Stamkos leads Lightning in opener
Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists in his return to the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup, and the defending Stanley Cup champions opened the season with 5-1 victory against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
The Lightning captain, who played just one game in the playoffs, has points in 17 consecutive games — including 14 goals.
Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, Ondrej Palat and Mathieu Joseph also scored to help Tampa Bay win its seventh consecutive season opener. Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn each finished with two assists. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 23 saves.
Dylan Strome scored for Chicago, and Malcolm Subban stopped 28 shots.
Tampa Bay raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening period on Palat’s rebound goal on the power play, Joseph’s redirect that bounced in off Subban, and Cirelli’s deflection of Erik Cernak’s shot. FLYERS 6, PENGUINS 3 » Nolan
Patrick missed last season with debilitating migraines and Oskar Lindblom had his shortened in his fight with a rare bone cancer. The only cheers they heard in their comeback games came in the locker room before faceoff in the form of rousing approval from the Philadelphia Flyers, grateful their teammates could play.
Flyers coach Alain Vigneault wished a packed arena — that last season had fans holding #OskarStrong signs — had a chance to show their appreciation.
“My one disappointment is that Oskar played his first game in Philadelphia since December 2019 and he didn’t get a chance to play it in front of Flyers fans giving him the great cheer and love that he deserved from coming back and battling cancer,” Vigneault said.
With Gritty thrusting his bulbous belly from his sofa, the Flyers turned the NHL opener into a memorable one.
Joel Farabee had a goal and three assists, Michael Raffl, James van Riemsdyk and Patrick also scored to lead the Flyers to a 6-3 win over Pittsburgh.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, CANADIENS 4 » Morgan Rielly scored at 3:24 of overtime and Toronto defeated visiting Montreal in another opener.
Montreal’s Phillip Danault missed on a breakaway during the overtime, and then Rielly converted a pass from John Tavares on a two-on-one for the gamewinner.