Defending champs get rocked in series opener
TORONTO — This Lightning team often talks about having seen it all, both the highs and the lows. But over the past two postseasons, they have been pretty dominant.
They have set the standard for knowing how to win in the playoffs. They know the recipe to survive what many say is the most difficult professional sports championship to win.
And now after one game, they have to regroup.
The Lightning started their postseason drive to a third straight Stanley Cup with a dud, losing a lopsided Game 1 to the Maple Leafs 5-0 at Scotiabank Arena.
They have lost series openers before, as recently as the final-four round of last year’s playoffs against the Islanders. They have rebounded from losses — never losing consecutive games last postseason — but haven’t been beaten this badly in the past two postseasons.
Playoff time in Toronto is usually accompanied by a feeling of impending doom for Maple Leafs fans. Their team hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004, and winning Game 1 against the defending champs at least let the city exhale.
The Lightning had their chance to quiet the home crowd early, spending seven of the game’s first 13 minutes on the power play. But they managed just three shots over that stretch.
Tampa Bay’s power play — one of the team’s strengths going into the postseason — was 0-for-6, wasting away 14:51 in man-advantage time. And the Leafs seemed to get momentum from killing off Lightning power plays.
Hart Trophy candidate Auston Matthews had two goals, more than he had in the entire postseason last year, including one on a 5-on-3 that gave Toronto a 2-0 lead.
David Kampf scored a short-handed goal in the second, and Mitch Marner buried a breakaway through traffic to put the Leafs up 4-0.
It was a night when it seemed nothing went right for the Lightning. Steven Stamkos had a wide-open net in the second but scuffed his shot into the end boards.
Matthews’ second goal came when Andrei Vasilevskiy was caught out of position when trying to play a puck behind the net and it took a bad bounce right to Matthews’ stick.