Time to break up the Maple Leafs core in wake of Game 7 defeat

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The annual rite of spring in Toronto: Another crushing end to a Maple Leafs season.

This time, it was Game 7 on Sunday night against the Florida Panthers in a 6-1 loss.

Four nights after a no-show performance in Game 5, the Leafs hit rewind. The shutout win in Game 6? It’s like it never happened.

Our takeaways from the Leafs’ last game of the 2024-25 season:

BREAK IT UP

Two years ago, Kyle Dubas was fired and Brad Treliving was hired as general manager.

One year ago, Sheldon Keefe was shown the door and Craig Berube was hired as coach.

Along the way, the defence corps has been revamped. The goaltending is set.

The core hasn’t changed. It’s past due for a shakeup, isn’t it?

In the aftermath on Sunday night, Mitch Marner and John Tavares addressed their respective futures with free agency looming.

“I don’t have any thoughts right now,” Marner said. “Pretty devastated with what just happened. I’ve always enjoyed this team and this city, like I’ve always said.”

Does part of Marner think it would be better to move on?

“Like I said, I haven’t thought about anything,” Marner said. “Just thought about coming here every day and trying to put my best foot forward and help this team win hockey games and help try to win that ultimate goal.”

Said captain Auston Matthews on Marner: “He’s like a brother to me, and to all of us. I think we’re a tight-knit group, and we love him to death. That’s all I can really say about that.”

Despite his inability, along with Matthews, Tavares and William Nylander, to make a difference in the Leafs’ biggest game every year, Marner will have suitors lined up at his door in free agency.

For Tavares, it’s different. He’s a solid player in the regular season, but not in the Marner echelon.

“It has meant everything to me,” Tavares said about being a Maple Leaf. “It was a big decision I made seven years ago (in 2018 to sign with Toronto in free agency), and I’ve loved it.

“It has been amazing for myself and my family. You accept responsibility. We haven’t been able to come through and play well enough to get to where we want to get to. And unfortunately, our season ended today.”

If the Leafs decide to move on from Marner and Tavares, so be it. The club can’t keep beating on the same door every year and getting the same result with the same nucleus. Yet it has done exactly that for a while now. The Shanaplan has not worked.

Matthews and Nylander are locked in and won’t be going anywhere. Ditto for defenceman Morgan Rielly.

Does the core deserve another shot?

“I know you guys will have your opinions, management will make their decisions, but it’s a very good team that has done a lot of good things and just haven’t broken through,” Tavares said. “Never going to quit, never going to stop trying. Would love another opportunity.”

Matthews refused to say whether he was playing hurt. In the series, he had four points — one goal and three assists.

“I’m not really going to address that right now,” Matthews said. “You go out there and just try to compete and give it your all. That’s what I was trying to do.”

FAILURE TO EXECUTE

Berube didn’t agree with the idea that for the players who have been through the post-season disappointments together, when it comes to making a difference, the moment is too big for them.

Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares have not won a Game 7 together in Toronto, have not been able to lead the Leafs to success when it has been absolutely required. For Matthews, Marner and Nylander, it’s 0-6 in Game 7s.

“I don’t think the moment is too big for them,” Berube said. “We went to Ottawa, won Game 6 and won a series.

“We went into Florida and won Game 6 to make it a Game 7. So the moment is not too big.

“For me, it’s all between the ears. It’s a mindset. These guys are capable of doing it. You just have to execute it. And we didn’t execute it. We didn’t execute it in Game 5. We didn’t execute it in Game 7.

“I don’t have an answer for that — (the) why — but that’s the bottom line.”

Sounds to us like the moments indeed are too big for the Leafs.

Matthews said there were too many passengers in Game 7. We’d say that included every Leafs player on Sunday night.

The fans had their say. Similar to Game 5, jerseys started hitting the ice as the crowd dwindled.

“Passion is a significant word amongst this fan base, and it’s really special,” Tavares said. “We feel their disappointment. It’s tough. Never want to see the jerseys on the ice, but we just didn’t play well enough.”

HEART OF THE MATTER

We have a lot of respect for the Panthers. They’re the defending Stanley Cup champions. They lost in the final two years ago.

If they beat the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final and play for the Cup for the third year in a row, that should surprise no one.

The Leafs didn’t have to be told what was needed to give themselves their best chance to win Game 7 and advance. Yet they couldn’t look inward and find it within themselves to play their best hockey.

What is this group waiting for? Why does it seem to think that next year will finally be the year? Matthews again said it’s a tight-knit group. If so, where is the effort for each other? Where is playing for the guy sitting next to you in the dressing room?

“When you don’t get everybody on board and doing the right things and playing together as a team, that’s what happens,” Berube said. “You can’t go in a game like tonight and you can’t have anybody not at their best.

“And that doesn’t mean fancy plays, or all these plays, skilled plays. You’re at your best when you’re highly competitive, winning your battles, desperation, doing everything possible to win a hockey game. We didn’t do that tonight, and that’s why the result was the result.”

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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