TORONTO — For 40 minutes on Monday night, under the Scotiabank Arena lights, the Pittsburgh Penguins rewound the clock.

They were the Pens of old, the high-flying outfit that dominated highlight reels for years when Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were a few years younger and a few ticks faster. It was No. 71 swooping through the centre of the sheet like he did back then, picking pucks off defenders and cutting to the net to wreak havoc. It was Crosby coming up with spinning backhand dishes in the slot, feathering perfectly timed saucer passes to teammates’ blades on the power play, as the black-and-gold ran right over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Through two periods, there was no denying it — those Penguins were back. And the group who’d stumbled through three seasons without playoff hockey

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