Maple Leafs take commanding 3-...

There are many reasons to think that these are not the same Toronto Maple Leafs as before. Prior to Morgan Rielly, Toronto's longest-tenured player, emerging as the Game 3 hero in overtime, it was the young guys who improved their performance. They had no business beating the Tampa Bay Lightning.

And for the first 40 minutes, it appeared as though the Maple Leafs wasted the opportunity created by Rielly's game-changing goal, losing to the Lightning in every facet of the contest. You might point the finger at the Core Four, who scored two goals and were generally dangerous after going the whole 2022 postseason without scoring, as Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were totally shut down by Tampa Bay's lockdown line of Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, and Alex Killorn. When Tampa scored their second goal, William Nylander failed to stop Mikhail Sergachev because of an idiotic penalty that led to the power play that Killorn used to score the game's first goal. There was no sign of John Tavares, who had a hat-trick in Game 2.

The Maple Leafs were only playing for pride after getting thrashed by the Lightning; the outcome was intended to be academic. At 5-on-5, Tampa Bay was in charge of 66% of the projected goals and scoring opportunities. But the Maple Leafs managed to steal a game on the road for the second time in a row. And the reason for it was due to some of their best halves as Maple Leafs by Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, and Rielly.

"We believe in this team to do some crazy things," Marner said following the game, according to Sportsnet's Luke Fox.

The main force behind the comeback was Matthews. T.J. Brodie fed Nylander, who made a frightening move through center before passing the puck to Marner, who attracted three defenders to himself.

Matthews has been among the NHL's greatest players this season, and his raw statistics still show that he's one of the league's most dangerous offensive threats, even though he won't receive votes for the Hart this year. Statistics are not necessary to demonstrate Matthews' influence on such a night. He demonstrated his exceptional hand-eye coordination by tipping a point shot from Nylander, a goal that dispelled any illusions of a potential comeback. As Matthews heated up, Nylander returned to his previous form, which had allowed him to have a career year despite what looked to be compounding errors on his part.

The Passion was suspended. The Passion was restored by Matthews' first goal. His second goal whipped up Leafs Nation. After Rielly tied the score, Maple Leafs supporters began to believe that this year might be different. The outcome for Kerfoot was confirmation.

Given the stakes, the difficulty of defeating the three-time conference champions in three straight games, twice on the road, while erasing a three-goal deficit in the space of 25 minutes, this has to be considered the best hour for the core. There may be better individual performances statistically — we've already seen it from Tavares and Marner.

To achieve one of its biggest triumphs in team history, Toronto came back from the dead. The guys who endure the worst criticism when the team doesn't perform up to expectations gave them an extraordinarily clutch performance, making it maybe the biggest victory of the Matthews-Marner era. The Core Four and the newcomers are one victory away from casting off their greatest demons as The Passion is back in full force.