You could certainly buy the idea that the Toronto Maple Leafs made some necessary, incremental gains this season. That was until two consecutive home blowouts at the hands of the defending champion Florida Panthers illustrated how far this team is truly away from reaching their goal of lifting the Stanley Cup. It may be time for radical disruption, after the Panthers pummelled the Maple Leafs 6-1 in a Game 7 that wasn’t even remotely close, perhaps spelling the end of the Core Four era as we know it.
Mitch Marner instructed the Leafs to wake up after the Panthers took a 3-0 lead. It seemed richly ironic as for the second consecutive home game, Marner and Matthews completely disappeared when the lights were the brightest, and we’re not talking about the bracelets given to the elated crowd pre-game. It would be much easier to stomach if the Leafs’ stars showed any fight. Aside from a 10-minute stretch in the first period, this was as empty and listless a showing you could possibly surmise, given the circumstance and the cumulative weight of another crushing playoff exit for the ninth year in a row, and for the seventh time during the Core Four era. Florida generated 25 consecutive shot attempts during the first period, before a William Nylander drive into the offensive zone briefly awakened the home side.
A brutal demolition on home ice may spell the end of the Core Four as we know it, as Marner, John Tavares and Matthew Knies all require new contracts. While the win-now window certainly isn’t being jammed shut, there’s one hand on the levers, spelling out a summer that could bring the team’s incremental progress under head coach Craig Berube to a standstill. Berube preached risk mitigation and simple, north-south hockey throughout the year, with the idea that his philosophy would translate well to the playoff. In two consecutive home games, with a chance to show that this was a different era of Leafs hockey, the club betrayed its new principles and collapsed in an all-too similar fashion.
“The first 10 minutes, they came out strong,” Matthews said post-game. “The next 10 minutes, I thought we controlled play. And then I just thought we had too many passengers throughout the rest of the game, and just weren’t on the same page.”
“Can’t have passengers in a Game 7. Just sucks. We all to have to hold ourselves to higher accountability and be better,” Marner said, before his post-game media availability concluded.
How can you distance yourself from the passengers in question? Matthews and Marner needed to rise to the occasion and while the Maple Leafs’ captain scored the most important goal of his career in Game 6, Toronto’s top line disappeared entirely on Sunday night. Both players registered two shots on goal, and were out-chanced 13-10 in 9:22 of playing time at 5-on-5, alongside 22-year-old Knies, who was playing through a bruise suffered in Game 6. Matthews registered one goal in the series and while he almost certainly played through a lingering injury, it’s simply not commensurate to the expectations that we’ve come to expect, coming off a 69-goal campaign in 2024.
6-1, 6-1. This isn’t the scoreline from Carlos Alcaraz dispatching some helpless qualifier at Wimbledon, this is the scoreline from the Leafs’ past two home games. It’s the worst margin of defeat the Leafs have suffered during the past two decades and considering their array of superior offensive talent, along with a revamped defence corps, it’s inexcusable.
The public announcer instructed Leafs fans multiple times to stop throwing jerseys and other objects on the ice. The fan base’s response to such an ugly showing wasn’t subtle, matching the grotesque display they witnessed in Sunday’s outright capitulation. Matthews and Marner replica jerseys were hurled on the ice several times during the third period and Toronto’s headlining winger had to step around the debris to get to the bench in the final minutes of the contest.
“I’m feeling the same way. It’s sad. It’s heartbreaking. It’s something you don’t enjoy. I’m not happy with that outcome either,” Marner said, while reiterating that being a Maple Leaf has meant everything to him.
There was certainly an air of finality in the dressing room and while the Leafs won’t concede just yet, seven years may be too long a term to excuse the ability.
“You win a Game 6, that’s great. To come home, you’ve got to have a level of desperation, determination, and I didn’t feel we had it,” Berube surmised post-game.
The Core Four era began in earnest when John Tavares signed a seven-year deal worth $11 million annually with the Maple Leafs on Canada Day 2018. Tavares was the best free agent on the market, and with Matthews, Marner and William Nylander ascending into their primes, it seemed to be an inevitably that this group would eventually lift the Cup. Tavares was a prodigy in Toronto’s youth circuit, much like Marner seven years after him, and it appeared to be his destiny to lead the team to a Cup, especially in the years where he donned the captaincy with pride. Seven years later, the Maple Leafs are back to where they started and while it’s widely expected that Tavares will re-sign with the Maple Leafs, perhaps at a rate that is below his market value, it may be nearly impossible to sell the vision that things ought to remain the same.
“It’s meant everything to me,” Tavares said post-game. “It was a big decision I made seven years ago, and I’ve loved it. It’s been amazing for myself and my family. Just accept responsibility. We haven’t been able to come through and play well enough.”
This may be the nadir. It speaks to the scope and shock of the stunning loss that Brad Marchand’s series-leading seven points becomes a footnote as he remains the Leafs’ primary antagonist, after being sent across the Atlantic. Marchand chided the Leafs’ fan base for being too hard on the team, with criticism emanating around-the-clock from the world’s largest hockey market post-game, you can get away with this type of glib, tongue-in-cheek assessment as the spoils of constant victory.
“I know you guys will have your opinions,” Tavares said. “Obviously, management will make their decisions, but obviously a very good team that’s done a lot of good things, just haven’t broken through. Never going to quit, never going to stop trying. So, I’d love another opportunity.”
Toronto made incremental progress throughout the year. They appeared to have found a real identity under Berube, with an emphasis on simplicity and verticality. The defence corps and goaltending have never been better during this era. Understanding that windows are finite, the Leafs pushed their chips in at the deadline — although, of course, Marchand and Seth Jones were brilliant in Game 7, while Scott Laughton finished the playoffs without a goal and Brandon Carlo was dreadful in the elimination game.
It may be end of the Core Four as we know it. Seven years without meaningful change is enough of an impetus for radical disruption, whether in the form of a trade, Marner testing free agency, or perhaps the dismissal of president Brendan Shanahan, the lone constant during this past decade. All the incremental progress the Leafs made this year just went up in flames after a complete surrender.