Maple Leafs: Another First Round Loss, What Else is There to Blame?

Let’s talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs for a bit.

As primarily a Montreal Canadiens writer myself, I see myself as having a love/hate relationship of sorts with the Toronto Maple Leafs. I’m not going to stand here and blaspheme, laugh, and dance on every Toronto sports fans’ metaphorical grave as seems to be the norm with most Habs fans, as quite frankly, I find there’s no need for that.

Montreal has just come off their worst season in franchise history (one I and many others have discussed to no end) and have a long ways to go before they can even begin to sniff the definition of the word competitive.

In contrast, the Leafs have been a perennial playoff shoo-in for the past half-decade, and have one of, if not the best pure goal scorer in the NHL in Auston Matthews, one of the best playmakers in Mitch Marner, and some of the best leaders in Jason Spezza and John Tavares.

Toronto is your stereotypical great NHL team, and any Leafs fans will be quick to make a point of how gosh darn great that very same team is. They’re exciting, fast, offensive, and flashy both on and off the ice (for better or worse *ahem*). They’re one of the NHL’s flashiest young squads from October to March.

As for April, well, April is a different story. Now, I’m not going to sit here and act like most of us aren’t familiar/haven’t heard the Leafs’ origin story or whatever other term you want to apply to it before. They came out of the gate after an atrocious and utterly lifeless 2015-16 season and haven’t looked back since. They put up a solid fight early on in the post-season and most assumed it would transition into success. It didn’t, and then, it didn’t again, and again, and again, and again. I wasn’t one to follow much of the Leafs’ earlier playoff series as it never seemed like there was much to critique or worry about.

While no team wants to lose that much and indeed that often in the post-season (especially in the first round), the Leafs were at least in it every step of the way for the most part, and much of it could be put down to youth, inexperience, and the fact that Frederik Andersen was as hot and cold as a microwave burrito during the post-season. While the once-starter has since managed to turn things around in an exceptional season this year in Carolina, Toronto took a while to move on from Andersen before settling with former first-round pick and career minor leaguer Jack Campbell.

Campbell was a player I had been following all the way back to his beginnings with the Dallas Stars organization, and as he fell out of favor with the team as a once 11th overall pick, regained his confidence in the AHL with the Los Angeles Kings organization, and got his shot in the NHL and ran with it, the Port Huron native has emerged as one of the best feel-good stories in the NHL over the past few seasons. Behind a red-hot Campbell and a resurged Michael Hutchinson, the Leafs looked poise to slay their demons from the past in a resurged 2020-21 season in a weak Canadian division.

After another first round loss for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the question remains. What else is there to blame going forward?

Well, that didn’t happen, or in the words of the ever-lovable Steve Dangle, “They did it again!”. Again, what happened last year needs no introduction. 3-1 series lead against a barely .500 Canadiens team. Alex Galchenyuk giveaway ends Game 5. Travis Dermott giveaway ends Game 6. Bad goal from Campbell ends Game 7.  Montreal would go on to the Stanley Cup Final where they would get killed by the Tampa Bay Lightning and then subsequently by head coach Dominique Ducharme (seriously it’s almost impressive how bad that tenure was). All the while, Leafs fans thought this was their last chance at a Cup run with this core of players.

Ultimately, that wasn’t the case, though once again, Toronto still fell short of the mark this year after endless heartbreak last year. There’s often a trend with the Leafs’ past playoff series of poor play over the final few games of the series or notable mistakes costing them the game, and this was no doubt the case with Montreal last year. The Leafs clawed back game after game but were ultimately destroyed often by just one mistake, from Galchenyuk to Dermott and finally, “Soupy” Campbell himself, who up until that point had been lights out in the series. However, that simply wasn’t the case this year, and because of that, it leaves me both relieved for the sake of the Leafs, but also beyond confused as to what this ultimately means, and as well, what else there is to blame after a record fifth straight first-round loss.

Matthews and Marner are coming off of career years and Morgan Reilly again established himself as a true top offensive threat with 10-58-68 totals over 82 games. Michael Bunting emerged as a Calder Trophy finalist and top offensive option after being mainly a career minor leaguer, Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev established themselves as consistent and reliable offensive threats, and Campbell was mostly solid when called upon with a .914 SVP, a 2.64 GAA and a 31-9-6 record. There were several things to be excited about with the Leafs this year that should carry over into next year (barring in mind UFAs), and in a first round series against the two-time Cup champs in the Lightning, Toronto pushed them to the brink of elimination and fought for the series every step of the way.

While there were a few iffy goals here or there, and in spite of all my previous ramblings explanations and memories of the Leafs previous playoff failures, this one is not a reason to tear everything down and restart. Yet, even still, what else can be said, or who can be blamed for it? GM Kyle Dubas? Head coach Sheldon Keefe? President Brendan Shanahan? I think it all comes down to the off-season in all honesty, as while the Leafs suffered yet another playoff heartbreak, it was with possibly their best core and in possibly the best series they’ve ever played.

Toronto fans are doubtless sick of hearing the same old tune again and again on repeat. On a broken record player. In a house that’s burning down, and that’s basically a summation of all the suffering Leafs fans have had to endure in what is supposed to be the franchise’s brightest years. Yet honestly, I still think the best is to come. me still on the table, as they get set for an interesting and no doubt exciting, 2022-23 season. So as much as Leafs fans are ready with their pitchforks to storm down the core and start a rebuild, the Leafs should similarly look with their heads held high, and the question of bla