Stamkos propels Lightning past Blackhawks in opener

TAMPA -- Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning began their Stanley Cup defense with a 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at Amalie Arena on Wednesday.

Stamkos quickly showed he has fully recovered from a core muscle injury sustained during voluntary workouts last July that required two surgeries and ruled him out of all but one game in the Stanley Cup Final; he returned for Game 3 against the Dallas Stars on Sept. 23 and scored his only postseason goal in 2:47 of ice time.
"This is the best I've felt in a long time," Stamkos said. "It was nice to get out there. Playing with Brayden] Point and [Ondrej] Palat makes life a little easier for sure. I haven't played a lot of hockey for a long time so it was a good start."
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Point and Anthony Cirelli each had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for the Lightning, who won their season opener for a seventh straight year and unveiled their championship banner before the game. Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn each had two assists.
Stamkos had the second assist on Palat's goal in the first period and later made it 4-0 with a one-timer that went top shelf against goalie Malcolm Subban for a power-play goal at 9:56 of the second period.
"He works so hard you want to see him have success when he comes back," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Stamkos. "You don't want to see him struggle. Goal-scorers are used to scoring goals, and he deserved this. I was happy he was able to score tonight."

Dylan Strome scored, and Subban made 28 saves in the Blackhawks season opener.
The teams will play again here Friday.
"Certainly not the way we wanted to start the year," Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said. "Gave up too many chances and too many goals. … We did some good things, but our execution was lacking. We couldn't make them pay."
Palat gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 10:39 of the first period with a put back off a shot by Hedman.
"The power play clicked a little bit tonight, so that was good to see," Cooper said. "The guys have been getting their legs back with each day. You saw that tonight. We've got better in us. You saw that game pick up as the game went on, and I expect Friday to be a really good matchup."

Mathieu Joseph made it 2-0 at 16:18 of the first period when Subban lost track of his shot and the puck went in off the back of his pad.
"I wasn't sure where it was and then it ended up in the net," Subban said. "It's definitely a tough one. You don't want to give up a goal like that against a team like that. I've got to find a way to not lose sight of that puck for sure."
Cirelli extended the Lightning lead to 3-0 at 17:57 of the first with a redirection of a slap shot from Erik Cernak.
Point made it 5-0 with a one-timer from the hash marks off a pass from Stamkos at 6:45 of the third.
Strome ended Vasilevskiy's shutout with a power-play goal at 16:36 for the 5-1 final.
"I feel like we had a pretty good first 10 minutes, a couple of bounces went their way" Strome said. "We were playing OK. Once you get down a couple against these guys, it's tough to chase the game. I thought we did some good things but obviously not good enough."
NOTES:The Lightning will wait for fans to be allowed inside Amalie Arena before raising their championship banner to the rafters. … Blackhawks center Pius Suter (four shots on goal) and defenseman Ian Mitchell (17:14 of ice time) each made his NHL debut. … Lightning defenseman Cal Foote made his NHL debut and was plus-1 in 10:47.