Burns: Three Things we learned from the season's first regulation win

That's more like it Tampa Bay.
After playing well through 40 minutes in Buffalo but letting the game get away from them in the third period in a demoralizing 5-1 loss to the Sabres, the Lightning came back the following night at Pittsburgh and put together their most complete performance of the young season, defeating the Penguins 5-1 to collect their first regulation win.

The Bolts ticked a couple more dubious stats off their list while they were in Pittsburgh too. They scored the opening goal of the game for the first time this season. They held a lead in regulation for the first time and they didn't give it up. And they went into the third period with a lead too after trailing following 40 minutes in each of their previous six games.
And the fact the Lightning put up such an impressive effort in the second half of a back-to-back set made their win in Pittsburgh that much sweeter.
"There's a lot of talk about back-to-backs and how hard they are, and sometimes back-to-backs are needed," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said following the convincing victory. "And we needed a game right after last night. Had a good feeling the guys were going to respond, and they surely did."
Brayden Point scored 31 seconds into the second period to put Tampa Bay ahead for good 1-0. Ondrej Palat and Ryan McDonagh netted goals 10 seconds apart with Pittsburgh pushing to tie the game for a commanding 3-0 lead. And Mikhail Sergachev and Alex Killorn tacked on empty-net goals to finish off the win.
The Lightning return home from their back-to-back set with two points and host the winless Arizona Coyotes Thursday at AMALIE Arena.
The importance for the Bolts is to make sure their inspired performance versus the Penguins isn't a one-off.
They can't follow Thursday with an unfocused effort against the Coyotes.
Here's what went right for the Bolts in Pittsburgh.

1. MIXING THINGS UP
Entering Tuesday's game, the Lightning had scored just eight goals at 5-on-5, ranking tied for 27th in the NHL.
That's an unfamiliar place for a Tampa Bay team that's finished first or tied for first in the League for 5-on-5 goals in four of Jon Cooper's eight full seasons as head coach.
The Lightning controlled the action through the first two periods in Buffalo and had a majority of the puck but didn't really do much with it in a head-scratching loss. To try to generate a spark, Cooper switched up his lines in Pittsburgh, breaking up the Ondrej Palat-Brayden Point partnership that's been together for a couple seasons now. He moved Alex Killorn and Anthony Cirelli up to the wings on Point's line and put Steven Stamkos at center surrounded by Palat and Mathieu Joseph.
Pat Maroon returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing Monday's game following the birth of his baby girl Sunday night and continued to combine with Ross Colton and Corey Perry.
Alex Barre-Boulet made his second-consecutive start since he was reclaimed by the Lightning from Seattle and skated on a fourth line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Taylor Raddysh.
The result was the most balanced lineup we've seen so far from the Lightning this season.
Three of the four lines produced goals. And the one that didn't - the Maroon-Colton-Perry combination - was arguably Tampa Bay's top line as they controlled play down below the hash marks and had a number of excellent scoring opportunities throughout.
For one night anyway, switching the forward groups up was a needed shot in the arm.
"You're trying to find what's working and putting guys in a position to succeed, and that's what we did tonight," Cooper said. "Stammer's pretty much played center his whole life, so it's easy to put him back there. He just hasn't played it in a while. Splitting up Point and Palat, who have played together for quite some time. We thought about this lineup for a bit. We played pretty well last night, but we need some of these big guys to get on the board. It was great to see Pointer get on. Stammer sets up a really nice one. The guys were just clicking. As coaches, you're trying to tinker with it a little bit to give guys a chance to succeed, and they did tonight."
The early part of the season is going to be a work in progress for the Bolts. They lost four fantastic forwards from the back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams in Yanni Gourde, Tyler Johnson, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman. They have veteran additions Perry and Bellemare to work in along with younger players like Barre-Boulet, Raddysh and Boris Katchouk. It's going to take a while for the team to create a new identity and find the right combination of players among its forward group.
But Cooper might have found something with the new look in Pittsburgh.
"I think it's a key for us is we've got depth," Ryan McDonagh said. "Guys can bounce up here and there from one line to the next. It doesn't really change the way we want to play, no matter whose line you're out there with. It's a good sign for us it worked tonight."

2. A LEAD LOOKS GOOD ON THE LIGHTNING
Hard to believe Tampa Bay went six-straight games and the first period from Tuesday's win without holding a lead at any point in regulation.
It says something about the Bolts' resiliency they were able to come from behind to win two of those contests and take another into a shootout to earn five points through those six contests.
But constantly playing from behind was a recipe that was not going to lend itself to success. On Tuesday, the Lightning finally found out what it's like to play from in front. Brayden Point scored 31 seconds into the second period for the game's opening goal, and the Bolts would never relinquish that lead once they got it.
Tampa Bay narrowly missed tying a dubious franchise mark. Only one other time in franchise history had the Lightning began the season giving up the opening goal in six-consecutive games. The 2009-10 team allowed the first goal in seven-straight contests to start the season. The Bolts could have matched that mark had they allowed the Penguins to score first in Pittsburgh. And they nearly did in the first period when a shot from the right circle bounced off Andrei Vasilevskiy's shoulder, the puck caroming high in the air and dropping in the crease before being slammed into the net by Brock McGinn. But the ref blew his whistle early thinking Vasilevskiy had trapped the puck against his chest.
That goal didn't count, a bit of luck for the Lightning in a season where they haven't gotten much yet. Point's goal would count, and it was just what the Lightning needed to put Monday's disappointing result behind them.
"There was extra excitement on that goal," Cooper said. "We didn't know that was going to come because the one Pittsburgh goal gets called back. We liked our game tonight. We deserved points from this (back-to-back set). We weren't sure how we were going to get them. We got two tonight. Playing with the lead is something we've been used to, and it really hadn't happened all year this year. It was nice to play with it."
Later in the season, we'll likely look at Tampa Bay's inability to score first as an odd quirk to the early season, an anomaly that'll likely be a forgotten memory.
But it sure was difficult to navigate for the Bolts while they were in the midst of it.
"It helps out in a lot of areas," McDonagh said about starting with the lead. "It creates more momentum for you. It makes the other team press a little bit. You keep it simple and get going north on the forecheck and get more goals that way, so it was a good sign for us."
That early-goal lead was needed when Pittsburgh pushed back midway through the second period and had numerous opportunities to tie the game. A fatigued group of Bolts held on, however, backed by the stellar play of Vasilevskiy, and they scored a pair of goals against the run of play to take command.
Alex Barre-Boulet sent a stretch pass up ahead for Ondrej Palat, who wristed a shot from the high slot past Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry to give the Bolts some breathing room at 2-0. Just 10 seconds later, Steven Stamkos skated with the puck behind the goal and set up McDonagh at the top of the left circle for a one-time blast past Jarry.
The Lightning weren't about to relinquish a three-goal advantage on this night.
"I loved our first (period), and I loved half our second," Cooper said. "We had pretty good control of our game, but there were two turnovers and we couldn't get the puck 200 feet and it's the long change and then there was a broken stick, so it just felt like you were in (your own zone) forever. That's when you need your goalie at times, but I thought the guys, they got in shot lanes, they ate a bunch of pucks and that (second goal) is a tough one. The crowd's all excited and you could just feel the energy go out of the building when we get that one and then one right after that."
The Palat and McDonagh goals came 10 seconds apart, one second off the franchise record for fastest two goals of nine seconds set three times previously.

3. SHUTTING IT DOWN
In every game they've played so far coming into Tuesday's contest in Pittsburgh, the Lightning trailed to start the third period.
Not just tied, trailed, meaning they had to rally over the final 20 minutes and into overtime to secure their two victories.
For the first time this season, we got to see how the Lightning can play when they have a lead in the final period and how they're able to shut the opposition down to secure the win. In Pittsburgh, they executed near flawlessly, only a late power play and subsequent goal from Jason Zucker keeping them from completing the shutout.
The Lightning didn't have many shots in the third period - they finished with nine - but they gave up even fewer. Pittsburgh didn't register its first shot of the final frame until 9:23 and only had one through the first 13-and-a-half minutes. The Penguins ended with six shots in the third, the Lightning effectively eliminating any scoring threats before they could materialize until a late power play when the outcome had already been decided.
"It was a long stretch that they went without a shot," Cooper said. "I think as our team has grown in the last couple of years, you want to get the lead and extend it and protect it. But we've always been that get the lead, extend it, extend it, extend it. Sometimes that can open you up for issues. Tonight, they were rock solid in the neutral zone. They just didn't give Pittsburgh easy entries, and it obviously helped us."
No matter what Pittsburgh tried over the final 20 minutes to get back into the game, the Lightning had an answer for it.
"Those are things we talk about, closing games out, how important that is," McDonagh said. "Teams are going to try to press, be creative, find ways to get offense going. We stayed above them and didn't turn the puck over a lot and just made them go the full length of the ice. You do that, you limit the chances against for you there. That's a good sign for us to keep the shots against down."
The Lightning played a complete game Tuesday. They started strong, grabbed the lead, added to it and closed out the opposition in dominating fashion. It was a satisfying result after getting steamrolled by this same Pittsburgh team just a couple of weeks earlier on Opening Night.
"The way they slapped us around on Opening Night, we were looking forward to this one," Cooper said. "Thank goodness we could return the favor."