The Morning After

Last night the Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Again.

Unlike many of my fellow fans the emotion I felt last night wasn’t anger, it wasn’t even sadness, it was just a sort of quiet resignation. It is the morning after another heartbreaking loss, although this one wasn’t as heartbreaking because at least we didn’t give up another 4–1 lead, and oddly it’s somewhat more comforting that we never led in this game.

I am normally quite vocal on Twitter, to be honest more often in defense of the team and its players, and somewhat often this year critical of the coaching. Last night was different, I made a comment or two but decided this was not a good time for me to Tweet. So I just read a bit and let it go.

It is now the morning after. I have had more than one coffee and feel of better mind to put my thoughts together. In the previous two losses in game 7 I staring at the screen thinking “No, something is wrong, it can’t be over, they were offside right?” That feeling took a while to go away each time, that feeling didn’t happen last night. It was over, we lost and the season is done.

What went wrong?

It’s easy to point fingers, many are pointing them at Jake again, the disgusting among you actually went on his Instagram and acted like assholes again. I really wish those people would just go away entirely. But one mistake does not lose a series, and honestly Jake was pretty solid for playing the entire series hurt. Yes, it was an ugly mistake, but to be somewhat fair that entire line failed him. Zero support. Anyway I digress.

You could point the finger at Freddie again, 2 of the 3 goals he allowed were horrible. But yet again do we even get to this point without him? Should we have even been in game 7 given his game 5 and 6 heroics? I doubt it.

Many want to blame Nylander, but he had a very good series. Again one major gaff on that goal in… whatever game it was, but again not entirely his fault. He was throwing hits, 10 to be exact which given how “soft” he gets called isn’t insignificant. He backed up his D, fought hard for pucks. He wasn’t the issue either, regardless of what the idiot Sportsnet panel has to say.

So what went wrong?

You can point fingers at the coaching, and somewhat deservedly so, when you are in a game 7 why are you saving your stars? Why are you playing a full bench when you’re down one, then two? Why are you not acknowledging the chemistry we know exists between Nylander and Matthews? Why are you playing the wonderful, but clearly has lost a step, Patrick Marleau in crucial points of the game? How can you take what should be a can’t miss power play and turn it into a dud? How does Auston Matthews play under 19 minutes?

You can’t point at “grit”, this team showed a lot of grit. They fought hard for 7 games, they were nearly perfect in 2 of those 7 and great in 6 of them in my opinion. They out hit the Bruins in every game, every single one.

You can’t really complain about the defense either. They were good, even the much maligned Nikita Zaitsev had arguably his best 7 games of the last 2 years. Muzzin was as advertised, the grey bearded Hainsey stepped up.

How did this go so wrong?

The Bruins are good. Very good. The Leafs are good. Very good. Mistakes were made, at nearly every aspect of the game from both teams at times. The difference here? It wasn’t heart, the Bruins didn’t “want it more”. The Leafs made their mistakes at bad times and it hurt them. They don’t quite have that killer instinct yet. They are however getting there. Two years ago this team couldn’t hold a lead. This year they went 39–0–1 overall when entering the third with a lead. That is a major step forward!

What’s next?

I don’t know, Kyle Dubas has some work to do signing RFA’s and perhaps shoring up the defense still. Mike Babcock and crew have to be asked some serious questions and perhaps some or all of this coaching team needs to be addressed, because honestly usage is an issue with this team. When even the Bruin’s players are commenting on being confused about lines and adjustments there might be a concern there.

But what I do know is losing this series did not magically make this team worse or bad. I think they showed a lot of heart and grit, I think they played well and yes, they’re still young. Our grizzled old man (not Hainsey) on the blue line turned 25 this year. Our core is mostly 21–25. They have time to learn and get better together.

Our window is still just opening, let’s not forget that, as hard as it is on this day in particular.

I am in.

Are you?