The Toronto Maple Leafs did the most Toronto Maple Leaf thing they could do in Game 7 of their series against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. They spit the bit out of their mouth down the stretch. And sorry folks, despite getting to the deciding game, when it came down to crunch time in the most critical points of the series in Game 5 and Game 7 on home ice, the Leafs were woeful and could not shake off their choke artist reputation.
Toronto had moments in the series, jumping out to a 2-0 lead, leading 3-1 in Game 3 before the Panthers woke up, tying that game and getting chances in overtime before “King Rat” Brad Marchand scored, and how they pulled it together in Game 6 with their backs against the wall to force a Game 7, but in retrospect, this club would have been better off if they’d lost in Sunrise on Friday based on how pitiful they were in the deciding game.
The first ten minutes could be the most one-sided onslaught in a Game 7 that my eyes have seen, and yet after 21 shot attempts, a ton of blocked shots, and Joseph Woll standing on his head, it still remained scoreless. The Leafs should have come out for the second period with renewed vigor, after dodging a bullet in the opening 20 minutes, but instead they played sloppy defensively, allowed Seth Jones to walk in a pick top corner on Woll for the opening goal and Florida followed that up with a pair in rapid succession.
The game was essentially over with at that point, and you could see the frustration boil over with Leafs head coach Craig Berube throwing his gum and yelling at his players, and Mitch Marner screaming at teammates on the bench. At that point, the players who have been around for most of the last decade had to realize that many observers and fans had arrived at since the loss to Montreal in 2021. This team cannot come through when it counts. The excuse used to be that the supporting cast is not good enough, or the defense, or the goaltending, or the coaching, but all of that has been changed or improved upon over time.
The only thing that’s been the same is the core group, and this loss has put an exclamation point on their failed tenure in Blue and White, which has 0 for 7 in deciding games since 2018. Morgan Rielly was -3 in Game 7 and appeared to be worn down by the Panthers relentless hitting on the forecheck. The Leafs scored four goals in the last four games, with the supposedly clutch playoff performer William Nylander and John Tavares going pointless, and Marner and Auston Matthews registering a point on the game-winner in Game 6.
The question to be answered in the aftermath of this latest debacle is what will be done. Off the ice, this defeat is the final nail in the coffin of Brendan Shanahan as team president. Shanahan is as much responsible for the flawed construction of this team as GM Kyle Dubas. He advocated and defended the core group defeat after defeat, and believed that they eventually would win. His decision to fire Dubas six weeks before the no-movement clause on Marner’s contract went into effect crippled new GM Brad Treliving’s flexibility last year and this season, and the inability to trade him will affect the Leafs down the road.
As for Marner, the optics of him being booed every time he touched the puck in the third period on Sunday were ugly, but his performance when it counted throughout his postseason career and the negotiating tactics of agent Darren Ferris during the season have turned him from a fan favorite to a pariah. It is virtually impossible to dream of a scenario in which Marner re-signs with the Leafs or that they would want to re-sign him for what he’s looking for.
His goal may have been to force Toronto’s hand and pay top dollar after posting a career-high point total, but that all depended on him showing up in the postseason. Now it is likely that the only thing that Treliving will sign Marner to is an eight-year contract to make a sign-and-trade deal possible.
