Toronto opens the postseason Saturday night at TD Garden against the Boston Bruins - a club that swept its Atlantic Division rival across four meetings in 2023-24 and left deep scars on the Leafs core in seven-game losses in both 2018 and 2019.
Top goal scorer Wyatt Johnston is only 20 years old, and was a teenager for most of the playoffs last year. On the other end for the Western Conference s top-seeded team is Joe Pavelski, who will turn 40 this summer and has more points this season than the kid who again is living in his house.
Jesper Bratt scored his second goal of the game with 1:14 left in regulation as the New Jersey Devils downed Toronto 6-5 on a night where Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews added two goals of his own to give him an NHL-topping 68 on the season Thursday.