In this week's Eastern Edge, we'll discuss Montreal's first-round victory over Toronto, paying particular attention to Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Phillip Danault and Erik Gustafsson.

As you've probably seen by now, the Montreal Canadiens stormed back from a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games. A major headline from this series was the lack of offense from Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, who combined for just one goal. The popular narrative is that Matthews and Marner choked again and don't have the mental fortitude to thrive in the playoffs. Based on what we've seen from those two so far, it's hard to argue against the validity of that narrative. But we're talking about a 23-year-old and 24-year-old who are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders, tasked with saving a franchise and appeasing a passionate fanbase that hasn't seen a playoff win for the past 17 years. Not to mention the heightened expectations and amplified criticism that come with having the third and seventh highest cap hit in the league.  I know for many of you, the fact that they're young and dealing with a lot of pressure doesn't excuse their lack of playoff success. We've seen other superstars like Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos thrive in their earliest playoff appearances. I'd argue that Matthews and Marner face significantly more external pressure than any of those guys faced early on in their careers, but at a certain point in time, you expect your favourite athletes to thrive under pressure, not succumb to it. From a fantasy perspective, Matthews and Marner have enjoyed a lot of regular season success and will be taken off the board early during next year's fantasy drafts – as they should be. However, when playoff pools roll around, they're more likely to be undervalued as a result of their 'choking history'. Of course, that's looking far ahead into an uncertain future, but it is something to keep in mind.

In my opinion, the duo's disappointing playoff performance this year was largely a product of Montreal's solid team defense – with strong individual showings from Carey Price and Phillip Danault. Danault deserves a lot of credit for the shutdown role he played against Matthews and Marner, limiting their space and stifling their offensive creativity. We've seen Danault exhibit the same defensive dominance against Crosby during the play-in round last year and during much of the regular season against Connor McDavid. While Danault may not produce the same level of offense as other elite two-way centers like Patrice Bergeron, Aleksander Barkov and Ryan O'Reilly, his defensive abilities are certainly on a similar level. I think this is especially important to highlight because Danault will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, along with other key players like Tomas Tatar and Joel Armia. Given Danault's strong performance in the first round, re-signing him in the offseason becomes one of Marc Bergevin's top priorities. With Danault earning a larger piece of the pie, there may not be enough money left for Tomar Tatar. The 30-year-old winger is just one season removed from a career-high 74-point pace. However, he seems more expendable after being scratched for Montreal's wins in Game Six and Seven. Add in the emergence of Cole Caufield and you can see why the Canadiens may be willing to part ways with Tatar. This has been a down year for Slovakian winger after two strong seasons in Montreal. He could be a bounce-back candidate depending on where he plays next year.

There are many other players that deserve to be recognized for their performance in this series, but I'm sure those stories will be covered at some point by the talented writers of DobberHockey. I will quickly mention that I was pleasantly surprised by Erik Gustafsson's strong play in round one. He averaged just nine minutes of ice time through his three appearances, but I thought he made some good plays offensively and didn't look like a liability defensively – as he did during the regular season. Coach Dominique Ducharme gave his top top-four defenseman a lot of ice time during the first round as he sheltered the bottom pairing. That doesn't seem like an effective strategy long term, so it's possible that Gustafsson plays a slightly bigger role in Round Two against the Jets. He's an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year, and while I'm not sure he can rediscover the 62-point pace he put up in 2018-2019, I think he could return to fantasy relevance if he finds himself in the right situation next year.

As a final note for Matthews and Marner, there will come a time when they're able to use their past failures to fuel future successes. I think that time is in the near future, and I really hope the team doesn't overreact to this collapse by breaking up the core. If I were Kyle Dubas, I'd re-sign Zach Hyman and Jason Spezza, fill in the gaps with free agents and give this group another chance next year. The roster looks good on paper and can perform on the ice as we've seen during the regular season and through stretches in the playoffs. I guess there needs to be a bigger focus on developing a playoff mindset – but that doesn't seem like a process we can quantify.