TORONTO – Nikita Kucherov scored twice as part of a four-point night, Brayden Point had two goals and an assist in his season debut, and the Tampa Bay Lightning thumped the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3 on Thursday.
Steven Stamkos added a goal and three assists for Tampa (2-1-1), while Ondrej Palat also scored.
Anthony Cirelli chipped in with three assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves to get the victory as the Lightning emphatically halted an early two-game slide.
Auston Matthews, with a goal and an assist, John Tavares and Andreas Johnsson replied for Toronto (2-2-1).
Frederik Andersen allowed seven goals on 28 shots before getting the hook in favour of Michael Hutchinson seven minutes into the third period. Hutchinson finished with five saves.
Tampa’s top line of Point, Stamkos and Kucherov — which combined for 318 points in 2018-19 — registered 11 on this night in their first action together of 2019-20.
The Leafs came in also having dropped two straight, including Monday’s 3-2 home loss to the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.
The Lightning, meanwhile, had 72 hours to stew following Sunday’s 4-3 overtime defeat at Carolina in a game where the Hurricanes outshot the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners 44-13.
That effort, or lack thereof, prompted Stamkos to rip his team for its “free-wheeling” approach — one he said played a part in the 62-win club getting swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs last spring.
Following a wild first period that saw a combined seven goals, 27 total shots and a 4-3 lead for the Lightning, the Leafs pushed back with a better effort to start the second.
But Point — who missed a chunk of training camp before signing a three-year, US$20.25-million contract as a restricted free agent and then sat out the Lightning’s first three games following off-season hip surgery — scored his second goal of the game on one of the visitors’ numerous displays of dizzying puck movement.
Stamkos left a pass for Kucherov, who saw his quick shot deflected home by Point at the lip of the crease at 10:46 to put Tampa up by two.
Vasilevskiy, who allowed three goals on 13 shots in the first, made a nice save on Trevor Moore later in the second before stopping a redirection by Matthews.
Moments after Matthews saw a good chance blocked by Hedman early in the third, Tampa put the game out of reach at 3:58 when Palat’s centring pass glanced off Leafs winger Kasperi Kapanen and past a surprised Andersen for his second.
Kucherov added his second of the night after stepping out of the penalty box at 6:57 when Andersen gave the puck away to Stamkos, who fed his linemate down low and he beat the Toronto netminder between the pads to make it 7-3.
That was it for Andersen, who was pulled in favour of Hutchinson.
Tampa, which tied an NHL record with those 62 wins last season, got off to a fast start in a roller-coaster opening period.
Point got things started at 2:28 on his second shift of the season when he pounced on a rebound that Andersen couldn’t control.
Toronto responded at 4:19 when Johnsson took a pass off the rush from Matthews on a power play and beat Vasilevskiy for his first.
The home side then went up 2-1 at 7:46 when Tavares snapped a two-game point drought, which tied for his longest with the Leafs, on a slick deflection.
But the Lightning responded on a man advantage of their own when Kucherov took a quick pass from Hedman, who was playing his 700th NHL game, and wired a one-timer against the grain on Andersen for his second at 11:24.
Bought out by the New York Rangers and signed by Tampa for one year at $1.75 million, Shattenkirk made it 3-2 just 1:21 later when the defenceman easily moved past Morgan Rielly and fired a backhand home for his third.
Mikael Sergachev hit the post behind Andersen on shot that nearly put the Lightning up by two only to watch Matthews respond moments later with his sixth after Vasilevskiy coughed up an ugly rebound at 17:56.
Stamkos, however, restored Tampa’s lead with 42.7 seconds left in the period when he snapped his third past Andersen for a 4-3 lead to round out a crazy opening 20 minutes.
Notes: Point’s assist on the Lightning’s fourth goal was the 200th point of his career. … Toronto visits the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, while Tampa visits Ottawa. … Attendance was 19,387.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2019.
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