Maple Leafs fully buy in with Craig Berube, win Atlantic Division

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BUFFALO — The Maple Leafs took their coach’s cue and ran with it.

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The 2024-25 Leafs under Craig Berube are a different outfit than they have been in the past, certainly with this core, different in the way they go about winning hockey games, different with their resolve.

Where will it take them in the Stanley Cup playoffs? We’re going to soon find out with the first Battle of Ontario since 2004, a first-round matchup with the Ottawa Senators cemented when the Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 on Tuesday night.

“The guys have done a great job of buying into what we preach and how we want to play the game,” Berube said at KeyBank Centre. “That’s the biggest thing. The buy in is everything, and they bought into it. It starts with our leadership group and it trickles down. That’s the bottom line.”

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The result, for now, is the Atlantic Division title, the third time since 1967 that the Leafs have captured their division.

“It’s a goal that you set out at being in the year to to claim that,” captain Auston Matthews said. “It’s a good step for our group. It’s a tough division. A good check mark for us. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Our takeaways from the Leafs’ 51st win of the season and 25th road win, which set a franchise record:

THE GLITTER TWINS

It’s a team game, Matthews and Mitch Marner will tell you, and there’s no arguing with that.

But the Leafs don’t finish where they are in the division — and with one game remaining, at home on Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings, they can add to their point total — without the major contributions of Marner and Matthews.

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It was fitting that Marner finally broke the 100-point ceiling in the National Hockey League and Matthews scored his 400th NHL goal in a game that had such large implications for the team as a whole.

And fitting that Marner was set up by Matthews late in the third period for a goal that Sabres netminder Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen had no chance to stop.

“Those accomplishments don’t happen by yourself,” said Marner, who had 99 points two years ago and 97 points three years ago. “Credit to a lot of guys in that locker room that have helped me out and supported me through this year, and have made some unbelievable plays for me and have put some in from my passes.

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“The really cool thing is just the excitement from the guys for that point and seeing their excitement for me. So that was really coo just to experience.”

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Marner had some friends, six by his count, and his brother Chris in the building. Late Monday night, it occurred to Marner to get his pals to Buffalo, so he arranged for a party bus to bring them down.

“They jumped on it right away,” Marner said. “It’ll be cool to go up in the (stands) and celebrate with them.”

Marner became the fourth player in Leafs history, along with Darryl Sittler, Doug Gilmour and Matthews, to record 100 points in a season. Each of those three did it twice.

Matthews scored unassisted into an empty Sabres net with under two minutes left. He had a Leafs-high six shots on goal in the game.

“It means a lot,” Matthews said of his milestone. (Marner) has definitely set up quite a few of those.

“In the end, it’s a team accomplishment, I think. It’s a team sport. There’s a lot that goes into it. And just fortunate that it’s come off my stick a couple times.

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“It’s nice to check off certain things, but the focus is still on the team and doing what’s best for the team, and continue to put our best foot forward here for one more game and then the postseason.”

BRING ON THE SENS

Never mind that the Senators swept the Leafs during the regular season in three games, outscoring Toronto 9-3.

That won’t matter much when the best-of-seven series starts. It will be the fifth time the Ontario rivals have met in the playoffs; the Leafs won all four of the previous meetings, in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. Only in ’04 were the Leafs not dominated during the regular season by the Senators.

“It’ll be fun, for sure,” Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz said. “They’re a hungry team. They haven’t made playoffs in a couple years. I just think we have to continue to do what we’re doing right now.

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“I think we feel good about our game. It’s going to be a bloodbath, it’s going to be a little bit of a war, so we’ll be ready.”

Of course, we can only imagine how badly the Senators, who are in the playoffs for the first time since 2017, would love to send the Leafs off to another early start to the summer.

As we said, though, these aren’t Sheldon Keefe’s Leafs anymore. Berube’s emphasis on defence and determination, and the success it has bred, has the Leafs thinking in a new way.

“We can’t change what’s happened in the past,” Matthews said of the numerous first-round exits. “I think you wear that. You have to push through it and put your best foot forward.

“It’s a new year, new circumstances, a lot of new faces, new coaching staff. The competitiveness that we have to have, the focus that we have to have as a group and playing together and sticking to the team and one shift at a time, all that stuff doesn’t really change.

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“I feel really confident in this group. We put in a lot of work over the season. Earning the division was a big step for us, but we just want to continue to push forward.”

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STOLARZ THE MAN

Can Stolarz be any more prepared for the playoffs?

We don’t think so. He has a shutout in three of his past four starts, a continuation of the great goaltending he has been providing throughout the season.

Give Joseph Woll the start against Detroit and let Stolarz further prepare for Game 1 versus Ottawa.

Is this the best hockey Stolarz has played?

“Probably,” Stolarz said. “But a lot of it is the guys in front of me. They’re making my job really easy.

“I just have to worry about making the first save, and if there is a rebound most of the time they’re there. Sometimes I have to make a big save. It comes with the territory, it comes with the job. When my number is called, I try to just keep us in the game.”

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Matthews had this take on what Stolarz was saying: “That’s very humble of him because I feel like he has bailed us out a lot. He and Joe, all season long, have made big saves in key moments for us.”

For Matthews, the 35-save performance by Stolarz against Buffalo was more evidence.

“Tonight was no different,” Matthews said. “He made some key stops at key times for us, whether it’s on the penalty kill, five-on-five, six-on-five there at the end, he’s just so calm and composed.

“He doesn’t really seem to get out of position. He’s so collected in the net and so confident.”

One advantage that Stolarz provides: He rarely allows a soft, deflating goal, definitely not the kind that puts the Leafs in a hole or changes the outcome in a game.

If the Leafs have to turn to Woll at any time in the playoffs, confidence should not decrease. With Stolarz, though, the Leafs are set in net.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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