Emotional opener for Lombardi

Win or lose, the Toronto Maple Leafs had the first star of the new season before the second period was a minute old.

The NHL did too.

Matthew Lombardi raced in off the wing on the penalty kill, got one shot off, was stopped, kept going and scored his first goal – the winning goal as it turned out – in 51 weeks.

"It’s pretty emotional," he said as he tried to put into words what it’s like to have seemingly lost everything and then prove to yourself and your family and your new team and new city that you got it back.

Coming off a career year in Phoenix the speedster earned a three-year, $10.5-million contract in Nashville in 2010 and was penciled in as the club’s No.1 centre.

His second child was born a month before the season began. Things were good.

But then he got tripped and tumbled head-first into the boards in the second game of the season, came up woozy, finished the game but didn’t play again until Thursday night as the after-effects of what turned out to be a severe concussion proved difficult to shake.

He only ended up in Toronto because the Predators, perennially cash-strapped, saw an opportunity to move an expensive asset who may not play again.

The Leafs picked him up in a deal that also yielded Cody Franson.

"My everyday stuff is getting pretty close to normal," Lombardi said at the time, sounding the same note of optimism that hockey fans have come to realize means little when it comes to brain injuries. "Obviously it has taken a long time but I'm pretty confident I'm near the end. I’m getting better."

He proved himself all the way back last night as the Leafs won their season opener against the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 in a game where just about everything went right for Toronto.

James Reimer stopped all 32 shots for the shutout; Captain Dion Phaneuf assisted on Lombardi’s goal, scored the insurance goal and the Leafs – with help from Lombardi and newcomer David Steckel – killed off five Montreal power plays.

Lombardi’s speed is his calling card. It makes him a good penalty killer, which is important because the Leafs penalty killing has been awful in Ron Wilson’s three years (and counting) behind the bench.

With Luke Schenn off for boarding, Lombardi made his presence felt, scoring his first goal as a Leaf, the Leaf’s first goal of the season and his first goal of his second NHL life.

"I was surprised, the puck was sitting right there, waiting for me to put it in," he said later, sitting in his stall, his equipment damp, the hair on his formerly concussed head messed. He looked like a hockey player.

On the ice he managed a fist pump, but otherwise his celebration was fairly muted.

"I didn’t know what to do, it felt unreal, it all happened so fast," he said. "It was the worst celebration of all time."

The backdrop only made Lombardi’s moment more fitting. Minutes before Lombardi’s goal Don Cherry unloaded an entire off-season’s worth of vitriol on hockey’s most pressing questions – fighting, headshots and what links if any there may be between the game’s black arts and the mental, physical and emotional well-being of those that practice them during his Coach’s Corner segment on CBC.

Over a montage of former thumper Scott Steven’s concussion-causing greatest hits he roared that hockey’s new sensitivity to brain injuries would mean the end to the kind of open-ice collisions that in his eyes made the game great.

"Enjoy this, you'll never see it again," thundered Cherry. "It's ridiculous the players will never hit again and I don't blame them."

He then scolded anyone who dared conflate deaths this past summer of three NHL fighters with concussions or fighting.

He then labeled as "pukes" former fighters who dared suggest that fighting in anyway contributed to their struggles with health or addictions.

And it’s not like Cherry’s alone. He’s just the best heard. Leafs president Brian Burke summed up his doubts about the connection between fighting, brain injuries and suicide this way the other day: "If we establish a link, we have to look at it. But if there's a link, there should be boxers jumping out of buildings every week, and there aren't."

Obviously Lombardi is not fighter and thus falls outside a narrow scope of the brain injury question. But roaring on about links between headshots and fighting and depression and whatever else may or may not ail hockey and hockey players likely misses the point.

Lombardi hit his head on a routine hockey play and it nearly cost him his job.

Buffalo Sabres’ great Rick Martin was no fighter. Like Lombardi he used his speed to play a finesse game, to even greater effect.

He died this past March at 59 of heart disease and just the day before Cherry’s rant and Lombardi’s comeback the results of the study of his brain tissue came back positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a somber reminder that brain injuries don’t discriminate. The brain is a delicate thing.

In the age of hockey enlightenment there will certainly be those who want to keep things in the dark ages.

All the more reason to celebrate on the first night of the NHL’s new season and after it’s darkest summer yet, a bright light.

"I was thinking about it before the game. Just being in the room with the guys, getting ready for the game. When you’re not doing it any more it’s the first thing you miss, just the excitement," said Lombardi.

"A game like this, tight game, 1-0, 2-0. It’s great to be a part of it."

Matthew Lombardi’s concussion seems to behind him, as much as it ever can be. He scored a nice goal and helped his team win.

On this night being named a star -- even Don Cherry might agree – was far preferable to seeing them.

Michael Grange will provide insight and analysis on all the top stories in sports.