Achi news desk-
BOSTON – William Nylander stood in a grim visitor’s locker room at TD Garden just before midnight.
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with back-to-back 2-1 wins – including one that required overtime – in their first-round playoff series to push an Original Six opponent the club to the limit before suffering. horrible Game 7 overtime loss.
Nylander’s message was emphatic.
“Look, I don’t think there’s a problem with the core,” the winger said of Toronto’s talented, highly paid and, so far, underachieving core just before Saturday turned into Sunday. “I think we were (expletive) very good there every series and fought hard, got to Game 7 and OT.
“That’s a (expletive) feeling.”
General manager Brad Treliving’s job is to take sentiment out of the equation.
Nylander, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares are part of the so-called “Core Four” of the Leafs’ upfront talent.
There is no doubt what individual ability the Leafs have accumulated. Matthews led the NHL with a staggering 69 goals in the regular season, Nylander hit 98 points, and Marner was on pace to break 100 for the first time before suffering a high ankle sprain in March.
Tavares, meanwhile, had his worst offensive campaign since 2016-17 and will be 34 in September, but has provided value on the free agent contract he signed six summers ago.
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The Leafs, however, are in an all too familiar place – out at the first postseason hurdle for the seventh time in eight years. Matthews had four points in the 2024 series with the Bruins despite losing two games. Nylander scored twice in Game 6 and again in Game 7 coming off a migraine headache that kept him out of the first three contests.
However, Marner had just three points and Tavares added two over their seven appearances in a contest that saw Toronto score just 12 times and go an unacceptable 1-for-21 on the power play.
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The Leafs stars who were available to the media late Saturday were asked about the future of the core — which currently makes up about half of Toronto’s salary cap number — as it currently stands.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Matthews said. “We’re not quite over that hump. But over the years, you grow and we become very close.”
Toronto finally experienced a breakthrough last spring when a string of postseason woes ended with its first series victory in nearly two decades.
The good feeling was short-lived with a gentle five-game exit in the second round. The questions about this group’s ability to deliver were given a new face.
That chatter is now front of mind once again.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe, whose future will also be a topic of discussion despite a yet-to-be-implemented contract extension, gave an honest assessment of how opponents, including the playoff-bound Bruins, are heading into the cope with his team’s usually potent attack with a strong looking defence. to suffocate the middle of the ice.
“It’s very obvious,” he said. “(When) teams play the Leafs, they set up the game for the Leafs to beat themselves.”
And the problem may lie.
Former GM Kyle Dubas kept faith in the core before being shown the door some 12 months ago. Treliving, who has re-signed Matthews, aged 26 (four seasons) and Nylander, aged 28 (eight seasons) to big money deals since taking over, will have to decide the path forward.
“All I will say is that the group pulled together,” Keefe added. “The way it came together here in this last week, and throughout the season, this group was different this year. The core you refer to is no different.
“The guys around were different, the feeling around the team was different, we played differently. I thought we showed signs in this series of a team that could win.”
The overall evidence has largely suggested otherwise. Change could be coming.
Marner – a lightning rod for criticism at times – can ink an extension on July 1, while Tavares has a year left on his contract.
“It’s a very small difference,” Tavares said of moments the Leafs haven’t been able to unlock. “No doubt we are there.”
Keefe has no choice but to keep faith in a central group that once again failed the postseason test, despite whatever positive steps have been taken in his approach to playoff hockey.
“There are a lot of good things that have happened in this series,” Keefe said. “With how the team played, how they got into a plan, and found success to give us a chance.
“Come up short. But there are reasons for me to believe that this team will win.”
Treliving must decide if he agrees.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on May 5, 2024.
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& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
