Auston Matthews thinks the Maple Leafs’ playoff pain will pay off

HENDERSON, Nev. – Auston Matthews believes those deep, painful battle scars from past playoff mistakes will eventually – finally – pay off.

In truth, the Star Center of the Maple Leafs has no other choice.

Toronto suffered another bitter first-round disappointment last spring, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games after going 3-2 in the series.

But that loss felt different, at least in some ways, both inside and outside of Toronto’s dressing room.

Unlike their soul-crushing 3-1 collapse against underdog Montreal Canadiens in 2021, or seven-game straight losses to the Boston Bruins in 2019 and 2020, the Leafs haven’t hesitated to go head-to-head with the two-time defending champions of the Stanley Cup in a duel with razor-thin differences.

“It’s still disappointing with the same result,” Matthews said at the NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour outside of Las Vegas on Friday. “But I think there’s a lot of things to take from that – a lot of positive things – and move forward.

“You can’t live in the past.”

The league’s first 60-goal scorer in a decade and Toronto’s first Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP since 1955 need look no further than last season’s Stanley Cup Finals to make his case.

The Lightning endured a series of playoff heartbreaks before raising hockey’s holy grail in 2020 and 2021, while the Colorado Avalanche finally cleared their second-round hurdle en route to the franchise’s second title in June.

“It took them a really long time to win,” Matthews said of Tampa and Colorado. “They had to go through a lot.

“We are all working towards the same goal.”

The road to that goal begins with making it through the opening round for the first time since 2004 — ahead of Twitter and ahead of the league’s salary cap — for a franchise that hasn’t had the ultimate prize since 1967, when the NHL was just six clubs of sport has won .

“Every team and every journey is different,” said Matthews. “We write our own history.

“We are all highly motivated.”

Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly added that a large part of that motivation comes from the course of the Tampa series and the narrative that goes with it.

“It really doesn’t make you feel any better,” he said. “Honestly, it doesn’t give you more pride or anything in terms of how you deal with it emotionally. It’s almost worse because you’re right there.

“It just makes you want to come back and win a lot more. If you use it as a tool to motivate you and drive your off-season training, hopefully you’ll thrive through losses like this one day.”

Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas once again resisted any potential urge to make a change behind the bench or with his roster, instead deciding to do it again with head coach Sheldon Keefe at the helm of largely the same core group led by Matthews, Rielly , to try Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander.

“It’s a confidence boost for us to have their trust,” Rielly, whose eight-year contract extension begins shortly, said of the Toronto front office. “Keeping the guys together, giving the guys the opportunity to fix the ship and change the script, I think that’s a cool opportunity. That’s what’s extremely motivating.

“This group lost together and it really makes you want to win a lot more together.”

Toronto’s biggest question mark is in the crease after goaltender Jack Campbell signed with the Edmonton Oilers in free agency.

Matt Murray was acquired in a trade from the Ottawa Senators, while Ilya Samsonov signed a deal with the Leafs in July after parting ways with the Washington Capitals.

Rielly, who played with Murray on Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, said the two-time cup winners with Pittsburgh’s championship pedigree should help Toronto to the game’s most important position despite a tough two-year stint in the nation’s capital.

“He’s an incredible goalkeeper and has had an incredible career,” said Rielly. “Anytime you can have a player like that in your dressing room who has had success in the Stanley Cup – especially at that position – is a positive.

“That makes our team better.”

And with training camp set to open next week, the quest to finally conquer that playoff hill begins anew.

“We have to keep going, we have to be resilient, we have to work harder,” Rielly said. “All our players have bought in. We will not give up.

“We will not abandon this process.”