If you’ve been paying attention to the Maple Leafs post Game 7 breakdown interviews, or even the locker cleanout day, you have probably heard a familiar sentiment.

“I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror, myself included.” -Auston Matthews

Unfortunately, the Leafs looked in the mirror and saw a disheveled mess and still decided to step outside and take part in a Game 7 versus the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers and puked all over themselves. Florida, seemingly, wanted no prisoners left in Toronto before heading to Carolina and walloped a Leafs team that has fallen to 0-5 in the “Core Four” era in winner take all Game Sevens.

So what now? What is different about this situation than that of the previous EIGHT that have come before this meltdown?

Truthfully, a 6-1 loss in game 5 and ultimately the same 6-1 loss in game 7 might truly be enough to be the nail in the coffin of a “Shanaplan” that fought above its weight class in the regular season for 9 years, but could never go the distance when the lights got bright and things heated up in the playoffs.

There are things to like about this “different” Maple Leafs team. The defence is vastly improved from years past. Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe were a duo that stood every test that was thrown their way and passed with flying colours, but they were beaten physically every time they retrieved pucks in their own end.

Ekman-Larson was a fantastic third pairing addition to this team and Simon Benoit was arguably the best overall defenceman for the entire group in the playoffs.

The annual “find Morgan Rielly a defence partner” may have found its final boss with the addition of steady Brandon Carlo who was a great deadline addition for the team.

The forward depth was adequate once again. Scott Laughton latched on to a role in the playoffs and played hard along side Lorentz in a checking role. Max Pacioretty turned the clock back after missing 3 months to be one of the top forwards of the Florida series, and a new star was born in Matthew Knies.

So why the exact same outcome?

If you rely on your depth scoring and your 3rd pairing defence to win you a series, you have already lost the series.

We’ll never know to what degree Matthews was injured, and he played fantastic defensively, but a 400 goal scorer getting paid 13+ million dollars needs to score when it matters, and he didn’t again.

William Nylander dominated the Ottawa Senators and looked like a Conn Smythe favourite during the first 2 games of the Florida series, but disappeared and looked disengaged and uninterested the rest of the way (minus a couple dominating shifts in garbage time).

Finally, Mitch Marner isn’t built for playoff hockey in hockey’s toughest market. He just isn’t. Everyone has seen the video by now of him screaming at his teammates to wake up while sporting a perfect mullet that hasn’t seen moisture since his last shower. That moment, notwithstanding, he was absolutely awful.

Mitch seems like a nice guy, and I congratulate him on the birth of his first child and wish him nothing but the best in life, but I hope you’ve looked into the real estate market in Anaheim. Or Chicago. Or Carolina… but if it’s Carolina, it’s probably best that you sell the Muskoka cottage too if you really declined a trade there for Mikko Rantanen.

The Leafs upper management (and I mean UPPER) has some serious decisions to make before July 1, and I don’t anticipate it being as cut and dry as it seems.

Marner’s comments when directly asked this morning if he wants to stay:

“I’ve always loved my time here. Loved playing here.”

That sounds pretty past tense to me. I don’t blame him. I think a fresh start is needed all around. For everyone’s sake.

In terms of life after Marner, I could see a few things happening:

-Talk to Auston and see where his head is at moving away from Mitch as a linemate

-Sign Tavares back at $5million AAV

-Attempt to sign Knies to an 8 yr deal but settle on a 3 year bridge (Cause why not? Everyone else here does)

-Consider a conversation with Morgan Rielly about a fresh start elsewhere. It’s obvious that his best days as a top pair puck moving dman are passing him by, and he deserves a chance to go somewhere and be a fantastic number 3

-Acquire a puck moving mobile defenceman via trade or FA (The problem is finding a suitable one

-Move off of the Kampf, Reaves, Jarnkrok contracts and open up a suitable role for Nick Robertson and Easton Cowan if he shows improvement in the preseason

These are only ideas, but things need to start speeding up a little in terms of a re-tool on the fly, because the Stanley cup window has lasted 9 years and there hasn’t been a slight breeze come through it to indicate that it’s even there.

If this really is the end of the Core Four era, it should be looked upon very bitter sweet. An unbelievably entertaining group in the regular season, and an abysmal performance year after year in the playoffs.

But hey, maybe it wasn’t about the core four journey… maybe the real treasure was the “passengers” we made along the way.

Hey Alexa….. play Let Her Go by Passenger

Let’s see what happens

Brandon