The Maple Leafs are only 2-2-1, but something has shifted in Toronto, and Auston Matthews' four-point night against Nashville captured it perfectly.
Five games is nothing. Still, for the first time in a long while, the conversation around this team is about what comes next instead of what went wrong.
That starts with the front office. Brad Treliving arrived in 2023 promising more "snot," and the Leafs got bigger and tougher. Over time, they also got slow.
The irony was brutal. Loading up on size put even more offensive pressure on the stars, because the supporting cast couldn't create much on its own.
John Chayka has flipped that. Speed, puck skill and possession now come first, and he's moved out as much of the old roster as he reasonably could.
Chayka hasn't solved everything. He has changed the question, and in Toronto that's no small thing.
Jim Hiller's possession game gives Auston Matthews room to create
Behind the bench, Craig Berube's heavy, north-south style asked Toronto's most creative players to give the puck away. Dump it in, chase it down, repeat.
It didn't even fix the defence. The Leafs got noticeably worse in their own end last season despite all that emphasis.
Jim Hiller wants the opposite. His players are supposed to hold onto the puck, and the stars already look freer.
Matthews had three games of four or more points in Sheldon Keefe's final season. He managed just one in 140 games under Berube, and he already has one four games into Hiller's tenure.
The biggest chapter is Mitch Marner. Winning the lottery and drafting Gavin McKenna changed the mood, and adding Sergei Bobrovsky, Darren Raddysh and a younger Kirill Marchenko changed the roster.
Toronto no longer has to answer how it replaces Marner. Maybe it doesn't, and builds something different instead.
That shift is the right one. Chasing the old core's ghosts kept this franchise stuck, and looking forward is the only way out.
It feels like finally clearing out the attic after a breakup. The space looks emptier at first, then you realize you can actually use it.
The jury is still out. Chayka's roster might not work, and the Leafs visit Colorado on Saturday with plenty left to prove.
Despair has given way to something more useful in Toronto. Whether that hope survives a long season is the real test.
Is the new Maple Leafs era already better than the Treliving years?
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