Editor In Leaf
Fansided

Toronto Maple Leafs Will Run It Back After First Round Win

By Stephen Nixon

Apr 24, 2023; Tampa, Florida, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) is congratulated by goaltender Ilya Samsonov (35) after he scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period of game four of the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 24, 2023; Tampa, Florida, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) is congratulated by goaltender Ilya Samsonov (35) after he scored against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period of game four of the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Now that the Toronto Maple Leafs have defeated their first round demons, expect the band to stick together for another season.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t win their first round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, there could have been drastic changes to the front office and roster, but now that they’re through, don’t expect many changes.

Prior to the season, the biggest question-mark surrounded Kyle Dubas and Auston Matthews.

Dubas was on the last year of his contract, while Matthews is able to sign a contract extension starting July 1st, 2023.

Regardless of how you feel about Dubas or Matthews, those two are the core of his franchise. Matthews has proven to be the best player in the world, winning the Hart Trophy in 2022, while Dubas has taken a broken franchise and turned into one of the most consistent and best regular season teams in the NHL.

I know they hadn’t had the playoff success, but this team has been set up to win ever since Dubas took over. It’s not like they haven’t been close, either. For some awful reason, they haven’t been able to secure that fourth playoff win.

Instead, they’ve been stuck on three wins, until this season.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Expect Everyone To Be Back Next Season

If the Toronto Maple Leafs fail badly in the second round, this narrative could change, but that’s very unlikely. After finally winning a playoff round, this roster and executive team has shown enough that they should be back for another season.

When you look at this roster, it’s near-perfect. Sure, they’re probably missing a legitimate number-one goalie and number-one defenseman, but by committee, they’ve looked great.

As shown by their win against Tampa Bay, you can win a series without having Andrei Vasilevskiy in-net or Victor Hedman on the blue-line and can instead win with a full team-effort and offensive fire-power.

Having those two players obviously help any roster and give you a great chance at winning, as shown by their three straight Stanley Cup Finals appearances, but there are different recipe’s to win and Toronto’s current recipe is working.

Even though Dubas had a great recipe during the regular season and a team that was bound for the playoffs again, he decided to add a few new spices and change up the roster. The main ingredients were still there, but he figured those new changes would make the meal better and that’s exactly what has happened.

Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari, Matthew Knies and Luke Schenn have all been huge pieces thus far and will need to continue to be for this team to finally win a Stanley Cup.

Regardless of whether or not this team advances to the Eastern Conference Finals or beyond, Dubas has done enough to keep his job and that should result in a Matthews extension this summer.

Next. Leafs Don't Take Advantage of Game 1 Opportunties. dark

Once you get a taste of winning with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s a hard thing to walk away from and because of that, I can’t see Matthews leaving now, as he won’t be satisfied until he’s living a Stanley Cup in Toronto.

Home/Editorials