This only allowed him to grow into the game.īut when Panthers defenceman Radko Gudas took an interference penalty and skated to the penalty box, he smashed his stick off the glass in anger. As the first period wore on, the Leafs continued their momentum, firing quick shot after shot on Sergei Bobrovsky. What they saw was Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad get on the board with an early first-period goal. As the anthem kicked in, he stood alone, his back up against the wall, staring at a screen, while his associates took their seats. The team opted to continue those kinds of conversations and stay together in a hotel in Toronto ahead of Game 5 at home to maintain that sense of unity.Īs warmups concluded on Friday night, Mitch Marner was the last one off the ice per usual, and after he flipped his last puck into the crowd, he skipped off the ice and to a waiting Leafs vice president of media relations, Steve Keogh, who immediately threw a set of headphones on him to fulfill the team’s pregame availabilities with rightsholders.Ībove the rink, Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas was joined by the same people who often join him high above the ice including assistant general managers Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy and special assistant Jason Spezza.ĭubas appeared light and buoyant pregame, laughing with Hardy. They had spent time together on the beach in Fort Lauderdale and held plenty of talks about what went wrong and how to rescue their season. The Leafs returned from Florida with the intention of maintaining a sense of unity as the world around them seemed to be collapsing. “We lost the series in the first three games,” Keefe said conclusively after Game 5. Yes, the Leafs won Game 4, forcing the series back to Toronto and providing fans with a glimmer of hope. How did a season that seemed so promising just days earlier now feel like it was on the brink of collapse and ultimately, failure? How did a Leafs team known for producing offence continue to come up short in the first three games of the series, pushing them to the brink? The Leafs lost a must-win Game 3 in Florida and for the third game in a row had scored a measly two goals. These are the scenes of anger and sadness from the end of a series that could very well alter the future of the franchise. “We believe we had a team good enough to win the Stanley Cup,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. But instead, an upstart Panthers team stopped the Leafs dead in their tracks. This is the beginning of the end for the Leafs as we know them: Īfter defeating the Lightning and winning a playoff series and then not having the Bruins standing in their way, the Leafs could see the road toward their ultimate goal. He left a room wrought with sadness and instability, as Simmonds will likely be one of many Leafs who will see their time in Toronto come to a close.įriday’s wild 3-2 overtime loss could end up marking the end of an era for arguably the most talented but equally disappointing core in franchise history. But as the clock slowly pressed toward midnight, Simmonds could only take what could be one last look at his dressing room stall before turning and exiting.
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