The Tampa Bay Lightning had to be reasonably happy with their first opening-round game against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday—or at least happy with everything save the result.
For their part, the Red Wings will need to be much better than they were if they’re going to make this a real series.
They were outplayed by enough of a margin that head coach Mike Babcock complained about it in the second period. He couldn’t have been happy with a third period which saw the Lightning out-chance Detroit 10-1 in a desperate effort to knot the score.