The Leafs couldn't get it done: should they get another chance?
After another early playoff exit, a major shake-up seems bound to happen.
On the second of May, 1967, the Toronto Maple Leafs were celebrating. And with good reason. They’d just beaten the Montréal Canadiens, four-games-to-two, on home-ice no less, to win their fourth Stanley Cup in four seasons.
Fifty-six years later, to the day, the Leafs opened their second-round series against the Florida Panthers.
And, well, it didn’t take, did it? We gave them ten days, five games, Sergei Bobrovsky Quantum Leaping back into his Vezina-winning form and one dagger-in-the-heart of an overtime winner, before we switched over to the Blue Jays and the Buds made their way to the golf course. Albeit, two weeks later than usual.
The Leafs, man. If only they still awarded the Cup in May.
At their end-of-season media availability earlier this week, there was a looming sense of change hanging over the proceedings that the team has mostly avoided during the Matthews-Marner/Dubas-Shanahan era. It was weird. It was awkward. It was… so Toronto.
Before the playoffs started, there was the hope that all the “what-ifs” surrounding the team: contracts, futures, would be quieted by, not if an extended playoff run, then by at least winning a round. Which they did, for the first time in nineteen years but their quick ousting only seemed to amplify the Thanos-esque inevitable: there will be change in Leaf Land. A “low-key” offseason? In Toronto?
It doesn’t exist.
To his credit and no doubt, on some level, to his deterrent, Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas has been staunchly, almost unwaveringly loyal to the process during the seven years he’s spent in the big swivel chair.
While most others would’ve caved to the pressure (and certainly have) in the aftermath of playoff defeat, after playoff defeat, he was resolute to the team he’d built, to the “Core Four” of players he’s devoted nearly half his team’s salary cap space towards, to all the additions, big and small, made around the edges, all together, hopefully, enough to bring the Leafs their first Stanley Cup in over fifty years.
So far, no dice.
In July 2018, just days following John Tavares’ signing, Dubas was asked if he could realistically expect the Leafs to keep all four of Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. His response, now, given their lack of substantial playoff success, lives on in infamy: “We can and we will.”
Will they? Should they? When he spoke on Monday, Dubas, in contrast to his long-held position, was the most candid he’s been in years regarding those franchise-altering moves he’s fought against.
Too often against Florida head coach Sheldon Keefe, Dubas’s long-time running mate, seemed, stuck, out-coached, tactically overrun. Should he stick around, even with one year left on his contract?
One could argue the Leafs have already used their fire-the-coach mulligan, with Keefe replacing Mike Babcock in November 2019. Following that logic, the next axe to fall would be on the players, the core. Nylander, Matthews, they’ll be free agents this time next year, Tavares and Marner, a year later.
Do you trade one of them now, hope it jumpstarts, well, something? Tavares, the captain, the hometown boy with a full No Movement Clause, seems unlikely to go, with full control over his destiny. Leaving a former MVP in Matthews, a Selke trophy nominee (generally, the League’s best two-way player) in Marner and a 40-goal man in Nylander. Such a decision, any decision, can’t be made lightly.
Collectively, yes, those four are perhaps the most talented players the franchise has ever had - but they were ultimately shut down, beaten, when the stakes were the highest they’d been in near twenty years. Against the Panthers, between them, they scored three goals. Three! That isn’t just “not good enough” - it is inexcusable.
They said all the right things on Monday, of course. How they’re committed to the cause, the plan, the process.
And yes, hockey is the ultimate of team sports. To pin it all on four players and a coach, that’s foolhardily.
But really, how many more kicks at the can should they have?
And what of Dubas? With his own contract expiring at the end of June, he made it clear he’d be taking some time with his family before making a decision on his future. But the clock is ticking and not just on the NHL Draft, some six weeks away.
No, the clock is ticking on this era of Leafs hockey, on the prime of their stars, on the patience of an exhausted, frustrated fanbase, on the notion that simply “running it back” will produce a more conclusive result.
On one hand, to tear it all down, completely, wouldn’t just be locking-your-keys-in-the-car stupid, it’d be stupid. Like the time I tried to vault over a fire hydrant to impress a girl and ended up in the hospital, getting stitches.
And yet, bringing the band back out for yet another encore? It just doesn’t seem feasible.
Come October, we’ll see if they do.
I like the Thanos-esque reference, he went for it all on his last year. Great article
Great job Ryan. Keep it coming