A little rusty? Lightning throttled by Rangers in season opener.

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 1, 2026

Published in Hockey

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NEW YORK — Lightning coach Jon Cooper admitted he was a little worried going into Tampa Bay’s season opener against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Tampa Bay’s opponent had played Tuesday, working off any first-game rust.

The Lightning, who again entered the season with lofty expectations, struggled out of the gate in midtown Manhattan.

Tampa Bay fell behind by two goals early, in part because of misfortune. The Lightning yielded their first goal on a Rangers power play after they were pinned in their own end with one player without a stick. Two other Rangers goals hit off skates twice before going in during the 5-1 Tampa Bay loss.

No one in the room needs to be reminded of last season’s 1-4-2 start before the team finished with 106 points.

There will be things to work on. The Lightning power play was 0 for 6 in 12 minutes of man-advantage time. The Lightning had eight shots on goal in that span, including some time in the third when they had 6-on-4 for an extra attacker.

The game ended with the ultimate insult: Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin scored a near 200-foot goal into an empty net.

The Rangers struck twice in the first 11 minutes. With the Lightning on the power play after a holding penalty on J.J. Moser, defenseman Victor Hedman broke his stick, then center Anthony Cirelli handed his back to Hedman.

The Lightning weren’t able to clear to get re-equipped, and Pavel Dorofeyev’s shot from the right circle hit hard off the post and right to Mika Zibanejad, whose shot beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to the left post, giving New York a 1-0 lead 5:34 into the game.

Lightning defenseman John Carlson’s turnover led to a second Rangers goal at 10:51 after Oliver Bjorkstrand picked Carlson’s pocket and found Dorofeyev to finish a 2-on-1 breakaway.

Eeli Tolvanen’s goal just 1:40 into the second was a backbreaker, not only because it gave New York a 3-0 lead, but because Tolvanen was simply centering the puck toward the net and it went off Hedman’s skate, then Charle-Edouard D’Astous’ and in.

Nikita Kucherov scored the Lightning’s lone goal. Ilya Mikheyev’s shot attempt on the rush went hard off the end boards to Kucherov along the left post. Kucherov backhanded a centering pass to the front of the net and the puck went off Rangers forward Noah Laba and in.