The Toronto Maple Leafs have opened the season with a feeling that goes beyond a couple of wins. The stars are still the stars, of course - Auston Matthews, William Nylander, newcomer Kirill Marchenko and the rest of the top end still have to drive this team - but the early shape of the roster is starting to look different.
That showed up in the 2-1 win over the New York Islanders, where the supporting cast did real work. Colton Sissons, Easton Cowan and Anthony Stolarz all had important roles in the result, and that matters because good teams don’t survive on star power alone.
One of the main questions around the Maple Leafs entering the year was whether John Chayka’s roster changes would actually make the group feel different. It’s still early, but there are signs that the answer might be yes.
Sissons is playing a different style for Toronto. Jack Roslovic has a new role.
Nick Paul adds size and experience. Stolarz looks settled in goal, while Sergei Bobrovsky gives the Maple Leafs another veteran goaltender and, just as important, a professional presence in the room.
The embrace between Bobrovsky and Stolarz after the game said plenty about that relationship and what it could mean for the team’s culture.
There was also a noticeable change in how the Maple Leafs functioned as a group against the Islanders. Last season, there were nights when it felt like Toronto was simply waiting for one of its stars to take over.
This time, the bottom six helped win the game. Stolarz did his part, the defence blocked shots, and the stars still generated chances.
Everyone had a job, and Toronto spent more time in the opposition’s end than it had in those kinds of games a year ago.
That’s the sort of structure Chayka and his staff were trying to build, and two games in, there are early signs it’s coming together.
Cowan, meanwhile, is becoming more than just another young player on the roster. Gavin McKenna will draw plenty of attention this season, as expected, but Cowan is emerging as one of the more intriguing names on this Maple Leafs team. Jim Hiller is giving him more responsibility, and Cowan is handling it.
That is a clear shift from last season, when Cowan went through a difficult rookie year under Craig Berube before joining the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies and helping them win a championship. That experience appears to matter. Winning teaches lessons practice can’t, and it can give a young player a better sense of what it takes to contribute.
Now Cowan is being used in more places. Power play, penalty kill, five-on-five - he’s not being tucked away on a third line and asked to learn from the bench. He’s being trusted.
And he’s making that trust count. His goal against the Islanders was about more than just getting a stick on the puck.
He’s reading the ice, anticipating what’s coming and finding ways to create problems for the other team. That’s how a young player starts to become part of a team’s identity.
The Maple Leafs still need their stars to deliver. That part hasn’t changed.
But the early signs suggest they have more around them now, and that changes the equation. Nobody wins with six forwards doing all the heavy lifting.
The real question is whether Toronto has finally built enough depth that Matthews and Nylander don’t have to carry the whole story every night. Right now, that seems to be the most encouraging sign of all.
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