BOSTON — Same sad faces, same old story.
As the (willing) members of the Toronto Maple Leafs core walked one by one across the TD Garden’s visitors’ room and faced all the usual questions following this era’s eighth post-season series loss in nine attempts, there was a striking familiarity to the hollowness of it all.
The talk of thin margins and tight groups, of hard efforts and bitter pills, coming through hushed voices from gutted hockey players, following a 2-1 Game 7 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
The latest in a long list of series in which this group was just good enough to lose.
“It sucks, to be honest. We were really close, and we battled back into the series, and I don’t know what to say. It’s just an empty feeling right now,” said William Nylander, the only member of The Core to score in any of Toronto’s three elimination games this week.
“Look, I don’t think there’s an issue with the core. I think we were (expletive) right there all series. Battled hard and got it to Game 7 in OT. That’s a (expletive) feeling.”
John Tavares tried explaining what gives him the belief that this same group of stars should get another crack at this thing come October.
“We’re right there,” the captain said. “I mean, it’s very small difference. 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, the way that we stuck with it…. There’s no doubt that we’re right there.”
Tavares and Auston Matthews both mentioned that the shot total in their Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins was even, which is true: 31-31.
But the style of play over this seven-game execution (patient, defensive) and the goal differential (18-12) and the goaltending battle and the special-teams performance all bent the way of the eventual victors.
Absolutely, the Maple Leafs deserve credit for flexing heart and character in Games 5, 6 and 7, and not folding their tent. Their best scorers, Nylander and Matthews, pushed through complicated injuries. Their best goalie, Joseph Woll, couldn’t stay healthy. They proved they could meet an opponent head-to-head with physicality.
And, perhaps most impressively and shockingly, they strung together three of the stingiest, committed defensive efforts we’ve seen from them.
But, to borrow a favourite line from coach Sheldon Keefe earlier this season: Find a way, don’t find an excuse.
These Leafs, they went down fighting, no doubt. But they still went down.
Their calling-card power play died on the vine, going a crushing 1-for-21 (4.76 per cent).
They extended their offensive disaster by going 14 consecutive playoff games without more than three goals.
And Keefe’s job is certainly at risk as his post-season record tumbles to 1-5 and he tried unsuccessfully to beat the Bruins at their own game.
“When teams play the Leafs, they set up the game for the Leafs to beat themselves,” Keefe said.
That means turning the neutral zone into a mine field and protecting the slot like it’s the precious One Ring.
In overtime, with $40.5 million worth of Toronto players on the ice, the Leafs did beat themselves — with an assist from a criticized and clutch David Pastrnak.
Pastrnak drove up ice with a head of steam.
Mitch Marner failed to get a bump or make the Bruins’ best player change lanes. On an end-boards bank, Pastrnak’s speed allowed him to beat No. 1 defenceman Morgan Rielly to the loose puck and deke Ilya Samsonov, the goalie who wasn’t supposed to start, to freeze the clock and trigger those respectful handshakes.
Marner did not speak post-game. Neither did Rielly.
Anyone who’s watched this team, sat on the edge of his or her seat with hopes about to get dashed, must wonder if it’s worth sticking by the core once more.
Marner and Tavares both have full no-move clauses and one year remaining on their contracts. Big raises for Nylander and Matthews kick in next fall, which will sap any raise in the cap ceiling.
“We’ve been talking about this a long time, trying to break through for a long time. So, any answer is gonna fall on deaf ears in that sense. I get that,” Keefe said. “This group was different this year. The core you’re referring to isn’t different; the guys around them was different. They played different. I thought we showed signs this series of a team that could win.”
When are signs not enough?
When does hope get replaced by change?
Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi tied Matthews for the team lead in points this seven-gamer (four). Nylander scored three goals in four games, but none of the other stars tallied more than one. Marner and Rielly were limited to three points apiece.
“This is as tight as the group is as I’ve been a part of here, and I feel like I we say that every year, but it truly was an incredible group, incredibly tight, the way we stuck together through the ups and downs of the regular season, post-season,” Matthews said.
How badly does Matthews want this same core to get another crack at it? To run it all back for a ninth time?
“I mean, of course. We’ve been through a lot together,” Matthews said.
“In the end, it’s not up to us. But it’s a game of inches, and we quite haven’t gotten over that hump. But through the years you grow and become extremely close and go through the ups and downs of everything together.”
It’s past due we see how the ups and down look apart.
Fox’s Fast Five
• Woll left the first round in shocking fashion — and with the best save percentage (.964) among all playoff-game starters this spring — after we learned mere minutes before puck drop that he had sustained an undisclosed injury during Game 6’s 2-1 victory.
It is suspected Woll’s injury occurred stretching in attempt to stop a Morgan Geekie shot and preserve his lost shutout with 0.1 seconds on the clock.
Samsonov was given a heads-up Friday to prepare as if he’d get the net, then found out at 2 p.m. Saturday, six hours before puck drop, that Woll couldn’t go.
• Matthews was reportedly injured during Game 4 while playing through illness. Only cleared by doctors Saturday morning, he was slotted as third-line centre with some bump-up shifts. He was clearly not playing at 100 per cent.
As the Bruins went out of their way to finish every check on the superstar, he still threw six hits, blocked a big shot, and managed to set up Toronto’s only strike, getting the primary assist on Nylander’s goal.
“It was really hard to watch those two games,” a gutted Matthews said. “But just really proud of the guys to fight and battle back and give ourselves a chance.”
Matthews declined to address what kept him out of the lineup.
Tavares on Matthews gutting it out in Game 7: “Hell of a player. Hell of a year.”
• Boston brought out the big guns Saturday. Former captain Patrice Bergeron riled up the Garden denizens by waving the pregame flag. Fellow former captain Zdeno Chara was in the building. And recently retired Jack Edwards was whipping out fist-pumps while getting thanked for his service on the Jumbotron.
• Prior to his hero moment in the fourth period, David Pastrnak’s series was in danger of being summed up in a single gif:
Montgomery publicly called out his MVP after Game 6: “Pasta needs to step up.”
Pastrnak did precisely that.
“I told him, ‘If I were the coach and you were the player, I’d say the same thing,’” Pastrnak said. “I needed to be better.”
Montgomery revealed post-game that Mike Babcock talked to him prior to Game 7 about the importance of owning the moment. Wow.
• Nylander confirmed he was held out of Games 1, 2 and 3 for precautionary reasons. He had suffered a migraine that might have been also been a concussion.
“This situation is very complicated. It’s hard to explain exactly what it is,” Nylander said. “My vision goes. Can’t really see out of my eyes. It gets messed up. So, it’s hard to play then.”
