Entering the Stanley Cup playoffs, the prevailing sentiment in Toronto was optimism. Optimism that, at long last, the Maple Leafs had a team capable of going on a deep playoff run. But after Saturday night’s embarrassing 3-1 loss in Game 4, the prevailing sentiment is a combination of disgust and dismay. And although it’s tempting to pin the putrid defeat on a few key players, the reality is the whole Leafs team owns where they are – one loss away from heading home for the summer, once again, in humiliating fashion.
Sheldon Keefe? Out-coached by Jim Montgomery. Ilya Samsonov? Out-goaltended by Jeremy Swayman. T.J. Brodie? Out-defended by just about everyone on the ice. John Tavares? Out-captained by Brad Marchand. The list goes on and on, and fans are rightly irate. And nobody has the right recipe to get this Leafs team looking like they care enough to win. Keefe made a feeble attempt at positivity Saturday, telling media, “You can question a lot of things, you can’t question the effort.”
This writer has a lot of time for Keefe, and honestly, what do you expect him to say. But “you can’t question the effort”? Au contraire, mon frere – you absolutely can question the effort. The Bruins were laser-focused, tough as nails, and clearly motivated and determined to end this series as soon as possible. The Leafs, on the other hand, were a blue-and-white malaise machine. They were beaten in board battles time and again and they were a turnover factory, avoiding physicality the entire night.
WWE’s Bianca Belair is the “est” of her world – the fastest, the quickest, the toughest. The Leafs, on the other hand, are the “ess” of the playoffs – feckless, clueless, gutless, and mostly winless. There is no sugar-coating of this team any longer. This is who they are, and it’s not going to be any different the rest of the way this year. They might win Game 5 on Tuesday, but imagining them pulling off three straight wins over the Bruins is a fantasy that the world’s best psychedelic drugs couldn’t generate. It may not be over until it’s officially over, but who’s kidding who – it’s over.
When the Bruins do put the Leafs out of their misery, Keefe will be fired, and GM Brad Treliving will bring in someone like Craig Berube or Mike Sullivan (after the Penguins let him go). But if the roster doesn’t change, the result will be the same. Eight years of misery is not an accident or a learning process, it’s an inevitability with this group. We’ve seen this routine time and time again, and nobody wants a return performance. Enough already. Uncle.
In his Hockey Hall-of-Fame playing career, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan knew what it took to be a winner. And in many ways, he’s been successful running the Leafs. They’re a good regular-season team when the stakes aren’t high, and they’re more profitable than they’ve ever been before. But this Bruins series is the last straw for the “Core Four” and Toronto’s foundational players. Auston Matthews will be back, and so will William Nylander and the untradeable contract of Tavares. But after that, nobody should feel safe. Massive change has to happen. Treliving still has plays to be made, and he’ll be entrusted to make over the roster. But the status quo cannot be an option. The Leafs have to be markedly different next season, and there can be no excuses or second (third and fourth) chances. The time has come to end this experiment.
There’s no justification for bringing back looming UFA Samsonov, whose Jeykll-and-Hyde nature never should’ve been reinvested in after last season. Joseph Woll has always been the goalie of the future, but Samsonov was terrible at the end of the season, and Keefe inexplicably stuck with him against Boston. That was one of his biggest coaching mistakes.
JVR gettin' silky. pic.twitter.com/45fWtb60Kt
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 28, 2024
There’s no compelling reason to bring back Marner, who had a chance to author his own rise to being a legitimate playoff star, but instead came up largely lame in Game 4, playing on the periphery for the most part and ducking contact like he was allergic to it. If Brodie returns – that is, if he even should – it had better be on a league-minimum contract as the team’s seventh or eighth blueliner. David Kampf? See ya, softy. Ryan Reaves? Enjoy your buyout.
Nothing short of a drastic makeover will be enough for this organization. There has to be a new era, starting as soon as the Bruins officially eliminate the Buds. Leafs players have earned their reputation as lesser-thans, and the consequences for their failures have to be severe and sustained. Toronto has had it with their mumbled rationalizations and empty promises. There’s no turning back now, and the only thing left to do is to bury this stiff corpse of a lineup and start over again.
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News Summary:
- Game 4 Defeat Signals Incoming Changes For All-But Eliminated Leafs
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