TORONTO — There’s a sentiment that’s been whispered among the Toronto Maple Leafs faithful for the past few weeks, harboured cautiously and handled with the appropriate skepticism — the thought that these Maple Leafs really might be different.

You can’t blame the fans of the blue-and-white for needing some convincing. For half a decade, we’ve watched some iteration of these Leafs move through all-too-familiar patterns, and wind up in an all-too-familiar place. We’ve seen a similar optimism briefly ignited and just as quickly extinguished. And underpinning all of it was the sense that those previous iterations just couldn’t cut it in the grind of the playoffs, that their high-flying, highlight-reel-hunting style just didn’t mesh with the pace and pressure and muck of post-season hockey.

A Game 1 drubbing of the Ottawa Senators two nights ago only marginally jostled the doubters. But Tuesday night, the Maple Leafs found more progress still. Outlasting the rival Sens in a 3-2 overtime rollercoaster at Scotiabank Arena, these Leafs now find themselves in undeniably different territory — up 2-0 in their first-round bout, navigating the best post-season start this Toronto core has ever had, and the franchise’s best in more than two decades.

It’s not the pair of wins that’s giving legs to the renewed optimism, though — a two-game streak is hardly cause for a victory lap. It’s the manner in which those victories have been earned. The composed, hard-nosed, opportunistic play that’s carried Toronto past Ottawa twice in three nights. The quick starts, the power-play dominance, and tonight, the ability to gut out an extra-time win.

But while much of the Maple Leafs’ 2025 progress can be traced to the new faces among the locker room — head coach Craig Berube and his calm, collected guidance; the crew of seasoned defenders now holding down the back end — it’s a pair of longtime blue-and-white veterans who’ve been key to Toronto’s 2-0 start to this playoff journey.

Rewind back to this time last year, and John Tavares’ future with his boyhood club seemed murky. The former captain seemed to be losing his offensive touch, the steps backward on display as the Maple Leafs’ 2024 post-season fizzled out, Tavares having managed just a goal and an assist through seven games.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the 34-year-old’s already doubled that total, collecting a goal and an assist in each of Toronto’s opening-round wins over the Sens.

The veteran came up crucial Tuesday night, throwing a puck on net midway through the first period and spurring enough chaos in the crease to earn the Maple Leafs their fourth power-play goal of the series, and second tally of the game. Five minutes before that, he’d kicked off the sequence that led to Toronto’s opening marker, dishing to William Nylander and watching No. 88 cut to that same corner, and fling a puck at Linus Ullmark from that same angle.

In that case, it was another resurgent vet who cashed in — Morgan Rielly, who’s followed up a disappointing regular season with two goals through Toronto’s first two playoff games himself.

“I think the expectation is that we’re all going to up our level, across the board,” Rielly said late Tuesday, when asked about his post-season contributions. “I don’t think anyone’s trying to reinvent the wheel — I think we’re all out here just competing our hardest, trying to play a team game, trying to get to our game as quick as we can. 

“I don’t think anyone is doing anything different, other than just more commitment, more competitiveness. And I think we need more of that moving forward.”

It goes back further than the past few nights for No. 44, his coach argued.

“I don’t think it’s different in the playoffs — (it’s) the last 20 games, I would say, where he’s up in the play more,” Berube said of Rielly. “Playing with (Brandon) Carlo, I think he feels very comfortable with his partner. They’ve got good chemistry together. And I think he’s freed up a little bit to do his thing offensively.”

Through two games, that freedom has paid off handily for the Maple Leafs — as has the intention Berube has put into tweaking Tavares’ line. 

It was No. 91’s left wing that saw the only lineup change for Toronto between Games 1 and 2 of this series, Berube moving Pontus Holmberg up to do his thing alongside Tavares and William Nylander, while shifting overtime hero Max Domi down to the third line between Bobby McMann and Nick Robertson. 

The move was aimed at granting Tavares and Nylander more offensive-zone time, Berube explained early Tuesday, before puck drop. By the night’s end, the coach was heaping praise on Tavares’s new winger, and again pointing to progress built over the home stretch of the regular season.

“To me, his game has gone to another level in the last 20 or so,” Berube said of Holmberg. “He’s way more aggressive. He has the ability to hang on to pucks and keep pucks and win battles and things like that. But for me, the skating part of it has gone to another level, where he’s not waiting, to be safe — he’s just going now, skating. 

“I thought he had a real good game tonight. He was strong on things in the corner, helping out and battling, doing a lot of good things. He was at the net most of the night too for that line, which is important.”

It was far from a flawless showing for the club, though.

While Tavares and Rielly chipped in during what was a sterling opening frame for the Maple Leafs, it was what came over the next 40 minutes that nearly undid the veterans’ work.

“First period was really good. I liked our start a lot — we came out playing on our toes, got to our forecheck, we were aggressive. … Second period I thought that they were the better team,” Berube assessed once the final buzzer had sounded. “We kind of looked like we were protecting the lead a little bit, didn’t make enough plays, didn’t advance it and get to the offensive zone enough, took a couple penalties.”

The Senators cut the host’s lead in half in the final minutes of that middle frame, Brady Tkachuk — once again showered with jeers from the Scotiabank Arena faithful — firing a puck between his legs and watching it careen off a Toronto defender and into the cage. A period later, Ottawa found the tying goal off Adam Gaudette’s stick.

“We were in good shape. The goal was the first shot that we gave up in the third period,” Berube said. “We were playing the right way, doing the right things — it was a mistake, and mistakes happen. But we stayed with it.”

Still, for all the tumult that came from the rollercoaster tilt, there were still signs, in the key moments, of this group’s progress. Of that feeling that these Leafs are, in fact, different. If not for the fact that they managed to pull out the overtime win in the end, then perhaps in the mentality they took into that extra frame to begin with.

Not frantic, not panicked. Composed.

“Just stay patient with it,” Mitch Marner said of the message the group was given heading into overtime. “We don’t need to win it on the first shift. Just continue doing what we’re doing, just trust what we’re doing.”

“Just calm,” added Tavares. “Excited for the opportunity, knowing there was still a great opportunity to win the hockey game. I think it’s been the attitude that the group’s developed throughout the year, and it becomes critical at this time of the season.”

It was critical on this night, no question. Whether it’s enough to paper over the other flaws that were briefly shown elsewhere in Tuesday night’s tilt remains to be seen. Either way, that bit of mettle, of resilience, of calm, should be fuel enough for the question of how far these Leafs can truly take this post-season journey.

“They pushed back hard, and we just stuck with it,” Tavares said of the Game 2 victory, simply. “It wasn’t always pretty at times. But we did what we had to do.”