There’s ample reason to believe these aren’t the same old Toronto Maple Leafs. During a Game 3 thriller where they had no business defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was the new guys who elevated their game before Morgan Rielly, Toronto’s longest-tenured player, emerged as the overtime hero.
And through the opening 40 minutes, it looked like the Maple Leafs squandered the momentum generated from Rielly’s series-changing goal, getting toasted by the Lightning in every aspect of the game. You could blame the Core Four — Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were completely blanketed by Tampa Bay’s shutdown line of Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn — who scored two goals and were all-around menaces after going the entire 2022 postseason without getting on the board.