Guentzel's Three-Point Night Powers Lightning Past Capitals 3-1 in Home Opener

TAMPA, Fla. — Two nights earlier, the Lightning opened the season by getting pushed around at Madison Square Garden. On Saturday, in their own building, they pushed back, and the whole arena felt the difference. A 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Benchmark International Arena was not a work of art. It was something coach Jon Cooper might like more: a response.

Tampa Bay (1-1-0) lost 5-1 to the New York Rangers in Thursday's season opener. In the home opener, Jake Guentzel had a goal and two assists, Charle-Edouard D'Astous and Conor Geekie scored in a dominant first period, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves, and the Lightning won the battles they had lost two nights before.

A Home Opener With an Edge

The tone was set before the puck dropped. The photos from the night include the ceremonial puck drop, with a Lightning player and a Capitals player bent over the faceoff dot and three guests in between them, plus the pageantry that goes with a first game at home. Then the puck dropped, and the pageantry got out of the way.

Tampa Bay got on the board 2:26 into the first period. Brandon Hagel sent a pass to D'Astous at the top of the right circle, and D'Astous snapped a wrist shot past Charlie Lindgren, short side, over the blocker. It was the kind of goal that looks routine and is not: a quick decision and a clean release.

The First Period Was a Statement

Cooper had made no secret of what bothered him about Thursday. He said afterward that he disliked the team's "lack of pushback" against the Rangers, and, according to NHL.com, he and his staff reminded the group in a meeting before Saturday's morning skate what needed to improve. The response was obvious from the first shift.

By the end of 20 minutes, the Lightning led shots on goal 14-5, shot attempts 25-12 and faceoffs 12-2. Geekie made it 2-0 at 16:30 with a one-timer from the right circle, off another Hagel pass, that beat Lindgren to the stick side. Hagel, who finished with two assists, did not hide the intention. "I think that's something maybe we thought was missing last game," he said, adding that "it was just compete and battle wins."

Washington Pushes Back

The Capitals had played the night before, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 in their season opener, and by their own admission were slow out of the gate. They found something in the second. At 7:04, Jakob Chychrun sent the puck toward the net from the point and Justin Sourdif redirected it past Vasilevskiy from the slot to cut the lead to 2-1.

"It's definitely good for the confidence, but two points would've been better," Sourdif said afterward. "I thought we didn't come out very strong." Lindgren, who finished with 27 saves, offered a kinder read of his team's night: "Credit to our group. I thought the second and third period we played some really good hockey."

For a few minutes, there was tension. Tampa Bay's power play, which went 0-for-3 and is now 0-for-10 on the season, could not put the game away. Then Vasilevskiy did what Vasilevskiy does. At 10:50 of the third, with Washington on the power play and Tom Wilson looking for the tying goal, the goalie stopped the bid with his right pad.

The Turning Point

If there is one sequence that summed up the difference between Thursday and Saturday, it is that save. A team that had been run over in New York was suddenly the one absorbing a push and giving nothing back. The Lightning blocked 19 Capitals shot attempts and outhit them 30-24, and Victor Hedman's big block and Emil Lilleberg's fight were among the moments Geekie pointed to afterward.

"I think maybe we came out a little flat on Thursday, but that game was past us, and we weren't going to let it happen again," Geekie said. "I think every guy stepped up."

Guentzel Finishes It

The game was decided with 2:05 left. With Washington's net empty, Guentzel finished off a Nikita Kucherov pass into the open cage at 17:55. John Carlson, playing his first game against his former team, picked up an assist on the play. Kucherov's own assist moved him into a tie with Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Bossy for 67th on the NHL's all-time points list, at 1,126.

Washington coach Spencer Carbery put the blame on the first 20 minutes. "Just the first put us behind the 8-ball and it ends up costing us," he said. "The second and third were fine." The Capitals also lost defenseman Matt Roy to a lower-body injury during the game.

What It Means

Cooper was careful not to call two games adversity, and he was right. But he was also happy to say what he learned. "What you saw tonight is what we expect night in and night out," he said. "It's hard to do, especially with schedules and back-to-backs and things like that, but you give an effort and you compete. We won a ton of battles, which was the complete opposite of what happened the night before."

There is a bigger lesson here for a team coming off a 106-point season, a 50-26-6 record and a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division. The Lightning's formula is not complicated: work, win the little fights, and let the skill take over. They strayed from it in New York. They found it again in Tampa. Vasilevskiy and Washington's Dylan Strome each played in their 600th NHL game, a reminder that nothing about this is new for either side.

The power play still has to wake up. Cooper said it was "outstanding" on Saturday, even at zero for three, and maybe that is true. With Guentzel, Hagel, Brayden Point and Kucherov in the lineup, the first goal feels like a matter of time.

The Close

A good home opener is part ceremony, part exam. The Lightning started the year with a failed test and followed it with a passing grade. They did not need a masterpiece. They needed to look like themselves, and for 60 minutes in front of their own fans, they did.

Photo Credit: Samantha Diane/Undrafted