- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 560,101
- Reaction score
- 48
There's a lot of blame to go around for the way this era of the Toronto Maple Leafs has ended.
For a reasonable sports fan, one would expect the blame to be placed at the feet of the players who played in yet another disappointing Game 7 as the team has lost its eighth winner-take-all game in a row. Or for the blame to shift towards Toronto's management, who signed the team's Core Four — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares — to massive contracts that left no wiggle room to add sufficient depth should the team's big-time scorers struggle.
Instead, blame for this latest failure in a long, extensive list of Maple Leafs' misery is falling on ... the fans?
Coming out of Sunday night's Game 7, Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand told the reporters that he thinks Maple Leafs fans and Toronto media have added extra pressure and stress to the team that isn't present in other cities. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice added to the narrative as well with his post-game comments on the situation, saying that the pressure comes at a "cost".
This "pressure" is all seemingly anyone can talk about coming out of Sunday night's Game 7. Even Matthew Tkachuk thinks that the Maple Leafs would be phenominal without the "circus" surrounding the team.
It's a real strange line the Panthers are sticking to coming out of the series, but this isn't a new talking point when it comes to the Maple Leafs. This is a narrative that's haunted the Core Four era of the Maple Leafs and it's only gotten stronger with each series loss and playoff failure in the years since.
But, shifting the blame for the Maple Leafs' copious failures over the years from the players and management to the fans is such a sorry excuse that it's not even funny. It's hardly even worth entertaining as a legitimate talking point, yet here we are because it's completely blown up since Sunday's Game 7.
Let's look at the facts. Since 2018, the Maple Leafs' longest tenured players — Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Morgan Rielly — have fallen completely flat in their career in Game 7, scoring three goals between them in six games.
Taking an even wider view, the stats pan out even worse. Since 2019, in Games 5, 6, and 7 of a playoff series, the Maple Leafs' stars have flat-out failed to produce any meaningful offense when the team needs them the most.
Take a look at that last stat one more time. Mitch Marner has ZERO GOALS in 20 late-series games in his NHL career. That is, frankly, unacceptable for a player making $10.9 million per season.
Marner is, deservedly, getting a lot of criticism for disappearing in the playoffs over the years. This also isn't a new talking point either, but it's rearing its head with more force this go around given Marner is an unrestricted free agent this summer and likely won't be re-signing in Toronto considering how the last seven years went.
Plus, there's the added wrinkle that Marner reportedly nixed a trade to the Carolina Hurricanes this year by invoking his no-move clause in a deal that would have sent Mikko Rantanen to the Maple Leafs. Yes, that Mikko Rantanen who has lit up the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with nine goals in 13 games played so far as the Dallas Stars advance on to the Western Conference Final.
Matthews is also taking his fair share of criticism for his lack of offense and his lack of leadership as the team's captain, especially in the face of his "too many passengers" comment after the Game 7 loss.
Not only that, we can't forget the architect behind this roster: Brendan Shanahan. The Maple Leafs President of Hockey Operations has been in place since 2014 and has decided that multiple kicks at the can with this core was the best course of action. As shown time and time again, this mix just doesn't work in Toronto and yet, Shanahan continued to run it back year after year in hopes of getting a different result.
Yet, in the face of all of this, all of these arguments and stats to prove where the blame lies, people have still found a way to blame the Maple Leafs' failures on the fans.
The pressure in Toronto is immense, yes, but it's only become that way because this team has failed repeatedly in the same manner time and time again. Fans have screamed for changes for years. Before the Core Four, fans were frustrated at the Maple Leafs' mediocrity as they missed the playoffs 10 out of 11 seasons in a row. Toronto hasn't hoisted a Stanley Cup since 1967 so it's no wonder that there's pressure to win from fans!
Still, countless other sports teams deal with pressure from their fans and the media in their city. Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston are considered just a few of the high-pressure sports markets to play in, yet these cities have all found success in spite of this. The Philadelphia Eagles. The Chicago Blackhawks. The Boston Celtics. All winners despite having rabid fanbases that place immense pressure on their teams.
So, if other sports cities can produce winners, why not the Toronto Maple Leafs? Is it really just the fans? Or, is it the players who have shown time and time again that they just don't have another gear in the playoffs. Players that just don't have the It Factor™ that so many teams do that allows them to thrive under pressure and come out the other side as winners.
But yeah, keep on blaming Maple Leafs fans for the team's failures. Sounds about right to me.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Maple Leafs fans don’t deserve blame for team’s history of failures
Continue reading...
For a reasonable sports fan, one would expect the blame to be placed at the feet of the players who played in yet another disappointing Game 7 as the team has lost its eighth winner-take-all game in a row. Or for the blame to shift towards Toronto's management, who signed the team's Core Four — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares — to massive contracts that left no wiggle room to add sufficient depth should the team's big-time scorers struggle.
Instead, blame for this latest failure in a long, extensive list of Maple Leafs' misery is falling on ... the fans?
Coming out of Sunday night's Game 7, Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand told the reporters that he thinks Maple Leafs fans and Toronto media have added extra pressure and stress to the team that isn't present in other cities. Panthers head coach Paul Maurice added to the narrative as well with his post-game comments on the situation, saying that the pressure comes at a "cost".
This "pressure" is all seemingly anyone can talk about coming out of Sunday night's Game 7. Even Matthew Tkachuk thinks that the Maple Leafs would be phenominal without the "circus" surrounding the team.
It's a real strange line the Panthers are sticking to coming out of the series, but this isn't a new talking point when it comes to the Maple Leafs. This is a narrative that's haunted the Core Four era of the Maple Leafs and it's only gotten stronger with each series loss and playoff failure in the years since.
But, shifting the blame for the Maple Leafs' copious failures over the years from the players and management to the fans is such a sorry excuse that it's not even funny. It's hardly even worth entertaining as a legitimate talking point, yet here we are because it's completely blown up since Sunday's Game 7.
Let's look at the facts. Since 2018, the Maple Leafs' longest tenured players — Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Morgan Rielly — have fallen completely flat in their career in Game 7, scoring three goals between them in six games.
Taking an even wider view, the stats pan out even worse. Since 2019, in Games 5, 6, and 7 of a playoff series, the Maple Leafs' stars have flat-out failed to produce any meaningful offense when the team needs them the most.
Take a look at that last stat one more time. Mitch Marner has ZERO GOALS in 20 late-series games in his NHL career. That is, frankly, unacceptable for a player making $10.9 million per season.
Marner is, deservedly, getting a lot of criticism for disappearing in the playoffs over the years. This also isn't a new talking point either, but it's rearing its head with more force this go around given Marner is an unrestricted free agent this summer and likely won't be re-signing in Toronto considering how the last seven years went.
Plus, there's the added wrinkle that Marner reportedly nixed a trade to the Carolina Hurricanes this year by invoking his no-move clause in a deal that would have sent Mikko Rantanen to the Maple Leafs. Yes, that Mikko Rantanen who has lit up the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with nine goals in 13 games played so far as the Dallas Stars advance on to the Western Conference Final.
Matthews is also taking his fair share of criticism for his lack of offense and his lack of leadership as the team's captain, especially in the face of his "too many passengers" comment after the Game 7 loss.
Not only that, we can't forget the architect behind this roster: Brendan Shanahan. The Maple Leafs President of Hockey Operations has been in place since 2014 and has decided that multiple kicks at the can with this core was the best course of action. As shown time and time again, this mix just doesn't work in Toronto and yet, Shanahan continued to run it back year after year in hopes of getting a different result.
Yet, in the face of all of this, all of these arguments and stats to prove where the blame lies, people have still found a way to blame the Maple Leafs' failures on the fans.
The pressure in Toronto is immense, yes, but it's only become that way because this team has failed repeatedly in the same manner time and time again. Fans have screamed for changes for years. Before the Core Four, fans were frustrated at the Maple Leafs' mediocrity as they missed the playoffs 10 out of 11 seasons in a row. Toronto hasn't hoisted a Stanley Cup since 1967 so it's no wonder that there's pressure to win from fans!
Still, countless other sports teams deal with pressure from their fans and the media in their city. Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston are considered just a few of the high-pressure sports markets to play in, yet these cities have all found success in spite of this. The Philadelphia Eagles. The Chicago Blackhawks. The Boston Celtics. All winners despite having rabid fanbases that place immense pressure on their teams.
So, if other sports cities can produce winners, why not the Toronto Maple Leafs? Is it really just the fans? Or, is it the players who have shown time and time again that they just don't have another gear in the playoffs. Players that just don't have the It Factor™ that so many teams do that allows them to thrive under pressure and come out the other side as winners.
But yeah, keep on blaming Maple Leafs fans for the team's failures. Sounds about right to me.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Maple Leafs fans don’t deserve blame for team’s history of failures
Continue reading...
