What was your favorite performance of opening night of the playoffs?
Craig Custance: It was entertaining to see Pittsburgh Penguins winger Phil Kessel revert to the form that nearly earned him a Conn Smythe award last spring. He terrorized the Columbus Blue Jackets, kicking a brilliant pass over to Bryan Rust for the opening goal of the postseason for the Penguins and then sniping one past goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on the power play. He was a force, which bodes well in their efforts to get past a physical team that might not have an answer for him if he plays like that all series.
Joe McDonald: You couldn't have asked for a better NHL debut than what Boston Bruins rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy provided in Game 1 against the Ottawa Senators. McAvoy, 19, was forced into action after injuries to defensemen Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo, and McAvoy showed zero signs of being overwhelmed in his first game. He was physical, he was sharp and didn't make many mistakes. He was a plus-1 over 24:11 of ice time. Even if he was playing on pure adrenaline, McAvoy proved he belonged in the NHL.
Pierre LeBrun: I just loved Joel Edmundson's reaction after scoring the overtime winner for the St. Louis Blues over the Minnesota Wild. No arms up. Act like you've done it before, right? He of the four career regular-season goals and now his second career playoff goal had just scored the biggest of his life but no celebration. The defenseman from Brandon, Manitoba, just stood there. I was cracking up. No laughing matter, by the way, was Jake Allen's 51-save performance, which brought back memories of Curtis Joseph in terms of great Blues goaltending performances (Cujo holds the Blues record with 61 saves in a playoff game, in 1993). Allen absolutely stole Game 1 for the Blues and now the Wild are under the spotlight to rebound.
Scott Burnside: I always put Tanner Glass and Henrik Lundqvist in the same sentence. But that's the glorious thing about the playoffs. Glass, a fringe player who spent lots of time in the American Hockey League this season, scored the winner in the first period and Lundqvist, the veteran goalie who has had more than his fair share of ups and downs this season, stopped 31 shots en route to a Game 1 shutout of the Montreal Canadiens -- and the New York Rangers steal Game 1 on the road against the Atlantic Division-champions. Glass' goal, a nice little backhander through traffic, was a bonus, but it's Lundqvist's play that really serves notice that he's not going to play second fiddle to Carey Price in what promises to be a long, emotional first-round series.