BOSTON – William Nylander was in a solemn visitors’ locker room at TD Garden just before midnight.
The Maple Leafs had bounced back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 wins, including one that required overtime, in their first-round playoff series to push the Original rival to the limit Six of the club before suffering. a devastating overtime loss in game seven.
Nylander’s message was emphatic.
“Look, I don’t think there is any problem with the core,” the winger said about torontoThe talented, well-paid and, to date, underperforming core just before Saturday became Sunday. “I think we were (expletive) right there the whole series and we fought hard, we got to Game 7 and overtime.
“That’s a (expletive) feeling.”
It’s general manager Brad Treliving’s job to take sentiment out of the equation.
Nylander, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares make up the Leafs’ so-called “Core Four” of talent up front.
There’s no doubting the individual skill the Leafs have amassed. Matthews led the NHL with an outrageous 69 regular-season goals, Nylander scored 98 points and Marner was on pace to reach 100 for the first time before suffering a sprained ankle in March.
Tavares, meanwhile, had his worst offensive season since 2016-17 and will turn 34 in September, but he has provided value in the free agent contract he signed six summers ago.
The Leafs, however, find themselves in a very familiar situation: at the first hurdle of the postseason for the seventh time in eight years. Matthews scored four points in the 2024 series with the Bruins despite missing two games. Nylander scored twice in Game 6 and again in Game 7 after a migraine kept him out of the first three games.
Marner, however, scored just three points and Tavares added two in his seven appearances in a matchup that saw toronto He scores just 12 times and is an unacceptable 1-for-21 on the power play.
The Leafs stars, made available to the media on Saturday night, were asked about the future of the core, which currently represents about half. torontoSalary cap number, as currently constructed.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Matthews said. “We haven’t gotten over that hurdle yet. But over the years, you grow and we become extremely close.”
toronto They finally experienced a playoff breakthrough last spring when a string of postseason misery ended with their first series win in nearly two decades.
The good vibes were short-lived, with a tame five-game elimination in the second round. Questions resurfaced about this group’s ability to achieve this.
That talk is now present once again.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe, whose future will also be a topic of discussion despite a contract extension that has yet to be initiated, gave an honest assessment of how opponents, including the Bruins in these playoffs, approach the normally potent offense. of his team with a rigid defense that seems 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 there could lie the problem.
Former general manager Kyle Dubas kept faith in the core before he was shown the door about 12 months ago. Treliving, who has re-signed Matthews, 26 (four seasons) and Nylander, 28 (eight seasons) to big-money deals since he took the reins, will have to decide which way forward.
“All I’ll say is the group came together,” Keefe added. “The way it came together here over the last week and throughout the season, this group was different this year. The core you are referring to is no different.
“The guys that were around were different, the feeling around the team was different, we played different. “I thought in this series we showed signs of a team that could win.”
The general evidence has largely suggested the opposite. Change could be coming.
Marner, sometimes the target of criticism, can sign an extension on July 1, while Tavares has one year left on his contract.
“It’s a very small difference,” Tavares said of the moments the Leafs haven’t been able to unlock. “There is no doubt that we are right.”
Keefe has no choice but to keep faith with a core group that, despite whatever positive steps have been taken in terms of their approach to playoff hockey, has once again failed the postseason test.
“A lot of good things happened in this series,” Keefe said. “With the way he played the team, how he accepted a plan and was successful to give us a chance.
“Fall short. But I have reason to believe that this team will win.”
Treliving has to decide if he agrees.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2024.