Fans at the Scotiabank Arena were thrilled to see a massive performance from the Toronto Maple Leafs to kick off their campaign in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it cannot be denied that it was an all-around game that ended up being a supreme victory. The Leafs scored 6-2 to beat the ailing Ottawa Senators as they have taken a 1-0 series lead.

In a game where Auston Matthews did not even score a single goal, one can say that the Maple Leafs are in trouble. And yet he dished up two assists, while Mitch Marner stepped up big-time with a goal and two assists to rally his team for a promising finish. After all, the goal is to win one game at a time – and in a seven-game series, everybody eats, and everybody has a chance to step up.

As the first wild card from the East, nothing was expected from the Senators. They aren’t much of a big-swing team, but then we can always expect that there’s more to come in a seven-game series, and there can be upsets when it matters most as well. For now, this is a huge win for the Maple Leafs, and they aren’t expecting the games to become any easier at all.

A Big Night For Marner

Marner scored three points for the Maple Leafs after bringing a huge night where he doubled the team’s lead in the opening period alone. After all, he’s been rolling in the power play and is bringing some impressive performances in the season. To see Marner shine in the playoff stage seems to be quite a huge boost for the team at this point in time.

“Just to start off with a win is great but we have to look forward to the next one, it’s going to be even harder to win the next one and we are going to look to figure out how we can even be a little better Tuesday,” Marner said. “It does help chipping in, it feels good, but the win is the most important thing and that’s what you aim for.”

Marner finished the regular season with 53 points coming off 41 assists and 12 goals in 58 games. His impressive 21-minute run in Game 1 says a lot about his value, and it is expected that he will be bringing more dynamic to the team’s flexibility heading into the next set of games in this series.

Everyone Contributing

William Nylander and John Tavares rallied with a goal and assist each, and they played a huge role in rallying the big push in the showdown against the Senators, who were looking to get some takeaways in this Game 1 loss and improve their chances moving forward. However, what really killed Ottawa’s chances was the power-play, which was relly emphasized by Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube in his post-game presser.

“The power play has been rolling for a while,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “They’re doing a good job. For me, it’s about getting pucks to the net with numbers at the net. I can’t say enough about Tavares and Matthew Knies in those areas, they’ve done an extremely good job at all their work in the interior of the ice.”

On top of that, the defense was really stingy for Toronto. Anthony Stolarz made 31 saves in the game, which in turn also played a role in setting up the power-play – with the Maple Leafs going for three out of six attempts.