For the fourth time in the last 11 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs said goodbye to the season after losing the seventh game to the Boston Bruins. The cycle of questions starts again. What about the coach, what about the main stars, what’s next? Toronto has all summer to do this, but now the players are biting a huge disappointment. The perfect turnaround was close at hand.
It’s one playoff series victory in the last 20 years. And they’ve lost their seventh game six straight since 2013.
“We’ve been talking about it for a long time and we’ve been trying to break through for a long time,” coach Sheldon Keefe lamented. “The only thing I will say is that the way the team came together this last week and throughout the season, it was different. The core you’re talking about is not different. The guys around were different, the feeling around the team was different, we played otherwise.”
Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs and their legions of loyal, long-suffering fans, the result was no different.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Auston Matthews said of the team’s core. “It’s a game of inches and we haven’t got past them. But obviously you grow over the years and we’ve come incredibly close to that.”
The what-if debates also began. Matthews reportedly had major unspecified issues, while William Nylander missed the first three games of the series.
“Honestly, it sucks,” replied the Swede. “We were really close and we battled in the series. I don’t know what to say. It’s an empty feeling right now.”
What happens now?
Matthews and Nylander have committed to long-term contracts. Mitch Marner has one season left on his contract, as does John Tavares. Especially the last two are under huge fire of criticism, Marner for a long time.
It’s a conundrum facing a talented team that has failed yet again.
“It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that it’s over,” added goalkeeper Ilja Samsonov.
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