Krenn: Three Things we learned from a shutout loss in Game 1

On to Game Two.
It was a night to forget for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs 5-0.

The Bolts had a big opportunity early on in the first period in what was probably the game's biggest momentum shift when Toronto's Kyle Clifford was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Ross Colton. Tampa Bay, whose power play was red hot to close out the regular season, had a man advantage for the next five minutes, but failed to record a shot on goal for the first four minutes of the power play.
The Lightning finished with two shots on goal during the five-on-four opportunity and the Toronto crowd at Scotiabank Arena was making their presence felt with plenty of noise.
Tampa Bay successfully killed off two penalties after that power play, but just 16 seconds after the Bolts got things back to five-on-five, Jake Muzzin scored with a shot from the point to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
Toronto added three goals in the second period, one on the power play, one shorthanded, and one at even strength. They went on to score their fifth and final goal at the 8:16 mark of the third period to wrap up a 5-0 win.
It was one of the tougher starts to the postseason imaginable for the Lightning, who will have to turn the page and look for a big road win on Wednesday night to even the series. The Bolts know how to recover after a loss, but it certainly isn't an ideal position to be in just one game into the postseason.
Here's what we learned from a Game One loss to Toronto.
1. SPECIAL TEAMS WERE NOT SO SPECIAL
It was a tough night for the Tampa Bay power play after wrapping up the regular season on a 12-for-24 run over their final six games.
The Lightning finished the night zero-for-five with the man advantage on 12:51 of power play time.
"We had a couple of power plays, obviously the five-minute one, and some plays that were clicking the last stretch here in the season were just hitting a stick, hitting a skate," said Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. "But at the same time, they did a good job of executing on those PK's early and they gained some momentum.
"It could have been a really different game if we had scored early on that, so that was a missed opportunity for us."
While the performance on the power play was far from ideal, Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper felt that his team let the performance affect their game more than it should have.
"The frustration was out of not scoring on the power play," said Cooper. "That's where the frustration came from and we're better than that to challenge our energy knowing that, in the grand scheme of things, if you go one-for-five on the power play all year, you've got a pretty decent power play.
"You're not going to go five-for-five and especially in a playoff game when everybody's at the peak or height of their efforts and concentration. So, we're better than that and we let it get the best of us."
We knew going into this series that power plays were going to play a big factor in the series with both teams playing strong with the man advantage all season. With shorthanded breakaways and odd-man rushes given up, the Bolts will have to make the necessary adjustments as they head into Game Two.
"Come this time of the year, there's going to be some adjustments in games," said Stamkos. "We'll watch the film, we'll adjust. It's going to be a long series.
"We didn't do our job. We wanted to come in and take Game One. They did it.
"Any time you start on the road, you want to try to get a split, so we've got to obviously play a lot better next game."
2. GETTING BACK TO LIGHTNING HOCKEY
How many times have we heard Cooper preach defense first over his tenure as head coach?
The Lightning's highest highs have come when they are taking care of their own end. Handling the defensive zone first will have to be a priority going into Game Two.
"It's something we talk about a lot, playing well when the puck's on our stick and being in good structure when it's not," said Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh. "We definitely need to get our pace back here and be on top of them a bit more.
"We need to get back to what our identity is here as far as keeping the puck out of our net and letting our offense come from that. They had some odd-mans, they had some breakaways. That's not winning hockey, so we'll look at things and be better here in Game Two."
It's never easy losing in the NHL, especially in a seven-game series in the playoffs, but Cooper is confident in his team's ability to rebound and play the way they have to play in order to be successful.
"This is a group that's shown a lot of resiliency in the last three years. Even when we got knocked out the first round, it took some resiliency to get back in to make the playoffs and then to do what we've done the last two years," said Cooper.
"It's no guarantee because of our history, but we can definitely draw from it and I have the utmost confidence in our group."
Over the last two years in the playoffs en route to two straight Stanley Cup titles, Tampa Bay never lost two games in a row. They'll have the opportunity to continue that trend on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
3. PLENTY OF PENALTIES
Without counting Clifford's game misconduct or any of the scrapping halfway through the third period, there were 11 penalties called through the first two and a half periods of Monday's contest.
We knew special teams were going to play a big role in this series, but I'm not sure if anyone expected that many penalties to be called in that amount of time.
With that being said, there were penalties committed. The officials were doing their job and calling them.
"I think they made the right calls on pretty much every single one, both ways," said Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. "You know, we've got to play by the standard that they set and they were calling it both ways. I thought they called a good game."
Would Cooper like to see his team take less penalties? Of course.
Were the penalty calls tonight unjustified? Probably not.
"There were a lot of dumb penalties taken both ways," said Cooper. "They (the officials) were calling what was laid in front of them.
"I think probably both teams are shaking their head a bit about the amount of penalties each team took."
Both of these teams have a ton of skill up front and maybe if the Lightning were able to convert on one of their power plays, this would be a different conversation. But, overall, the game just lacks a little bit of flow when so much time is spent on special teams.
When so much of the game features a team playing with a man advantage, certain players simply won't get a lot of ice time, which may make it difficult to get into a groove early on. Was that what decided the outcome of the game? Of course not.
More five-on-five action would probably be welcomed by both teams, but if there are going to be this many penalties committed and called, the Lightning will have to rebound and have a much better performance on special teams.
"We take a lot of pride in being good on special teams and just weren't sharp there executing wise," said McDonagh. "They had a lot of looks, but we're just as confident here that if we get that opportunity again, they'll come through for us."