Burns: 3 Things we learned from a series-opening win in Carolina

Tampa Bay has thrived as the road team so far this postseason, the Lightning relishing the opportunity to go into another team's rink in front of their raucous fans and send them home quiet and unhappy with the result.
The Lightning won the first two contests in Sunrise in a crazed BB&T Center to take control of that First Round series early.
The Bolts squeezed out an opening game victory in the Second Round on the road in Carolina too, the Lightning grabbing a 2-1 lead late on Barclay Goodrow's game-winning goal and then fending the Hurricanes off in their final desperate push to tie in the closing stages of the contest.

And once again, a nearly-packed house in Raleigh, an announced crowd of 16,299 fans inside PNC Arena, exited saddened by the road-warrior Bolts, who improved to 3-1 this postseason on the away from AMALIE Arena and handed Carolina its first home loss of the season.
Game 1 against Carolina was a test in patience for the Lightning. The Hurricanes controlled play throughout the first period but couldn't break through Andrei Vasilevskiy's force field. The Lightning netted the series-opening goal when Brayden Point got a tip on Victor Hedman's power-play shot a few strides inside the blue line 8:15 into the second.
After Carolina tied the game 1-1 on Jake Bean's power-play goal 1:41 into the third, the Lightning didn't wilt under the enormity of the situation or the intensity from the deafening home crowd. They continued to plug away and were rewarded when Barclay Goodrow, just trying to get a shot on goal for a rebound opportunity for one of his teammates, found a bit of space at the near post to sneak a shot through Carolina goalie Alex Nedeljkovic and quiet the crowd.
The Lightning have now won five of seven games to start the 2021 Playoffs and again find themselves ahead in a series to start.
They'll try to get greedy and take both games at Carolina in Tuesday's Game 2.

1. BARCLAY GOODROW'S KELLEY BLUE BOOK VALUE
Before his team departed for Raleigh Saturday afternoon, Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper was asked about the importance of Barclay Goodrow being back in the Lightning lineup.
Goodrow returned in time to aid the Lightning in their Game 6 win over Florida after missing the first five games of the First Round series with an upper-body injury.
Cooper delivered an apt analogy to explain Goodrow's effectiveness, saying, "You can't have all Ferraris. Sometimes you need a good old-fashioned four-wheel drive Jeep to get you through the mud," a perfect description of the forward's game although maybe the head coach missed a chance to use Lamborghini instead of a Ferrari for his sports car of choice and chirp Panthers pest Ryan Lomberg and his ill-suited Lomberghini nickname.
Following the Game 1 win in Carolina, Goodrow, who scored the game-winning goal with 7:21 remaining to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead in the series, was asked about that assessment.
Goodrow delivered an all-time quote in response to his coach calling him a Jeep.
"I think they're pretty reliable cars," he said. "I know their resale value is pretty good. They hold up in all conditions. I'll take it."
Goodrow's response may have been tongue-in-cheek, but it was accurate too. Goodrow has been a reliable performer for the Lightning, particularly in the playoffs where his relentlessness and hard-nosed play have proven invaluable for the Bolts. Cooper said it was no coincidence the Lightning didn't surrender a goal when Goodrow returned for Game 6 and the Bolts shut out the Panthers 4-0.
Goodrow has certainly improved his resale value during this stint with the Lightning. The forward is an unrestricted free agent after this season and will no doubt command a higher salary than the $925,000 AAV he currently makes. The Lightning would like to bring him back but there will be plenty of other suitors too.
And Goodrow is valuable in all situations and on the ice in pivotal moments. When Game 1 was tied and the Lightning needed a goal, Goodrow was there to create the game-winning play. When the Lightning were leading and needed to survive a Carolina 6-on-5 to get out of Game 1 with a victory, Goodrow was again on the ice and provided an unofficial assist to Ryan McDonagh when he got him a new stick after the defenseman's broke at an inopportune time.
Teams need players to do the dirty work, like a Jeep, and Goodrow has proven himself to be one of those players who can get the job done no matter what the situation.
"You can tell he's a big-game kind of player," Victor Hedman said. "Last year in the bubble, he was outstanding. You go back to his San Jose days when he scored a Game 7 OT winner against Vegas. He rises to the occasion and we can trust him in every situation of the game. He's a warrior out there. We're pretty pumped to see him come back."
On his game-winning goal, Goodrow said he was just looking to put a puck on goal to create a rebound opportunity for Yanni Gourde, who was trailing the play and crashing the net. Goodrow faked a pass to Gourde and sped around a defender in the left circle to get an open look. His shot beat Carolina goalie Alex Nedeljkovic at the near post, putting the Bolts back in front after Carolina tied the game earlier in the third period.
"Not all players are (clutch), there's no question, and when you find them you've got to utilize them," Cooper said of Goodrow. "He usually doesn't get his accolades from getting game-winning goals. He's usually the guy stopping game-tying goals from happening, so you're really happy for guys that are team-first players that have an opportunity to bask in a little bit of the limelight, which he deserves."

2. POWER PLAY COMES THROUGH…AGAIN
Tampa Bay's power play was maybe the difference in the First Round win over Florida, the Panthers having no answer for the return of Nikita Kucherov and his brilliance on the man-advantage.
The Lightning entered the Second Round having connected on 40 percent of its power plays, scoring eight times on 20 opportunities against the Panthers.
But Carolina presents a different challenge for the Lightning power play. The Hurricanes are uber-aggressive in their penalty kill and don't give teams time and space to get set up and move the puck around. It's effectively a scramble to keep possession inside the offensive zone.
"Yeah, man, they pressure hard," Brayden Point said. "They don't give you a lot of space. They force you to make plays, and if you bobble a puck, they're on you right away. And another thing is their up-ice pressure. They did a great job disrupting our breakout. That's something we've got to look at. We're lucky enough to get a chance and we capitalized on it, but, yeah, that's something we've got to look at for sure."
Despite Carolina's constant pressure, the Lightning were able to take advantage of their first power play of the game to break a scoreless draw and net the game's opening goal. The Bolts struggled to get the puck in the zone and keep it there through the opening half of the power play. But with 47 seconds remaining on a penalty to Brock McGinn, Alex Killorn was able to maintain possession as he crossed the blue line and then outfought two Hurricanes to get the puck back to an open Nikita Kucherov.
With the Hurricanes a bit overloaded to one side, Kucherov was able to swing the puck to the middle of the ice for Victor Hedman, and Hedman, seeing Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos going to the net, sent a shot in from a few strides inside the blue line. The puck found the stick of Point, who redirected it through the five-hole of Nedeljkovic to give the Lightning the all-important first goal in the contest.
Tampa Bay is 5-1 this postseason when scoring the opening goal.
"We were struggling early on that power play to get in and get set up, but we did a good play and got some time," Hedman recalled. "(Stamkos) went to the net and Pointer went to the net and tried to find a stick and a good tip by him."
Tampa Bay was unsuccessful on its next two power plays, the Hurricanes continuing to harass the Lightning puck carriers and make it difficult for them to set up their plays. That's something the Lightning will have to game plan for and find ways to counter as the series continues.
But the power play got the crucial goal when it counted, something it's done all postseason long so far, and was once again a difference maker for the Bolts.

3. A DEPLETED DEFENSIVE CORPS
As the teams came onto the PNC Arena ice for Game 1, the Lightning announced right-shot defenseman David Savard would not play because of an upper-body injury.
Following the game, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said Savard was day-to-day.
In his place, Luke Schenn came into the lineup and performed well, dishing out four hits in 8:17 time on ice and finishing plus-one.
Tampa Bay's blue line took another hit as the game continued, Erik Cernak getting sandwiched between two players behind the Lightning net in the second period and appearing to bump heads with a Hurricane. Cernak remained on the ice for a few moments while getting checked out by Lightning head athletic trainer Tom Mulligan before rising to his feet and skating off under his own power.
Cernak, though, went immediately to the dressing room and didn't play the remainder of the game.
For the final period and change, the Lightning were essentially down to five defenseman and only had one of their three right-side regulars in the contest.
And yet, they were still able to limit the Hurricanes to just one goal and seemed to get better defensively as the game went on. Carolina pressured the Lightning throughout the opening period, and the Bolts were lucky to escape the first without allowing a goal. But as the game continued, the Lightning settled and were able to limit the dangerous scoring chances from reaching Vasilevskiy's net.
"I thought we did a good job of managing our shifts," Hedman said. "We kept them kind of short, and everyone was rolling. I thought we did a good job on the back end to kind of maintain the play that we want to play, even though you're down one guy. You still want to get up into the play and execute on the rush. I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
Cooper said Cernak should be okay following the game. Hopefully the Lightning have both Cernak and Savard back for Game 2. They'll need them because Vasilevskiy won't be able to bail out the Lightning every game like he did in Game 1, especially early.
Coming off his second career playoff shutout in Game 6 of the Florida series, Vasilevskiy was again dialed in from the start. Carolina got four Grade-A opportunities in the opening 20 minutes, and Vasilevskiy turned all of them aside, no doubt frustrating the Hurricanes, who probably entered the first intermission feeling like they should have had the lead.
"He was in the zone," Cooper said. "We really needed him in that first period when they were all pumped up Game 1, really exciting crowd, so they fed off that and probably put us on our heels at the beginning. And then we needed him on the penalty kills. We can't be in situations where we're giving them nine-plus, almost 10 minutes of power-play time in a 60-minute game. We've got to be better in that area. But when we needed him in those two areas, he was there for us."
McDonagh said that no matter what's happening with the rest of the team, the Lightning know they have the best goaltender in the world backstopping them, giving them a chance to win each and every contest.
"He never seems to be sliding and flopping around in the crease," he said. "He's just so well prepared and strong on his skates that we've got great confidence in him. He knows teams are going to push, have surges throughout the playoffs, and it's up to the team in front of him on the ice to help him out. But we know he's a big backbone back there and continues to impress us night in and night out."