That Lightning team went on to finish October tied with St. Louis for the best record in the NHL at 10-2-1, which was also a Bolts' franchise best record after 13 games.
So don't fret, fans.
The players and coaching staff certainly aren't.
"I think you've got to stay positive," Lightning forward Yanni Gourde said following the Bolts' practice session Friday at the Ice Sports Forum. "We're only at game two. There's no reason to be too hard on ourselves. We've just got to play the right way. The compete level's got to be high every game, and I think that's something we need to focus on."
The Lightning find themselves in the same position after two games this season as they did a year ago: sitting at 1-1-0 and answering questions about unexpected deficiencies in their game. Last year, it was the number of goals allowed. This season, it's an ability to score - the Bolts have scored just once in each of the first two games - and a power play that has dried up after leading the NHL last season.
"I don't think anybody's looking back to last October," Bolts defenseman Braydon Coburn said. "We're looking forward to the game [at home against Columbus] on Saturday and making sure we execute and do the things we need to do to get better. There's a bunch of things we worked on in practice today, and hopefully we can carry that over into tomorrow."
Ironically, Tampa Bay's play in their first two games this season probably warranted they lose the opener against Florida and beat Vancouver, the exact opposite of what actually transpired. Against the Canucks, the Lightning opened a 1-0 lead behind a 17-5 shot advantage in the first period and were in control throughout. That is until Vancouver broke through with less than 10 minutes remaining, tacked on another goal a little over a minute after and added two more empty-net tallies to seal the win.
The Bolts could have put the Canucks away with one more goal while up 1-0 but let them stay in the game. Once the Canucks were able to get on the scoreboard, momentum completely shifted in their favor, and they capitalized.
"I think if you took out 1:07 of the game, we would have won that game," Cooper said. "What's the saying, 'That's why you play the games.' One team, the ice can be tilted for a little bit and one team can have more shots and scoring chances and the other team can win. We've been on both sides of this. It can be a little bit frustrating just because we haven't played a whole ton of games and they want to do well in front of the home fans. But you play that game over and over and over again, I'm not so sure it would have been the same result. But, good on Vancouver, we had a chance to put them away and we didn't. And when you let a team hang around, sometimes this is going to happen and that's what happened."
There were improvements from the first game to the second for Tampa Bay. The Lightning started on time against Vancouver after they were outshot 16-4 in the first period versus Florida. The Bolts sent more pucks on net and created more scoring chances against the Canucks. By the end of the second period, Tampa Bay owned a 25-15 shot advantage. The Lightning were able to break the puck out of their own zone much cleaner. And the passing, a serious issue in the shootout win over Florida, was vastly crisper against Vancouver.
So despite the loss, the Lightning had plenty to point to in game two as positives they can build on.
"I think our execution was a little bit better in game two," Coburn said. "Obviously, not the result we wanted, but it's something we can work on and get ready for tomorrow. It's a long season, but, at the end of the day, we didn't play a good enough hockey game to win it."
Keep making the improvements they showed from game one to game two, however, and those wins will come for the Lightning.
Much like they did last season in October.
