Maple Leafs will win Stanley Cup thanks to Matthews, Giordano

To erase history, the Toronto Maple Leafs will make history.

The Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967, a drought of 55 years, and have not won a Stanley Cup Playoff series since 2004.
In more recent times, the Maple Leafs have come up short despite an influx of young talent. Since 2016-17, with a core of forwards Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, William Nylander, and defenseman Morgan Rielly, they've qualified each season and failed to win a series.
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Having teased their loyal fans for years with such heartache and heartbreak, why will this spring be any different? What is there with this team that will change its legacy by winning a long-awaited Stanley Cup title?
It's talent. It's determination. And it's the motivation of having a giant chip on the collective shoulders of the entire organization.
It would have been easy for the Maple Leafs to regress after they blew a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup First Round last season to the rival Montreal Canadiens, who went on to reach the Cup Final.
Instead, they produced a record-setting season in 2021-22, individually and collectively, winning more games (53) and earning more points (113) in team history. Matthews set a single-season Maple Leafs record for goals and became the first United States-born player to score 60. Marner set personal highs for goals (35) and points (97).
Rielly had an NHL career-best 58 assists and finished with 68 points, four from his personal high of 72 set in 2018-19.
Moral of the story: The Maple Leafs responded to adversity by vowing to improve. That's exactly what they did.
Management did its part by acquiring veteran Mark Giordano in a trade from the Seattle Kraken to augment the defense corps.
Giordano, who has 544 points (151 goals, 393 assists) in 1,024 games, gives Toronto its deepest defense in recent memory. He joins a group headlined by Rielly that also includes TJ Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Ilya Lyubushkin, Justin Holl, Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin. That will be a big reason why the Maple Leafs will go all the way.

Goalie Jack Campbell enters the playoffs in fine form, winning his final five starts and eight of his last nine. The 31-year-old represented the Maple Leafs at the 2022 Honda NHL All-Star Game in Las Vegas and finished the season 31-9-6 with a 2.64 goals-against average, .914 save percentage and an NHL career-high five shutouts.
Once labelled a finesse team, Toronto now has legitimate sandpaper elements in forwards Wayne Simmonds, Kyle Clifford and a feisty Michael Bunting, who had 63 points (23 goals, 40 assists) in his rookie season. They're a significant reason why the Maple Leafs are better suited for the more physical grinding nature of the playoffs.
With star players continuing to improve and driven to prove naysayers wrong, the Maple Leafs will finally overcome their longstanding postseason woes.