Yes it did! Just like in Game 1, one team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Unlike in Game 1, it wasn’t the Lightning. If you’re the team with home ice advantage the last thing you want to do is lose both opening games at home which essentially made tonight’s matchup a must-win for Toronto. They treated it as such from start to finish.
Similar to the Bolts building a 3-0 in the 1st Period of Game 1, the Maple Leafs did the exact same thing. Mitchell Marner got things cracking while on a Power Play within the first minute of game. Yeah you read it right – the first minute of play. Before the opening third finished John Tavares would get on the stat sheet followed by William Nylander.
The Lightning attempted to show some fight and started the 2nd period scoring by way of Ian Cole off a savvy setup by Steven Stamkos. The shimmer of hope was short-lived, though, as Toronto responded with three more net nestlers of their own. The 3rd Period was nothing more than a formality as no sel-respecting team is dropping a game when leading by 5 goals in the final 20.
Three Take-aways
- In my Game 1 Recap I noted the Bolts could be in trouble if they had to go without Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak…in trouble they were! This team (would any?) does not have the depth to play high-level defense without two of their best defensemen.
- The Maple Leafs undoubtedly felt the pressure and responded how you’d like if you’re a Toronto fan. A proud fanbase such as this can only take shortcomings for so long and this is supposed to be it. Tonight sent a resounding message to the Leaf faithful.
- The Lightning’s “other guys” have to show up in this series and postseason run if they’re going to have one. As @44NotDown on Twitter stated in a Lightning group chat “I haven’t really seen Killorn and Hagel almost all this series” and he’s right. Playoff hockey is often about the depth of a team and Tampa’s has to show up.
Three Things to Watch Next Game
- Can the Maple Leafs get this momentum through airport security and bring it to Tampa? Uncle Mo is a big deal in the postseason and if you can carry it over from game-to-game you can ride to series victories.
- The Bolts were 28-8-5 on home ice this season (according to Statmuse) but will that carry over to the playoffs? They achieved the goal of taking home ice away by splitting the games away and now they need to hold serve.
- Hedman should return to the lineup. The decorated defenseman took part of Thursday morning skate but was held out, as mentioned. That says he was close to playing and I fully expect to see 77 patrolling things from red line to red line in Game 3.
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