Maple Leafs respond in Game 2 of East 1st Round after lopsided loss

TORONTO -- What a difference 48 hours makes.

Two nights after watching a lopsided loss to open the Eastern Conference First Round, the fans at Scotiabank Arena splattered the same surface with caps, beanies and other chapeaus in honor of Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares after he completed a hat trick in a
7-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning
in Game 2 on Thursday.
Such is the topsy-turvy nature of this wacky best-of-7 series, which is tied 1-1 heading into Game 3 at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; TBS, CBC, SN, TVAS, BSSUNX). With so much elite talent on both rosters, who knows what will be in store?
For the Maple Leafs, the hope is that their "Big Five" -- Tavares, fellow forwards Mitchell Marner, William Nylander and Auston Matthews, and defenseman Morgan Rielly -- can be as dominant as they were in Game 2.
RELATED: [Complete Maple Leafs vs. Lightning series coverage]
The players admittedly were angry and embarrassed after their flop in the opener, a 7-3 loss on Tuesday in which they showed little emotion. So they changed the narrative in Game 2 with a victory that was symbolized by the image of Tavares, the normally stoic captain, violently and jubilantly punching his fist in the air in celebration after scoring at 12:45 of the first period to give Toronto a 2-0 lead.
It was one of those moments where it seemed the weight of an entire city had been taken off the backs of he and his teammates, at least for one night.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Tavares said. "I think that's the emotion of the playoffs. It's always great to help and to capitalize."

But where was that emotion in Game 1? That's the perplexing nature of this talented team that has so underachieved in years past.
Consider that Rielly, Nylander, Matthews and Marner have yet to win a Stanley Cup Playoff series in six previous tries. Tavares has been part of just one series win in his 14-season NHL career, that coming with the New York Islanders in 2016.
Too often, Toronto's big guns have sputtered in the postseason when it mattered. And while there's still a long way to go, a loss would have meant the series shifting to Tampa with the Maple Leafs needing to win four of the next five games.
That's a tall task against a Lightning team that has made three consecutive visits to the Stanley Cup Final, especially when you consider Toronto has not won a playoff series since 2004.
In Game 2, the Maple Leafs' best players were their best players, something that's happened far too rarely in postseasons past.
On this night, the Big Five combined for 14 points (six goals, eight assists). Rielly led the way with four assists, tying a single-game Maple Leafs postseason record for points by a defenseman, previously held by Allan Stanley (Game 5, 1960 NHL Semifinals), Wally Stanowski (Game 5, 1942 Stanley Cup Final) and Ian Turnbull (Game 6, 1976 quarterfinal round). Tavares (three goals) and Marner (two goals, one assist) each had three points; Nylander (one goal, one assist) and Matthews (two assists) each had two.
"I think for me, I can only comment on how the group felt," Rielly said. "We wanted to have a really good start and really respond after a game we weren't really proud of."

How's this for, as Rielly put it, "a really good start?" It took the Maple Leafs only 47 seconds to take the lead on Marner's goal. By the first intermission, goals by Tavares and Nylander had given Toronto a 3-0 lead.
"It kind of mirrored the first game, didn't it?" Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Indeed it did. Only in Game 1, it was Tampa Bay which took the early lead on a goal by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare goal at 1:18 of the first period. And, like the Maple Leafs did Thursday, the Lightning held a 3-0 lead after the first.
"It's only one game," Cooper said. "It's a long series, a best-of-7 series."
Cooper is right, of course. While Toronto regained its confidence and swagger in Game 2, the teams will be starting from Square One again Saturday. There will be no time for anyone to rest on their laurels.
At the same time, Tampa Bay will be hampered if it doesn't receive reinforcements on its blue line. The Lightning were without a couple of key cogs for Game 2 in defensemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak, and it showed.
Hedman, who missed the final two periods of Game 1 because of an undisclosed injury, took the optional morning skate Thursday but did not play. Tampa Bay can ill-afford to be without its best defenseman for an extended period of time, especially with the way he can control the pace of games.
Cernak, meanwhile, is out indefinitely because of an upper-body injury after he was the recipient of an illegal check to the head from Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting in Game 1. Bunting was suspended for three games by the NHL Department of Player Safety and won't be eligible to return until Game 5.
With those two pillars of the Lightning blue line unable to play in Game 2, Toronto's game plan was to grind away and be physical with Tampa Bay's defensemen in an effort to wear them down.
It worked.
Will that blueprint be as successful in Game 3? Not even Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe knows.
"They're going back home," Keefe said. "I'm sure they're going to get some guys back in the lineup and they're going to play better."
Will it be enough for the Lightning to rebound? Stay tuned. Because through the first two games, the only thing predictable about this series is its unpredictability.