John Tavares didn’t have an answer. Sheldon Keefe didn’t sense any nerves.
Once the puck dropped, however, one team was confident in its battle-tested, championship pedigree.
The other froze at the first opportunity to once again — finally — flip its long playoff script.
The Tampa Bay Lightning built a 3-0 lead in the first period and survived a brief scare on the way to humiliating the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series Tuesday.
“It’s a hard one to explain, no doubt,” said Tavares, Toronto’s captain. “We’re disappointed.”
As they should be.
The Leafs are looking to end an ugly
