All Leafs, all the time? Not here, one post, call it a Leafs wrap if you so desire.
from Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun,
They’ll be remembered, not in a good way, as possibly the best Maple Leafs team never to win a playoff series.
Despite changing the blueprint to end a streak of first-round failures, Toronto is once again an early casualty. For the fifth time in the lifespan of the core — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly — they were on the wrong side of the handshake line when they couldn’t seal the deal.
The Montreal Canadiens go on to meet the Winnipeg Jets, who’ve waited an extra week as the Leafs agonizingly blew a 3-1 series lead, culminating Monday at Scotiabank Arena in a 3-1 loss to the fourth-seeded Habs.
“It’s really hard to put into words, we’re obviously devastated,” said coach Sheldon Keefe, who was saving any post-game speech to the players for exit meetings later this week. “We thought we were capable of a lot more.”
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from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,
Dubas has forever preached process, that progress is not linear the way fans would prefer it. In other words, that a team which hasn’t won a single series since YouTube was invented could suddenly win four one spring. If you keep betting on talent.
Eager to win during the Matthews-Marner prime, Dubas has also been the spendy type, both in draft capital and literal capital. (The Leafs used up four of their seven 2021 draft picks on this run.) He’s identified needs and hunted them down.
Eight Maple Leafs who dressed Game 7 will be unrestricted free agents. Three more (David Rittich, Ben Hutton, Riley Nash
Of that group, Jason Spezza, the best bang-for-your-buck veteran in the league, is worth re-signing. Dubas should take a run at Zach Hyman, too, although the power forward will have tempting suitors elsewhere. Bogosian, 30, certainly earned his $1 million. Would he take that sum short-term again?
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from Kristen Shilton of TSN,
The Maple Leafs had their chance, and they blew it. Again.
Toronto had three opportunities to close out its first-round playoff series against Montreal and managed to squander them all. In Monday’s decisive Game 7, the Leafs couldn’t even score until their fate was already sealed, and the 3-1 loss put a final dagger through Toronto’s once-promising season.
The scenario was perfectly familiar to the Leafs. It marked the third time in four seasons that Toronto has been bounced from the first round in Game 7, not to mention their loss to Columbus in Game 5 of a playoff qualifying round last summer.
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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
Jason Spezza sat on the bench when the buzzer sounded, bent over at the waist, head down, not moving.
It was all too soon.
This picture of a shocking, stunning, Maple Leafs season-ending, suddenly frozen in time.
In fairness, the veteran Spezza deserved a better ending. In fairness, the long-suffering Leafs fans deserved a better ending.
And in fairness, this Leafs team, thoroughly beaten by themselves and by the Montreal Canadiens and by the historic inability of this group to compete at the highest level, did not deserve anything more than Stanley Cup elimination Monday night at Scotiabank Arena. The better team won and it was not the Maple Leafs.
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from Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star,
Four beats to the bar and off.
The absence of presence.
The ghosting of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
The paranormal haunting of this monstrous mansion inhabited by the Maple Leafs.
Pack up now.
It’s not the end of the world, but it is the end of this team. For 2021, as the sand ran out of the hourglass, and forevermore.
Past its expiry date, this carton of Maple Leafs. Thought they could get playoff crackin’ and instead they laid an egg.
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from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,
Matthews and Marner don’t carry massive cap hits so they can get stuffed by the opponent’s defensive structure in the playoffs. Presumably, general manager Kyle Dubas forked over millions to the pair so they could lead the Leafs through difficult times in the post-season.
They weren’t the difference-makers that coach Sheldon Keefe thought they could be, that Dubas has paid them to be.
“I felt like in every game we had a couple of Grade A chances,” Marner said. “It seems like it’s always (saying) the same stuff.”
And this from Matthews: “It’s frustrating. It’s a game of inches out there. When it comes to playoff time, everything is much tighter. They’re a team that defends well, they have great goaltending. In my opinion, I don’t think we had any shortage of chances. We we weren’t able to able to capitalize, we weren’t able to get it done.”
Matthews shouldn’t be talking about it being a game of inches. He’s the guy who is supposed to ensure those inches aren’t a factor.
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