CHANGING THE TIDE - HOW THE MAPLE LEAFS' GAME THREE WIN WILL FOREVER STAND THE TEST OF TIME

Mario Russo

The Toronto Maple Leafs have constantly found themselves in unwelcoming, unfitting places throughout their postseason runs over the last six years.

Most of the time, the group finds itself constantly attempting to shove a square peg through a spherical hole, in games that typically hold the utmost value in dictating not just the future of a series, but the team’s season collectively.

Game three of the Maple Leafs’ first-round series with the Lightning held that same level of value. A chance to take their first lead in the series was swiftly met with the Leafs timelessly attempting to shove the wrong pieces together in search of an outcome.

Typical.

The insanity kicked in. The end result became predictable. Toronto was on the cusp of being bulldozed out of Amalie Arena as the game’s remaining five minutes shifted to just ninety seconds. The game was over.

And then it very much wasn’t.

With exactly a minute remaining on the clock, a rebound-seeking shot from William Nylander successfully made its way to Ryan O’Reilly parked smack dab in the middle of the Lightning’s goal.

With a quick flick of the wrist, the puck that eagerly sat on the tape of O'Reilly’s stick cemented itself in the back of Tampa’s net to frantically even up the contest and secure what minutes before, appeared to be just another unreasonable ask from Leafs Nation:

An extra period of play.

Despite being doubled up in shots throughout the overtime frame, the Leafs stick-to-itiveness continued to shine against an onslaught of blasts from the Bolts. A winning outcome became bleak for the visitors as Tampa failed to ease their foot off the gas.

Double overtime looked like a victory in itself for Toronto - a team hanging onto the series deadlock with just its fingertips - which after all the scrums, were miraculously still intact.

What appeared to be an endless bout astoundedly rounded itself out in the closing minute of the overtime frame, with Morgan Rielly - the longest tenured Leaf on the roster - sending his harmless shot from the blue line past the blocker of Andrei Vasilevskiy to defy the odds of a comeback.

Coming up with new ways on how to fold under immense pressure has been the only constant identity the squad has held onto since Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner first gave the fanbase a taste of postseason hockey back in 2017.

Yet in one foul swoop, the Leafs managed to flip that narrative on its head and evict an emotion that has yet to be felt by the group in recent postseason memory.

For the first time in a long time, the Maple Leafs dealt their business in a game they had no business even being in. The missing miracle was found, harvested, and sought out.

The boundless ocean of blue and white ignominy saw its waves clash against one another. Playoff dominance and postseason unease combatted each other during Toronto’s game three victory, and in the gulf of Mexico nonetheless.

As a result, the tide in Toronto has inordinately shifted. A wave of hope has crashed over the team, it’s fans.

It’s city.

Never under the rule of General Manager Kyle Dubas have the Maple Leafs followed up triumph in a must-win game, with victory in a contest they were heavily boxed out of.

Transforming from afterthoughts to the series’ only-thoughts in just a pair of games is a testament to the annual growth of this Maple Leafs team and is an element that should fail to go unnoticed.

Coming up with new ways to implode appears to be a historical artifact this team has left far behind. Perhaps they sit in the walls of John Tavaras’ Muskoka cottage - a place in which the group’s playoff demons were expelled following a gut-wrenching first-round defeat to the Montreal Canadiens in 2021.

Maybe, just maybe, Toronto has become the monster it has feared in the past - and has unvaryingly ran away from in times of despair. Frightened to crawl their way back into an arena they were eminently played out of. Even more horrified to win the games in which they were supposed to. The ones they had to.

You know the ones.

Game three will be remembered as the historic, the improbable - and to some degree, the undeserving. Yet with a little sustainability - and a considerable amount of memory, the Leafs 4-3 overtime win this past Saturday can be forever known as the night in which the hopeless turned to the hopeful. Unhinging the door.

The launching pad to the great beyond.