Bolts hope top line's success continues in First Round

It's finally here.
Game One of the Tampa Bay Lightning's opening-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs kicks off at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Scotiabank Arena. This matchup has been highly anticipated for some time now, with the Bolts and Leafs never meeting in the playoffs until tonight.

Tampa Bay will hope for continued success for their top line of Ondrej Palat, Steven Stamkos, and Nikita Kucherov, who have been red hot since being united prior to the Lightning's last regular season matchup against the Maple Leafs on April 21.
Judging off the lines from the Bolts' practice on Sunday, there may be some different combinations in the middle of the lineup. Nick Paul skated on a line with Ross Colton and Alex Killorn, while Brayden Point skated with Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel.
Jon Cooper spoke with the media on Monday morning and talked about some of his team's lines heading into Game One.
"Stammer and Kuch and Palat, let's be honest, are on a little bit of a historic run," said Cooper. "A coach's job is not to get in the way of players when they've got some good things going. It's when they aren't going, how you're going to help them out.
"This is Game One of what we hope is a long run for us and maybe these guys all stay together the way they are. Maybe they don't. When the puck drops at 7:40 tonight, this is where we're starting.

"Who knows how it's going to finish up? But we like the way things are looking right now."
The duo of Stamkos and Kucherov has been absolutely deadly over the last several weeks. The connection at five-on-five and on the power play has looked like poetry in motion on the ice.
"[I'm] playing with some pretty good players on a five-on five-basis, especially Kuch lately," said Stamkos. "There's a lot of a lot of plays to be made out there when he's on the ice.
"Pally has been great. Our power play has been hot, so there's a bunch of things that lead into that. You want to be feeling good about yourself heading into the playoffs and I certainly feel that way right now."
How could Stamkos not feel good about himself right now?
On Saturday, the Lightning captain was named the NHL's First Star of the Month after recording 33 points (12G, 21A) in just 16 games during the month of April. The 33 points set a Lightning franchise record for the most points in a calendar month and was the most by any NHL player since Mario Lemieux's 34 points in December of 1995.
Stamkos recorded a hat trick in Tampa Bay's final regular season game and passed Vincent Lecavalier for the franchise record of most consecutive multi-point games. The hat trick marked the ninth-consecutive game with two or more points for Stamkos.
It was the first season of Stamkos's career finishing with more than 100 points and he put up a lot of those numbers with Kucherov and Point out of the lineup.
"I think Stammer had probably his first 50-60 games when Kuch was out for a prolonged period of time," Cooper said. "Pointer was out for a prolonged period of time too and you needed somebody to help carry us and keep us afloat until these guys got back.
"Stammer did just that and I think that's kind of a boat that he's never been in, in his career. Then to see what he did. I think I said it not too long ago, but if you told me he was getting 40 goals and 100 points, if you asked me that literally two and a half weeks ago, I would have said no way. And here he is 106 points and 40-plus goals and at a time when we needed it.
"Good on him at that age and the injuries he's had to put himself in a position to still be one of the most productive players in the league. I've watched for a long time and I've watched the ups and downs in this kid's career, obviously more ups and downs, but good on him to do what he's done to lift us and keep us here where we are."
Then you take that player and put him on a line with Kucherov, who just concluded the regular season with six multi-point games over the final eight contests. He finished the year on a nine-game point streak with 23 points over those nine contests, scoring 10 goals and adding 13 assists.
"He is steps ahead of everybody before plays even happen and he has this ability - he just anticipates everything," Cooper explained. "Everything is so smoothly calculated in his head and it plays out just the way he thought it.
"I think everybody just focuses on when he has the puck on his stick on the half-wall or wherever in the offensive zone, but you should watch him when he battles for a puck in the D-zone. He just out thinks everybody. And I'm sure Marner is very much the same way.
"These kids are undersized for what players are in this league, so they have to think their way out of problems or scenarios and I've never seen anybody as good as Kuch in that regard, with or without the puck, of just being so damn intelligent. He finds his way into unbelievable situations for himself and it's a marvel to watch."

Speaking of Marner, the Lightning will have their hands full with the shifty winger. He's coming off the best season of his career, recording 97 points in 72 games with 35 goals and 62 assists. He skates on a line with the NHL's leading goal scorer, Auston Matthews. Tampa Bay will have to be sharp to stop that top line.
"For any player of his stature, whether it's Marner or you go down the list of guys, you have to make them uncomfortable," said Cooper. "In our head, we have things that we're going to try and do to make him uncomfortable.
"All friendship aside with Marner and I, we're in a playoff series against each other and we're going to try to win and we're going to do everything we can to put him in a situation that he doesn't like to be in.
"But it's hard. It's harder with the elite players to do that because the reason they are elite is because they can fight through all these situations. So, you just have to do it. It has to be exhausting on them. And that's what we're going to try to do."
The top two lines in this game from both teams have been producing offensive at a ridiculous rate. Will that continue tonight or will this game come down to the second, third, and fourth lines?
Either way, this is just Game One in what the Lightning hope is another long run through the postseason.
"We tell our guys, you're not winning the Stanley Cup tomorrow night," Cooper said. "That's not where it's going to be won. You have to get through this series first and then there's so much more runway after this.
"It's a marathon, but you have to understand if you don't win this series, you're out. And we've been on both sides of this fence. It's about keeping yourself together because there's ebbs and flows. The series never goes your way the whole time.
"When adversity hits, how are you going to handle it? And it hits in so many different ways. We've had a history here in the last couple of years that we've been able to handle it pretty well."