Burns: 3 Things we learned from a series-opening loss to the Islanders

The Tampa Bay Lightning got a taste of their own medicine in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Semifinal series against the New York Islanders.
Where the Lightning were committed to playing defensive hockey and keeping quality scoring chances away from Andrei Vasilevskiy's goal in series-clinching wins in Game 6 of the First Round versus Florida and again in Game 5 of the Second Round against Carolina, the Islanders were the team that were suffocating in their style of play Sunday evening at AMALIE Arena.
The Bolts started Game 1 well enough, generating a few good-looking opportunities and maintaining the majority of the possession of the puck, but three-straight penalties, including two in the first 10 minutes of the first, kind of "sucked a little momentum out," according to Lightning captain Steven Stamkos.
The Islanders started to gain a foothold in the game, and once they grabbed the opening goal on a partial break by Mathew Barzal at 12:32 of the second period, they were unrelenting in a 2-1 series-opening victory to send the Lightning to their first Game 1 loss of these playoffs.

Brayden Point scored on a power play with 53 seconds remaining and Vasilevskiy out of his net in favor of the extra attacker and a 6-on-4 advantage to prevent the Lightning from getting shutout in the postseason for the first time since Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Final versus Washington.
But the Bolts didn't have the answer to solve the Islanders' frustrating lockdown in their own zone to send another puck past Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov in the closing seconds.
"We dropped a few last year in the playoffs as well, including in the final," Stamkos said. "We're fine in this position. It's not ideal. They did what we've done to teams so far and get one on the road for them, so we've got to respond with another game at home in front of our fans and then we'll take it from there."
Tampa Bay will look to get back on track Tuesday in Game 2 from AMALIE Arena before the series shifts to Long Island for Games 3 and 4.

1. FIRST SERIOUS TEST THIS POSTSEASON
Not to say the Lightning have breezed through the playoffs to this point, but they've been comfortable in their opening two series against Florida and Carolina because they were able to win the first two games on the road and bring a 2-0 advantage in the series back to AMALIE Arena for their two home games.
The Lightning don't have that luxury in the Semifinal Round.
The Bolts have home-ice advantage for the series and will need to draw on the energy from their own crowd to play just as well at AMALIE Arena as they have on the road this postseason, where they're 5-1 so far.
And they don't have the pleasure of winning the opening game now and playing from in front throughout the series.
The Lightning are facing their first serious test of this postseason, and Game 2 Tuesday at AMALIE Arena becomes a critical contest for the Bolts. Falling behind 0-2 to an Islanders team that bludgeons opponents to death and going on the road to Long Island for Games 3 and 4, where the Isles fans have been notoriously noisy and noticeable throughout the playoffs in the final season of play at Nassau Coliseum, is a prospect the Lightning don't want to have to deal with.
Fortunately, Tampa Bay has plenty of prior experience to draw from, including and especially during last season's run to the Stanley Cup when they dropped the opening game of both the Second Round series versus Boston and the Cup Final against Dallas before rallying to string together multiple consecutive wins and take hold of each.
"We knew it was going to be extremely tough," Steven Stamkos said. "We've been in this position before. There's definitely no panic in this room, but we do realize it's going to be an extremely tight series and we just have to expect that going forward."
How the Lightning start Game 2 is going to be of extreme importance. Like Stamkos mentioned earlier, although the Bolts liked their immediate start on Sunday, they weren't able to sustain it, partly because of the momentum-killing penalties they took. The Islanders were able to grab control at that point and keep the Lightning from getting too many good looks the rest of the way.
Tampa Bay has scored the opening goal this postseason nine times. The Lightning are 8-1 when netting the first goal.
In the three games they've given up the first goal, including Game 1 against the Islanders, they've yet to win.
"It's going to be tight-checking, low-scoring games most likely for this series," Stamkos said. "We talked about it, we just have to stick with the game plan. They did that tonight. We'll have to respond next game. It's going to go back and forth. I don't think our group necessarily gets down or gets frustrated. We're going to watch the tape and make some adjustments and we'll be better next game."

2. MENTAL MISTAKES
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was pleased with his team's effort in Game 1 against New York.
He didn't like how they thought through the game, however. According to Cooper, it was the main reason the Lightning are staring at a 1-0 hole in the best-of-seven series after the opening contest.
"Our work ethic was there. Our compete was there. Our minds weren't there," Cooper said. "Some of our decisions were poor. That's what happens, you get this deep into the playoffs, there's only four teams left, you have to have everything working in unison and we just weren't quite there tonight."
New York's opening goal was a perfect example of Cooper's assessment.
Steven Stamkos hopped onto a puck just inside the offensive zone at the right point. His initial pass toward the opposite corner was blocked back to him. Instead of dumping the puck deep into the zone and going for a change as his shift was coming to an end, Stamkos tried to thread a pass to Anthony Cirelli across the blue line.
The puck was intercepted by Josh Bailey, who immediately spotted Mathew Barzal all alone at the opposite blue line and sent the puck ahead to him. With Jan Rutta desperately trying to get back and disrupt Barzal, the Isles standout centerman stayed in front of Rutta and slipped a shot through Andrei Vasilevskiy's five-hole to produce the game's all-important first goal.
As Game 1 went scoreless in the opening period and continued without a goal through the first half of the second, it felt like whichever team was able to net the opening goal would have a decided advantage going forward, even more so than in a typical playoff game.
The Islanders got it and were able to create it off a play where the Lightning were trying to do too much rather than make the smart, simple play.
Stamkos was quick to own up to the mistake in his post-game comments to the media.
"Just trying to make a play there and you see what can happen, they can go the other way and score. It can be the difference in the game," Stamkos said. "I need to be better in that situation. I think our team realizes how patient we are going to have to be, both teams. It can be one play, one bounce out there."
That play also underscored how the Lightning are playing an opponent with a different style and identity than the opening two rounds against Florida and Carolina. The Panthers like to get up and down the ice and do so in a hurry. The Hurricanes are more structured defensively but also play a north-south game predicated on high shot volume and suppressing opponents' shots.
The Islanders are a hard-working, grind-it-out, defensive-focused team, a product of their head coach Barry Trotz and his culture shift on Long Island since taking over as New York's bench boss after winning the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals. Stamkos' play might have been there against the Panthers or the Hurricanes.
Against the Islanders, it was a fatal mistake.
"This team definitely defends really well," Alex Killorn said. "They have a great neutral zone. Their D sag. They play so tight in the zone. Even though we have the puck for a large amount of time, it's tough to get really a high-chance scoring opportunity. But these are all adjustments we'll make, just like we did against Florida and just like we did against Carolina."

3. 5-ON-5 PLAY HAS TO IMPROVE
Tampa Bay has been lethal on the power play so far this postseason.
The Lightning scored another power-play goal late in Game 1 to give themselves hope in the closing seconds, Brayden Point roofing a shot from the edge of the crease with 53 seconds to go to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Point has scored a goal in four-consecutive games and six of the last seven contests. He's one goal in Game 2 on Tuesday away from matching the longest playoff goal streak in Lightning history of five-straight games, that belonging to Ondrej Palat between the Second Round and Eastern Conference Final last postseason.
The Bolts have netted a power-play goal four games in a row, tallying seven over that stretch. They have at least one power-play goal in nine of 12 games this postseason, multiple power-play goals in five of those contests.
Tampa Bay's power-play is connecting at an unreal 42.1 percent so far this postseason.
But their 5-on-5 play, while solid, hasn't been a difference-maker so far. It certainly wasn't against the Islanders and will need to be going forward in the series.
The Lightning have scored 39 goals this postseason. Seventeen of them have come on the power play, or 44 percent of their scoring.
Facing an Islanders team that doesn't get whistled for a lot of penalties - remember, Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy was fined after calling the Islanders the New York Saints in his post-game comments after a Game 5 loss in which his team got just two power plays while the Isles scored three times with the man-advantage - the Bolts probably aren't going to be able to count on their power play as much as they did in the first two series.
"We've relied on our power play for sure in the first two series," Killorn said. "Our 5-on-5 play was pretty good as well. But I think we're going to have to take it up a notch and make sure every line gets into the game and we can just roll the lines, kind of build momentum that way. We had certain spurts where we played really well tonight. It just has to be more consistent."
Part of being better 5-on-5 is not getting frustrated when things aren't clicking the way it can for this high-powered Lightning offense. The Islanders as a team are built to grind you into submission and force you into mistakes you normally wouldn't make, and then capitalizing on those miscues.
It will be imperative for the Lightning to remain patient in this series at 5-on-5 when there isn't a lot of room to maneuver.
But they'll also need to generate more chances at even strength too.
"It's frustrating to lose. I think that's the frustrating part," Cooper said when asked if the Islanders frustrated his team Sunday. "But this is no different than the team we basically beat in the bubble. We just made too many mistakes, the unforced errors. Managing the puck is a big thing against this team, and they managed it better than us and they got one extra break."