short-lived hope for the Bolts, however, as Teddy Blueger quickly scored into the empty net 30 seconds later to reestablish the three-goal cushion for the visitors.
Alex Killorn once again got the Bolts within two with just over three minutes to play, but Bluegar and Bryan Rust quickly followed with empty-net goals to round out the scoring.
Vasilevskiy finished the night with 29 saves. Jarry wasn't as busy at the other end of the ice, making 24 stops on 26 shots.
Both teams finished 0-for-1 with the man advantage.
Tampa Bay now hits the road for a two-game road trip that begins on Thursday night against the Red Wings in Detroit.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
No Scoring
2nd Period
PIT | 0:12 Danton Heinen (1) - Jeff Carter
PIT | 4:11 Brian Boyle (1) - Sam Lafferty, Drew O'Connor
3rd Period
PIT | 11:32 Dominik Simon (1) - Kris Letang
TBL | 14:23 Anthony Cirelli (1) - Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos
PIT | 14:53 Teddy Blueger (1) - Unassisted - ENG
TBL | 16:49 Alex Killorn (1) - Steven Stamkos, Anthony Cirelli
PIT | 17:35 Evan Rodrigues (1) - John Marino - ENG
PIT | 18:11 Bryan Rust (1) - Unassisted - ENG