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For the Maple Leafs to shine in playoffs, the stars must come out and the lesser planets align.
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The skies looked promising to open a post-season tournament where success is so essential to this Toronto roster’s future.
Not only did the Core Four rack up nine points in a 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Easter Sunday at Scotiabank Arena, the Leafs showed the poise on defence and big saves lacking each spring since 2018. The Leafs had lost five of their past six Game 1s.
On the 21st anniversary of the Leafs eliminating Ottawa for the fourth and final time in a five-year window that solidified the Battle of Ontario in provincial puck consciousness, this was not an omen the Sens needed.
Still, the Leafs couldn’t have gained their comfort zone without big saves through 40 minutes from Anthony Stolarz. They included a Brady Tkachuk breakaway off a Morgan Rielly fumble where the sparkplug Ottawa captain had nowhere to shoot at but Stolarz’s large Leaf logo. There was another point-blank power-play stop soon after on Fabian Zetterlund as part of 30-plus saves.
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The Scotiabank crowd of 19,072, which quickly found its playoff voice and cheered every Toronto hit, got to let loose when the fourth line helped produce the opening goal. Scott Laughton spotted Oliver Ekman-Larsson jumping into the play and the defencemen snapped a low wrister as Linus Ullmark was a bit slow to react.
The roar increased when Auston Matthews sent Mitch Marner in for a breakaway deke, while the tight play of Toronto in its own zone right after was beginning to frustrate Ottawa. Fans took up a very loud “Brady sucks” chant for the only member of the Tkachuk family yet to make his NHL playoff mark.
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However, Stolarz and company couldn’t corral a rebound that Drake Batherson knocked in before the period ended.
“That’s a good team over there, they’ve earned every right to be in the playoffs,” reminded Toronto coach Craig Berube after the morning skate. “A lot of good players over there who play a disciplined-style game.”
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But there was no trepidation in Toronto’s approach to the middle period, helped by three power-play goals that helped erase the memory of a dismal 1-for-21 showing in seven games last spring against Boston. After Tim Stutzle boarded Laughton, John Tavares buried his own deflection rebound of a William Nylander shot, then on a 5-on-3 after consecutive cross-checking penalties, Tavares won a draw to Nylander.
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After Matthews assisted on a Matthew Knies power-play goal, the Core Four each had multiple-point games in the same playoff contest for just the third time since 2019.
When Ridly Greig got the Sens within two goals in the third, Rielly banked a long-range wrister off an Ottawa stick.
Ottawa is full marks for making the playoffs after eight years, but the Leafs have been re-tooling all year for this stage, with two all-stars among the Core Four, the league’s minimum-appearance save percentage leader in Stolarz, three members of the 2024 Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers and two veteran trade-deadline acquisitions.
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