Wrong. Panthers are going to be the same and the Leafs took them to 7
Even the Leafs took them to game seven does not means they been almost as good as Panthers.
It is not for the first time the Leafs taking teams to game 7, but outcome is always the same.
If they played better defense in Game 3 (which is what you get if you remove Tavares and Rielly and replace them with two-way 2C and 3C) they can win that game and the series.
They won 3 games. No matter how you want to describe it, they were closer than anybody else. And now they just blew it away.