The Tampa Bay Lightning opened their season with a tough 5–4 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Tampa came out firing early, scoring on the power play thanks to an Oliver Bjorkstrand goal assisted by Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel. Just 1:25 later, the Lightning struck again when Point buried a wrist shot, with Guentzel picking up his second assist of the period.

Midway through the first, the Senators capitalized on a power play of their own as Dylan Cozens blasted a slap shot past the Lightning goaltender to cut the deficit to 2–1. Tampa quickly responded, as Nikita Kucherov netted his first goal of the season on the power play, with Point recording his third point of the period. The Lightning took a 3–1 lead into the first intermission.

Ottawa came out strong in the second period, with Artem Zub scoring just 42 seconds in to make it 3–2. Later in the period, the Senators tied the game at 3–3 on another well-executed rush. Despite several scoring chances from Tampa, the Lightning couldn’t find the back of the net before the second ended.

The third period turned into a defensive battle until Shane Pinto scored his second goal of the night with 1:47 remaining, giving Ottawa its first lead of the game at 4–3. The Lightning pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, but the Senators took advantage, scoring an empty-net goal to make it 5–3. Kucherov added his second goal of the night with 14 seconds left, but it wasn’t enough as Ottawa held on for the 5–4 win.

Tampa Bay starts the season 0–1 but showed flashes of offensive chemistry, especially from the top line of Point, Kucherov, and Guentzel.