Toronto Maple Leafs Blow Out Tampa Bay Lightning; Take Series Lead 1-0
The Leafs were buzzing from the opening face-off tonight, and the 2x Stanley Cup champs never could catch up. Kyle Clifford set the tone early with this hit:
Here's the game's full recap, from Sportsnet:
This was an ugly one for the Bolts but a great showing from the Leafs. Maple Leafs' Head Coach Sheldon Keefe predicted this would be a violent series, and he was right. And the Leafs didn't bother waiting for Tampa to throw the first punch, so to speak. Clifford's hit looked like it stunned the Lightning, as they never seemed to find their groove afterwards.
If Toronto can continue to dictate the flow of play against Tampa & shell perennial Vezina candidate Andrei Vasilevskiy, this just might be the year they make it to the second round.
The Lightning Captain's knows the deal, though:
Stamkos & Kucherov both made uncharacteristic mistakes in this one. Stamkos missed a wide open net at a critical point in the game:
While Kucherov probably overpassed a few too many times & neglected to shoot. Little things like that are abnormal for the Lightning, but they will surely regress in Game 2.
| POLL | ||
MAI 2 | 134 ANSWERS Toronto Maple Leafs Blow Out Tampa Bay Lightning; Take Series Lead 1-0 Are the Leafs legit? | ||
| Yes | 77 | 57.5 % |
| No | 57 | 42.5 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Patrick Maroon | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Lukas Reichel | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Travis Konecny | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Anze Kopitar | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Quinton Byfield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Noah Cates | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Adrian Kempe | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Matvei Michkov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Martin Pospisil | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kevin Rooney | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bobby Brink | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kevin Fiala | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tyson Foerster | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Justin Kirkland | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Daniil Miromanov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||