‘A different feel’: Why these Maple Leafs are poised for a run (seriously)

TORONTO — Flip a coin.

Well, in this day of tap and go and e-transfers, the first step is to find a coin.

So, dive into Grandma’s chesterfield cushions like you’re hunting Easter eggs. Raid the console of Dad’s SUV for loose change. Clean out the junk drawer. Find a coin.

Now, flip that coin.

Heads, he stays.

Tails, he goes.

That one was for Mitch Marner, only the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ best and most dependable forward this season, in which he touched a career-high 102 points and — as the clear favourite on the looming free agent market — threatens to nip at Leon Draisaitl’s heels as the most expensive hockey player in 2025-26.

Now flip the coin again. Same odds.

That one is for John Tavares, Toronto’s prodigal son, the one who couldn’t be prouder to be home, is more willing to take a discount, and — by ripping 38 goals in an injury-hampered age-34 season — proved all doubters wrong. This hockey robot still has plenty of grease in the gears.

OK, one more airborne somersault for that dusty nickel of yours.

This one will be for club president Brendan Shanahan and his grand plan, that if you keep banging at the door with the same ol’ core, eventually the hinges will loosen. And all that eight-figure talent will break on through to the other side. Where glory awaits. That’s the plan.

Ninth time’s the charm for the Shanaplan. Otherwise, this grand, expensive, divisive chapter of Leafs lore will go down as the Sham-a-plan.

Who stays? Who goes? Who knows.

What we do know for sure is that, in the immortal words of De La Soul, stakes is high. Jobs and contract extensions hang in the ether.

But before we get carried away on doomsday scenarios, we’ll let you in on something else we know.

Outside of perhaps that weird, zero-fans, Canada-only fever dream of a hand-sanitized winter, this edition of these Maple Leafs has never been better poised for a playoff run.

Seriously.

“We’ve had some great additions to the team this year,” Tavares says.

“Gives the team a different feel, a different dynamic.”

Perhaps Leafs Nation will look back and scream that the changes were made too late.

But credit management for making them.

Shanahan hired a general manager, Brad Treliving, who prioritized size, snot and defence.

Treliving, in turn, hired an accomplished, wise coach, Craig Berube, with shared beliefs and simple messaging. Then they set to work recruiting a confident (if inexperienced) goaltender who stops pucks and barks at teammates; two legitimate top-four righties committed to real defending; and some complementary forwards who aren’t afraid to get the occasional spatter of blood on their sweaters.

Treliving inherited a roster unconventionally built from the top down, then fixed a faulty foundation without disrupting that beautiful penthouse.

In so many of those early exits of post-seasons past, the Maple Leafs ranked at or near the cellar in hits and blocked shots.

Led by Treliving’s top UFA target, ultimate warrior Chris Tanev, the 2024-25 Leafs ranked fifth in blocks (1,357). They also ranked eighth in hits (1,962).

Their soft-skill identity has transformed in front of our eyes, remolded in their punchy coach’s image.

“The past is the past. This is a different group. Every year, there are new people. Every year, you have experiences from the year past. That is what we are focused on right now: this group of players and the things that we have done this year. All of it gets parked,” Treliving says.

“Everything that has happened in the 82 games is to prepare you for what is coming next. None of it is relevant. None of it gives you any kind of leg up starting on Sunday. What has happened before has happened before. Now, we are ready to write a new chapter.”

Providing hope for a happy ending is that the Maple Leafs enter the Round of 16 at darn-near full health. Their refashioned five-forward power-play is humming, not stumbling.

The Leafs are coming in hot, winners of five straight and a sparkling 13-2-1 record over their past 16, which turned their first successful Atlantic Division title race into a finish-line cruise.

Those meaningful team games down the stretch have sharpened focus. The switch has already been flipped.

Oh, and — fun fact! — their starting goalie on Game 1 Easter Sunday, Anthony Stolarz, has a Polish surname that translates to “carpenter.” Jesus was a carpenter. So, the Leafs must be destined to rise again.

“I think we’re prepared. Obviously, we can’t change what’s happened in the past. You wear that. You gotta push through and put your best foot forward,” says first-time captain Auston Matthews. “But it’s a new year, new circumstances, a lot of new faces, new coaching staff.

“So, I feel really confident in this group. I think we put in a lot of work over the season, earning the division here is a big step for us. But we just want to continue to push forward.”

What else feels different is the level of competition facing Toronto.

The plucky Ottawa Senators won’t be a pushover by any means, but they are severely outmatched in the quantity and quality of high-end game-breakers they can throw over the boards. They lack experience.

While the Leafs have zero fear of the Tampa Bay Lightning — a team they hurdled last time they met in the playoffs and swept 4-0 in this regular season — the Florida Panthers could give them fits. But the Panthers are also banged up and must survive an intrastate bloodbath. And the Metropolitan can’t lay claim to any team that should weaken the Leafs’ knees.

Moreover, Berube’s Buds have thrived in tight, one-goal, low-event matches. They lock up leads with the best of ’em and have bought into the brand of safe (i.e., boring) type of hockey that comes in vogue in April and May.

The Leafs — whose plus-37 goal differential easily rates lowest among the four divisional champs — have been practising not blowing out the competition. They’re comfortable finding the slivers of success in tight quarters.

“It’s big. You know, it’s not something that we’ve done a lot in the past,” says Morgan Rielly, the longest-serving Leaf.

“But if you look at games recently, it’s all been close. And that’s what we’re expecting here moving forward. So, it’s a good opportunity for our best to come out. It can be nerve-wracking when you’re in these close games. The more you do it and the more you are able to execute and rely on your structure and end up on top, it’s a good feeling.”

A franchise-record-setting 50 wins on the road is a good feeling, too. Not that Games 3, 4 and 6 (if necessary) at Canadian Tire Centre will feel like road games anyway.

A better feeling, both in the room and among the fan base, is that special meetings are no longer required to tell the hockey players they should stick up for one another.

These Leafs do so organically. Thirteen different Toronto players dropped the gloves this season. No team had more enthusiastic combatants.

Could it be? The Maple Leafs’ enforcer is no longer their power play. It’s their character.

“Just shows how much this team has come together and willing to go to bat for everybody,” Ryan Reaves says.

“That’s something that was lacking on this team over the years. And what they’ve built here is a real team that’s aligned to make an impact, willing to go to war for each other. And I think that’s something that you really need in the playoffs.”

Steven Lorentz — one of three Leafs going for Stanley Cup repeat, but the only one who remembers Joe Nieuwendyk’s Battle of Ontario heroics — agrees.

“Yeah, that’s just it. It’s the willingness. It’s that extra compete,” Lorentz says.

“So (13) different guys doing it this year just says a lot about our group and the character of the guys in there — they can get to that level of emotion in a hockey game to have it boil over.

“It might not be a good thing. But it’s also, I think, a good thing.”

Lorentz smiles as he speaks. The lifelong Leafs fan gets it. And, we’ll remind you, a tattoo of the Stanley Cup is inked onto his right thigh as he says this.

Back to the coin we asked you to flip.

As it tumbles in the air, its fate a mystery, the screams of heads! and tails! will be deafening.

The Maple Leafs’ long-tortured, ever-faithful fans will be helpless during the next two weeks or two months. Prisoners of luck. Victims of the unknown.

But the Maple Leafs themselves have a say in how that coin lands. More so if they can amnesia the past and live in the now.

“More than anything, it’s the noise. There is a lot of it. You have to quiet the noise,” Berube says.

“You have to handle it. Go out and compete your ass off. Play as hard as you can, and good things happen. You can control your effort, competitiveness, and do what is best for the team.”

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