After 20 minutes, it looked like the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to cruise to an easy victory on opening night as they absolutely dominated the Nashville Predators. Things evened out as the night continued and the Lightning needed four goals to overcome an early 2-1 deficit in the final period. Nick Paul scored twice, Nikita Kucherov scored twice, and Brandon Hagel converted on a penalty shot to send the crowd home happy with a 5-3 win. Jonas Johansson was solid in his Tampa Bay debut, stopping 28 of 31 shots.
It was all Lightning to begin the game as they didn’t allow a shot on goal for the first seven minutes of the game with Nashville rarely able to enter the offensive zone with the puck.