“That line is a load,” Mike Babcock said.



If you watched the Maple Leafs play – and dominate the end of Game 3 – against the Washington Capitals on Monday night, you knew which line he meant. It was his three rookies, one of the youngest trios in the league, with a 19-year-old phenom in the middle of a 24-year-old former fifth round pick who spent four years in college and a 20-year-old converted centre.



They have been good all season, but they were great this night. They’ve been great all series, in fact.



So great the best team in the NHL doesn’t yet have an answer for them.



Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and William Nylander were pointless in the first two games of this series, but a breakthrough on the score sheet felt inevitable. Whenever they were on the ice, they had the puck and were charging down the ice, unhindered. Capitals coach Barry Trotz’s countermeasures – the Karl Alzner and John...