The Backcheck: Off to a good start in Toronto

One down, three to go.
The Tampa Bay Lightning opened the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with an emphatic, 7-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena Tuesday night. Opening the playoffs on the road, the goal is to always win at least one game in the opponent's arena. Now, the Bolts will have a chance to steal a second game and take a 2-0 series lead on Thursday.

The crowd was bumping ahead of puck drop as Leafs fans were amped up and ready to cheer on their team in a rematch of last year's First Round matchup. Going into a hostile environment on the road, teams want to manage the crowd, get through the first five or 10 minutes unscathed and hope things settle down from there.
But there's no better way to settle a crowd down than putting the puck in the back of the net, and that's what Pierre-Edouard Bellemare did just 1:18 into the game.
With the School Bus Line of Bellemare, Pat Maroon and Corey Perry working hard in the Toronto zone, Perry stepped up on an attempted breakout pass from Zach Aston-Reese, stole the puck and skated around the Leafs net before walking right around Justin Holl and firing a shot on goal.
As the Lightning did all night long, they won a battle in front of the net as Bellemare jumped on the rebound and jammed a backhand shot past Ilya Samsonov to give the Bolts the early 1-0 lead.
For Bellemare, the goal was the eighth of his playoff career, moving him past Antoine Roussel and giving him the most career playoff goals scored by a French national in NHL history.
"It's huge," said Bellemare when asked about grabbing the early lead in a hostile environment. "It was the first shift for our line. Kind of a nothing play, but Perrs made a good shot and I got the rebound.
"I think that helped the whole team get their legs going. We played pretty good. We didn't complicate anything. We just let the game plan roll and just put the puck behind and worked. And we got rewarded, so that's good for confidence."

It was as good of a start as the Lightning could have asked for, and they doubled the 1-0 lead exactly six minutes later off the stick of Anthony Cirelli.
Similar to the Bellemare goal, Cirelli's first tally of the postseason came from winning a battle in front of the net and banging home a rebound past Samsonov. After Brandon Hagel fired a shot off the pad of Samsonov, Cirelli was right there on the doorstep and beat Mark Giordano to the rebound to give Tampa Bay the 2-0 lead.
But the Bolts weren't done there. As it looked like the game was heading to the first intermission with the score at 2-0, Nikita Kucherov scored a power-play goal to push the score to 3-0 and leave Toronto fans stunned.
Following a shot on goal from Brayden Point, Samsonov allowed yet another rebound, and Alex Killorn jumped on the loose puck. He then sent a pass to the point for Mikhail Sergachev, who looked towards the net as if he was going to fire a quick wrist shot on goal, but instead sent a pass right into the wheelhouse of Kucherov before the star winger hammered a one-timer over the glove of Samsonov with 2.6 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
Counted out of this series by countless writers and analysts entering Game One, the Bolts made a big statement in the opening period of the series. And many of the fans who thought Tampa Bay was too old, too slow and mentally exhausted were booing the Leafs as they walked to the locker room after just 20 minutes of postseason hockey.
"I will never question the guys in that room," said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. "Again, as the coach, you always want the best, but deep down inside you know there's a whole bunch of gamers in that room. And, this night, we knew that they would come out to play."
While the first game of the series was one to celebrate for the Bolts, there were multiple concerns on the injury front and that started with the beginning of the second period. Victor Hedman was late getting on the bench at the start of the middle frame and returned to the locker room shortly after. He did not return to the game.
"Honestly, that one was a little bit surprising, so we're hoping he should be OK, but again, it's way too early to tell," Cooper said. "This is one of those, 'Let's wake up tomorrow and see what's going on.' Then we can give you some sort of report."
Down a skater and knowing a push was coming, the Lightning gave up back-to-back goals to the lethal Toronto power play at the 8:06 and 13:11 marks of the second.
Just like that, Scotiabank Arena was bumping again, and the crowd was just as loud as they were at puck drop. The crowd got even louder when Jake McCabe landed a high hit on Mikey Eyssimont at the Toronto blue line that knocked Eyssimont out of the game. From there on out, the Bolts had to find a way with only 16 skaters.
Momentum was really shifting in Toronto's favor and Tampa Bay needed a response.
They got it from a guy that's done it all year long in Point, who capitalized with a power-play goal of his own just 1:18 after Nylander got the Leafs back within one.
As Cooper said last week, Point has been the straw that's stirred the drink all season long for the Lightning and this goal was a great example of that. With a loose puck in the corner, Point won a race against Holl and got the puck to Cirelli, who rimmed a pass around the back of the net to Kucherov.
Outhustling the opponent again, Point beat both Holl and TJ Brodie to the front of the net before Kucherov fed the 51-goal scorer, who showed great patience and beat Samsonov to restore the two-goal lead.

"I thought the underrated goal was the Point goal after Toronto made it 3-2," said Cooper. "That was the big one for us. There was a lot of great timing on our part tonight, but they earned it."
Shortly after Point's goal put the Lightning back up by two, Tampa Bay found themselves down to 15 skaters after a dirty hit from Michael Bunting that should end with the Leafs forward being suspended.
Following a faceoff in the Lightning zone, Erik Cernak turned to his right to skate after a loose puck in the corner. Never coming close to touching the puck as he turned, Cernak was immediately met with a blindside hit directly to the head from Bunting, who received a match penalty for an illegal hit to the head and gave the Bolts a five-minute power play. Cernak, like Hedman and Eyssimont, was unable to return to the game.
"Bunts, to me, is trying to win the line to set himself up to win a race for the puck and it got away on him," said Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe. "A guy wasn't expecting it and I'm sure Bunts is expecting a battle in that situation and didn't get one."
Cooper saw the hit a little differently than Keefe and apparently the NHL Department of Player Safety did as well. The DOPS announced at 12:14 Wednesday morning that Bunting will have a hearing on Wednesday for the hit.
"I'll give you the company line of, 'The league will look at that,' but for me, it seems to check a whole bunch of boxes," Cooper said.
The Lightning added two more goals during the five-minute power play, including one from Perry and another from Point, who found the back of the net with less than a second remaining in the period to make it 6-2.
"I think [we were] just being more responsible," said Point. "We tried to limit our turnovers tonight. Obviously, Toronto's got a ton of skill and they feed on those turnovers.
"We just tried to play smart, responsible hockey and I think that's something that we didn't do down the stretch, but for the most part, we did tonight."
Playing with just four defensemen in the third period, the Bolts made it 7-2 after Nick Perbix made a beautiful, tape-to-tape stretch pass to Ross Colton, who skated in on a breakaway and beat Joseph Woll, who started the third period for the Leafs, to the blocker side with 13:01 remaining.
Calle Jarnkrok scored the final goal of the game at the 8:06 mark of the third to wrap up the 7-3 contest.
"For one night in a playoff game, I loved a lot of the things that we did," said Cooper. "It's on us to make sure we continue that in the next game.

"If Toronto beats us, good for them. But we need to bring what we brought tonight to continue to beat what I think is one hell of a Leafs team."
It's one game. Toronto won Game One last year and the Bolts went on to win that series in seven games. But the goal is to win one game on the road and the Lightning have done that. Can they make it two?
To go up 2-0, Tampa Bay is going to have to do one key thing - turn the page. It's not just about turning the page after a loss. That has to be done following a win as well. This game is in the past. They'll celebrate tonight, but starting tomorrow, all the focus has to be on Game Two.
"The Leafs might win the series," said Cooper. "They might. There's so much runway left in this.
"But what I've learned over the years, I sure as hell wouldn't bet against our guys. That's not going to say we're going to win, but I don't know, I've got their back."
The Lightning will be back on the ice Wednesday for a brief practice before facing off with the Leafs in Game Two Tuesday night.