2020-21 off to a good start for the Lightning

If the 2020-21 NHL season is a sprint, not a marathon due to the regular season reducing from 82 games to 56, then the Tampa Bay Lightning got a strong start out of the blocks.
The Lightning were dominant in a 5-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at AMALIE Arena on Opening Night. Tampa Bay scored three goals in the first period to take control of the game early and built a 5-0 lead before the Blackhawks broke through with a fluky goal in the closing minutes to end Andrei Vasilevskiy's bid for a second-straight shutout going back to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final versus Dallas.

Tampa Bay's stars shined bright in the win. Steven Stamkos played his first regular season game since February 25, 2020 and led all scorers, tallying a power-play goal and two assists. Victor Hedman provided two assists on the power play, quarterbacking a special teams unit that remained potent despite the absence of Nikita Kucherov. Brayden Point notched a goal and an assist, combining each time with Stamkos to highlight the chemistry those two possess along with Ondrej Palat on the top line. And Andrei Vasilevskiy was stellar in net, making several early stops to keep the Blackhawks from generating any momentum and robbing Andrew Shaw with a stretching left-leg save late in the second to add to his career highlight reel.
The Lightning got secondary scoring too, which they'll need with Kucherov out for the regular season. Mathieu Joseph, playing on the second line with Tyler Johnson unavailable, poked a shot behind Chicago goalie Malcolm Subban that was kicked into the net late in the first period, and 1:39 later, Anthony Cirelli tipped Erik Cernak's shot from the right wing past Subban for the 3-0 advantage by the first break.
Tampa Bay didn't expect to need much time to find its game since the core of the team was returning, there were hardly any new players who needed to learn new systems or language and it was the last team, along with the Stars, to play a competitive game in the League.
Still, to see it all come together so smoothly, to pick up where they left off in the 2020 postseason, was a great sign for a Lightning team looking to become just the second group to win back-to-back Stanley Cups in the 21st century (also: Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017).
"It's big," Palat said about starting the season off with a victory. "A season like that, you can't have a bad start. It's a good thing we won, but there's still room for improvement."
Maybe Palat's nitpicking, but that's what makes Tampa Bay one of the favorites to go repeat despite the difficulties in doing so. The Lightning are a championship-level team. Yet they're not satisfied. If they go 2-for-4 on the power play, they wonder what went wrong on the two they didn't score. If Vasilevskiy had to make a spectacular save, they search for the breakdown defensively that led to that scoring chance.
The Lightning can't afford to ease their way into the season like they did in the last campaign when they sputtered over the first two months. On December 16, they were hovering around .500 at 16-12-3 and in sixth place in the Atlantic Division ahead of only Ottawa and Detroit. That was through 31 games of the season.
If the Lightning are in sixth place in their division through 31 games this season, they might miss the playoffs.
That's why, even though it was just one game, it was imperative the Bolts start strong on Wednesday to set themselves up for another run.
"We talked about how critical starting this year on time was, and that was a good start," Stamkos said after the game.
SCHEDULE UNCERTAINTY:The Lightning were expected to begin the 2020-21 season with four-straight games at home, but more and more it appears they'll play just two games at AMALIE Arena before heading out for their first road trip.
A COVID-19 outbreak during Dallas' training camp forced the Stars to pause activities at their facility. The NHL announced the earliest Dallas could begin the season is January 19, when it's scheduled to play in Tampa Bay. The Stars' games at Florida January 14 and 15 and at Tampa Bay January 17 have all been postponed.
The Stars were able to return to their facility and practice for the first time Tuesday. It's unknown if they'll still fly to Tampa to play the Lightning for just the one game on January 19, but Bolts head coach Jon Cooper thinks it's unlikely.
"I haven't heard officially anything yet, but the assumption would probably be yes, just in the sense, the schedule, I think Dallas would have to come all the way out here for one game, which the way things are going wouldn't make sense," Cooper said. "But, I don't know, I'm not in the schedule business."
If both games are postponed, the Lightning will have five days between games when they host Chicago Friday at AMALIE Arena and travel to Columbus to start their first road trip January 21.
The few extra days of practice early in the season, especially with the abbreviated training camp, could be a blessing in disguise.
"It's too bad we can't play, but on the other hand, we can have more practices," Palat said. "We can work on stuff we didn't have a chance to work on during a short camp like that. We're going to use it as a practice time."
FOOTE GETS A SURPRISE: Lightning defenseman Cal Foote didn't think his parents would be able to watch his NHL Debut Wednesday in person with fans not being allowed inside AMALIE Arena until February 5.
But he said his parents were able to book a last-minute flight from Denver and make it to Tampa in time for the milestone.
His parents got to watch Foote lead the Lightning onto the ice for pre-game warmups with the traditional rookie solo lap, they saw the Stanley Cup at center ice, a Stanley Cup championship banner unveiled and their son skate 10:59 time on ice and finish plus-two partnering with Ryan McDonagh.
"The first couple laps were pretty fun," Foote said. "It was something you see growing up first game players do, so that was pretty neat. It was overall an amazing experience. Too bad there were no fans, but it was nice to have my parents there and it was pretty cool to get to see the banner."
Foote wore number 52 for his NHL debut, the same number his father Adam, a 19-year veteran of the NHL with 1,154 games on his resume, donned when he played with the Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets.
"Growing up I was more 52," the young defenseman said. "Once I got to juniors, I was 25 and in Syracuse I was 25. I've always been one or the other. I guess it's not really too much of a new thing for him, but I know he probably enjoyed it and it was pretty cool I had on the same number as him."