Pluses and minuses: Maple Leafs season in review
Mitch Marner slumped at the bench in the final seconds of the Maple Leafs' season-ending 6-1 loss on Sunday was quite the sight.
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But for us, John Tavares's woeful gaze to the heavens after Brad Marchand's overtime winner in Game 3 was the defining image of 2024-25.
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After a great season, beating Ottawa in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and a glorious chance to put the Florida Panthers down 3-0 in the series, Tavares and fellow long-suffering teammate Morgan Rielly were on for the bad-bounce turning point in yet another missed playoff opportunity.
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It was a picture worth 1,000 words, but here's a few more to wrap up the season.
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FIVE NEGATIVES
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Bad enough the Leafs haven't got past the second round in the Core Four era, but the young guns of Shanaplan fame were noticeably absent when it counted.
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Marner, Rielly, Auston Matthews and William Nylander were blanked and have totaled 10 points in six Game 7 defeats, hardly congeneric with their large salaries. We'll take some injuries into consideration, but Tavares was also marginalized as space was reduced in the heavy hitting series against two physical foes. That the five couldn't pool their talents more consistently this and every spring, especially when able to out-score their problems in net and on defence in past regular seasons, was shocking.
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For most of the season, new coach Craig Berube ran a tight ship and achieved accountability from players, a big part of his mandate.
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But he also accepted blame when the Leafs slipped a bit when finishing off the Ottawa Senators and for the first time this year, was at a loss for words Sunday at the home ice collapse for the second time in five days. He couldn't find a the right lines to compensate, while resisting the nuclear option of splitting Matthews and Marner as the series got away.
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Berube got a raw look at what Sheldon Keefe was often up against at crunch time. The long-tenured leadership group which remained intact other than Matthews and Tavares flipping the 'C' and the 'A', is presented as the face of the team and can talk a good game. But answers sound more stale each spring and there will have to be a shake-up if Marner and/or Tavares leave.
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Injuries once more came at the worst possible junctures. The Leafs overcame an early absence of Matthews and he laboured at times all season. With the year ended, he still hasn't revealed what has been wrong to end the rampant speculation.
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Anthony Stolarz was likely concussed after a strong start in the Florida series and never returned. Matthew Knies gutted out the last two games with a lower body injury and locket cleanout this week will reveal who else was hurting through the last weeks of the schedule and playoffs.
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