Let’s Just Say Auston Matthews And Mitch Marner CAME TO PLAY To Start This NHL Postseason

Andrew Lahodynskyj. Getty Images.

Overreacting to one game in any major professional sports playoff series can often doom any sports take-ist to failure. But I'm here to suggest that these might not be the same ole Toronto Maple Leafs.

Auston Matthews scored one goal in seven games during last year's opening-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Mitch Marner entered Monday's Game 1 against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning on an 18-game goalless drought in the postseason.

Cut to tonight…

Marner helped set up Matthews' power play goal. It was yet another instance of fantastic execution by the NHL's leading power play unit. After scoring 60 goals in the regular season, any notion that Matthews was about to concede to a Stanley Cup Playoffs letdown was abruptly put to rest.

But this poor playoff form by Marner has a longer history to it. He needed to light the lamp. Otherwise the discourse about his perpetual drought wouldn't cease. Well, do that he did. Marner kept Toronto's onslaught going and extended their lead to 4-0 on the mighty Bolts with a patient dribble, a deke to fool Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and an easy shot to the net:

As if Matthews' first goal wasn't confirmation enough he'd put last year's demons behind him, here's yet another:

It's been five straight years of one-and-done postseason showings for this core of Leafs players. Matthews and Marner are the club's leading scorers. If Game 1 represented yet another slow start for each of them and led to a loss, it'd just exacerbate the pressure on everyone in Toronto and likely lead to that dreaded self-fulfilling prophecy that transpires when you're used to being cursed and falling short on the big stage.

Again, it's only one game. The Lightning have won consecutive Cups for a reason. They know what it's like to have excellent regular seasons only to get bounced early in the playoffs. Tampa Bay went through multiple years of that before finally breaking through. Maybe we're on the precipice of seeing a similar coming-out party for Matthews, Marner and these Leafs. This hot start suggests good things to come.