1. SHOOT THE PUCK
If you happen to catch a Lightning practice session, you'll usually hear, at least once, head coach Jon Cooper blow his whistle to stop play and yell: "Shoot the puck."
No doubt, if Cooper had a whistle on the bench during Tuesday's opener, he would have used it multiple times. He probably would have thrown the whistle on the ice too after exhausting it of its ability to function.
The Lightning have been guilty of overpassing in the past.
Tuesday, it was downright felonious.
Tampa Bay registered just 17 shots on the night, which would have been a season low last season. In the second period, the Lightning had only three shots. The Hurricanes owned a 26-10 shots advantage after two periods. They also were up 3-0 as a result.
"I don't think we take much good from tonight," Stamkos said. "Hopefully shake the cobwebs and just continue to get better. Obviously some things we've got to work on, but it's the first preseason game, just nice to get back into game action and just continue to improve."
2. UP AND DOWN PENALTY KILL
The Lightning gave their penalty kill plenty of work against Carolina after committing six penalties, and the results were less than encouraging.
Carolina converted its first power play of the game, Lucas Wallmark wristing a shot from near the left dot past the glove of Vasilevskiy at the far post to extend the Hurricanes' lead to 2-0.
In the third period, after Dominik Masin was whistled for hooking following a turnover in his own end, Carolina capitalized again, Andrei Svechnikov getting open below the hash marks to easily bury a shot into the back of the net.
Overall, the Lightning penalty kill was 4-for-6, not horrible but not what the coaching staff wanted to see either.
"It was a special teams game," Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph said. "Not a lot of 5-on-5 out there. Always tough to gain momentum if your power play isn't really working and you're on the penalty kill. It was like that for them too. We should have found a way to be better. I don't think we competed, and we've got to do a better job."
There were some good moments from the penalty kill. Joseph combined with Tyler Johnson up top to create havoc at times. The duo produced a couple solid shorthanded chances. A lot of young players earned valuable experience on the kill too.
But the Lightning were inconsistent on the penalty kill last season, and, through the first preseason game at least, it appears those issues persist.