The group of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly fell to 1-6 in Stanley Cup playoff rounds since playing on the same team.
The group of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly fell to 1-6 in Stanley Cup playoff rounds since playing on the same team.
BOSTON — It was close.
Despite going down 3-1 in their best-of-seven series and essentially being written off for dead, the Toronto Maple Leafs forced a Game 7 with the Boston Bruins. In the end, they fell 2-1 in overtime after David Pastrnak came flying toward Toronto's net and beat Ilya Samsonov, ending the Leafs' season.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbSJ1Y6U5E[/embed]
It'll provide little consolation for fans of the Maple Leafs, who have seen this script many times before. A group built around stars Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly fell to 1-6 in playoffs series since the group of five was established together in 2018. Take Tavares out of the equation and that core is 1-8.
Looking at the series on an individual basis, what the team managed to overcome to get the series to Game 7 was remarkable. They opened the first three games of the series without Nylander, who revealed that he indeed had some form of migraine issue, to a point where doctors couldn't figure out exactly what had happened to him. He described vision loss as one of the symptoms.
Then there was Matthews, who missed Games 5 and 6 and was not 100 percent for Game 7 with what is believed to be more than just an illness.
Both players connected on the only goal for the Leafs in Game 7 before Boston responded with the next two to win the game and the series.
But the core's is built on offense and it simply wasn't there. They scored 12 goals in seven games for an average of 1.71 per game.
All five players of the core are under contract through next season, but given the team's inability to get over the hump, is this the season change that finally occurs?
Nylander feels there was no issue with the personnel.
"Look, I don't think there's an issue with the core. I think we were f**ing right there all series and battled hard," Nylander said. "(We) got to game seven and OT. That's a sh*tty feeling."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vji_GwaPoZs[/embed]
While secondary scoring could certain pinch in to help fill the void, the core is responsible for the makeup of the entire first power play unit. They went 1-for-21 in the series. That will stand out as the team's biggest failure.
Credit to the Leafs, they adjusted and played a tight defensive game. But defending well can only get you so far.
"We've been through a lot together. I mean, in the end, it's not up to us," Matthew said. "It's a game of inches, we haven't quite gotten over that hump. But obviously, through the years, you grow and we come extremely close and go through the ups and downs of everything together."
There seemed to be a realization from head coach Sheldon Keefe that the fanbase may not accept the same personnel despite how he felt his team developed this season.
"We've been trying to break through for a long time, So, you know any answer is going fall on deaf ears in that sense, and I get that. All I'll say is that the group pulled together to me, and the way it pulled together here in this last week, and through the season. This group was different," Keefe said. "With how the team played, how it bought into a plan, and found success to give us a chance to compete here, and like I said, come up just short here tonight. But there's reasons for me to believe that this team will win."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBofSqQXMA[/embed]
Matthews and Nylander are locked into extensions signed in the last year. Rielly is also locked in for another six seasons. But Tavares and Marner have just one more year left on their details before they become unrestricted free agents. If the Leafs decide to make a move, it probably comes from one of those two players. Both have full no-move clauses and a trade would require the respective players' sign-off.
Tavares didn't answer when asked if the core should run it back, instead focusing on how close the Leafs were, again, to progress.
"It's a very small difference," the captain reasoned. "And just the type of hockey that we played, the way we needed to play to give ourselves a chance to win the series, and the way we came together that way that we were stuck with it, adapting to that, and what that requires and what that takes, there's no doubt that we're right there."
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