The Toronto Maple Leafs won Game 1 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday night. It’s a massive victory for them as they look to go on a deep playoff run. The Maple Leafs faced the Ottawa Senators in the Battle of Ontario. In Game 1, they came away with a massive 6-2 win at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Toronto received goals from the likes of Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares. Goalie Anthony Stolarz stood tall, as well, making 31 saves on the night. However, the biggest storyline is the Maple Leafs’ power play, which scored three goals in this contest.
Head coach Craig Berube has won a Stanley Cup in his career. He knows special teams units become extremely vital to postseason success. And he made sure to give the power play unit its flowers after defeating the Senators in Game 1.
“The power play has been rolling for a while,” Berube said after the game, via David Alter of The Hockey News. “For me, it’s about getting pucks to the net with numbers at the net. And I can’t say enough about Matthew Knies and JT (John Tavares) in those areas. They’ve done an extremely good job at, you know, all their work in the interior of the ice.”
Beyond the power play was the general physicality displayed by Toronto. The game becomes a lot more physical when the Stanley Cup Playoffs roll around. Berube knew this would occur in this series. And he was pleased with what he saw on Sunday.
“Yeah, physical. We were physical in the first period. I thought they were too. I mean, it’s physical. It’s going to be physical and I thought that we did a good job of controlling our emotions and playing through it. We have to and it’s going to be a battle and it was,” the Maple Leafs head coach said, via Alter.
The Maple Leafs and Senators take to the ice for Game 2 of this series on Tuesday night.
