Even if they do as you say, their toughness quotient is not up to the task. Watching Florida manhandle and destroy Carolina, a Euroteam, after the score was out of hand is a major red flag. Leafs need some high end grit to take care of the nonsense that Florida seems to get away with. It’s better to initiate, than take it from that goon squad. It’s quite effective. Florida is winning again this year.
The issue vs. Florida was the bottom-six had 0 goals for and our 2nd line was on the ice for a lot of goals against.
And they still made it to Game 7. Almost was up 3-0 in the series after OT in Game 3. Never mind the “6-1 on home ice” BS. We still beat Florida 3 times. Adding enough to this team to win one more game is a matter of inches, not miles.
Another contributing factor to the reason the Leafs lost; their lack of snap shots and snap shot goals. For comparison: Edmonton leads with 22. Next is Carolina with 17, same as Florida with 17. Then Dallas with 15. The Leafs? 4. I’m sure there’s some kind of technical advanced stat reason for it, but the Leafs were among the worst of all the playoff teams in snap shot goals. In fact, they only attempted 36 total snap shots. That’s the ENTIRE TEAM. 36. Dallas has 162. Edmonton 155. Carolina 116. Florida 87. Clearly, there is something the Leafs are missing in that area that successful teams are clearly feasting on.
But, what you are suggesting, would still happen under what I was suggesting. It’s not one or the other. It can be both. I would advocate adding the likes of B. Tanev, Pospisil, McBain; these are all guys with 200-300 hits. Each. Heart and soul, tough character players.
The Leafs can still be plenty tough without losing their best players.