RIDING THE PINE — Everybody loves playoff hockey.

Everybody, that is, except maybe pro hockey enforcer Kyle Clifford. Or maybe he just loves it a little too much.

The Toronto Maple Leafs forward was assessed a one-game suspension for a vicious hit he dished out just seven minutes into Game 1 of the Leafs' playoff debut against Tampa Bay.

Clifford was assessed a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct when he sent Lightning forward Ross Colton face-first into the glass — just moments after another big (and ultimately legal) check against Tampa Bay defenseman Jan Rutta.

The NHL's department of player safety, which issued the suspension following a hearing Tuesday that included Clifford, described the incident as "a forceful hit to a defenseless player who is no longer in possession of the puck" in a video explanation.

Clifford was dinged with the penalty, but the Leafs easily killed off the five-minute power player before going on to roll to a 5-0 win over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning.

Now he'll miss Wednesday's Game 2 in Toronto, as well.

"(Clifford's) got to toe the line. And that's not an easy ask for a player like him," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe told the media Tuesday before the suspension was announced. "When you're him, you want to get on top of the opposition quickly, you want to finish your checks, you want to make your mark physically.

"He just finished a good check (on Rutta), and the building's kind of erupting. And then all of a sudden, there's a second check there. It's a split-second decision, and it wasn't a good one for him. But he knows that. ... He's been around the game a long time and has played that way a long time. He paid for it in that moment. We paid for it as a team."

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