from the CP at Sportsnet,

Auston Matthews believes those deep, painful battle scars of past playoff failures will eventually — finally — pay dividends.

The Maple Leafs star centre, in truth, has little choice.

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

But that loss, at least on some level, felt different both inside and outside Toronto's locker room.

Unlike their soul-crushing collapse up 3-1 against the underdog Montreal Canadiens in 2021 or consecutive seven-game defeats to the Boston Bruins in 2019 and 2020, the Leafs didn't wilt in going toe-to-toe with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions in a matchup consisting of razor-thin margins.

"It's still disappointing with the same result," Matthews said Friday at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour just outside Las Vegas. "But I think there's a lot of things that you can take — a lot of positives — from it and move forward.

"You can't live in the past."

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