Maple Leafs' legacy, future could hinge on Game 6 vs. Panthers

TORONTO -- Almost exactly a year ago, incoming Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley delivered a strong statement on his vision for the Toronto Maple Leafs after yet another first-round exit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“There’s no complacency. We’re not here to sell jerseys. We’re here to win,” Kelly proclaimed on May 10, 2024.

On Wednesday, 369 days after making that statement, Pelley watched an Auston Matthews Maple Leafs jersey chucked onto the ice by a disgruntled fan, a flagrant statement of disgust at the team’s listless performance in a 6-1 defeat to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Scotiabank Arena.

The loss put them on the brink of another early exit from the playoffs, this after winning the first two games of the series.

It’s certainly not part of the blueprint Pelley and the Maple Leafs hierarchy had in mind.

Or is expected to put up with.

As such, the legacy of this edition of the Maple Leafs, one that has featured a core of forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and defenseman Morgan Rielly since 2018, could be cemented in the next few days.

These Maple Leafs can change the narrative of being an underachieving postseason team by coming back and winning this best-of-7 series against the defending Stanley Cup champions, a quest that will start with Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Do that, and anything else they accomplish in the 2025 playoffs will likely be seen as a bonus.

But if they get eliminated with a loss in either Game 6 in Florida or Game 7 at home on Sunday, there could be huge changes in the works. The band could very well break up.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the Maple Leafs’ loss in Game 5 were the poor optics, highlighted by fans starting to leave Scotiabank Arena in the second period. The jersey toss only added to it.

“It’s tough to see (that happen),” Rielly said Thursday. “They have the right to do what they want to do.

“And for us, you know, we have to improve and play better. I mean, we expect to have a team that is going to go out there and win and compete. And when that doesn’t happen, everyone's upset.”

If anyone has reason to be, it’s coach Craig Berube.

From the moment he replaced Sheldon Keefe on May 17 of last year, there was a vow that this team would be different, from style to attitude to effort. During his many availabilities with the media over the course of the season, Berube continuously stressed two points: the need to play north-south and the importance of winning puck battles.

After defeating the Ottawa Senators in six games in the first round and winning Games 1 and 2 of this series, Toronto has shown less and less of those qualities with each passing game, culminating in the ugly Game 5 loss. The perplexing dilemma here: why have the players stopped practicing what their coach has been preaching, especially when they proved earlier in the series that those tactics work?

“It’s obviously disappointing for everybody, players included,” Berube said Thursday. “They want to do well. They want to do the right thing. But sometimes when you go into a game, and it’s a big game, and we’re at home, we overthink things.

“You’ve got to trust your structure and your system. That takes care about the thinking. Then, just play. Take the thinking out. Go play. Be aggressive. You can’t not be aggressive. And you have to get numbers in there.”

He then paused to formulate a proclamation.

“We’ll be better in Game 6,” he said.

They’ll have to be.

Otherwise, changes could be coming fast and furious.

Berube and Brad Treliving, who is in his second season as Toronto GM, appear to be safe. The Maple Leafs (52-26-4) finished first in the Atlantic Division with 108 points in Berube’s first season behind the bench. Treliving solidified the team’s blue line with the free-agent signing of Oliver Ekman-Larsson last offseason, trading for Chris Tanev at last year’s NHL draft and trading for Brandon Carlo at this year’s NHL Trade Deadline.

But what of team president Brendan Shanahan? Since being hired for the position on April 11, 2014, the Maple Leafs have just two postseason series wins despite the presence of high-end talent like Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander.

And what about players like Marner and Tavares, each of whom will be eligible to become unrestricted free agents on July 1. Will they be back, especially Marner, who could get at least $13 million annually in his next contract if he hits the open market.

All season long, there was a vibe that this team was different. And when the Maple Leafs got past the first round, there was growing belief that, yes, maybe it was.

The real litmus test, however, would come against the Panthers.

And in the latter part of this matchup, especially in the past two games, when they've been outscored 8-1, it’s looked eerily the same for a franchise that has not advanced past the second round in 23 years.

Nylander is contractually looked up through 2032, Matthews through 2028. After that, all bets are off.

In January the NHL and NHLPA announced that the team payroll ranges for 2027-28 would have an Upper Limit of $113.5 million. With NHL salary cap space growing that quickly, will the Maple Leafs decide to move on from the guts of their roster, Matthews and Nylander aside, and head in a different direction?

The current edition of the Maple Leafs can make that question moot by winning the next two games and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2002 when they met the Carolina Hurricanes. Under that scenario, it would seem to be full speed ahead.

Get eliminated, however, in the wake of the moribund performance in Game 5 that left fans livid, and a makeover could be in the works.

It was, after all, not the type of performance that Pelley ever imagined.

Let alone is likely to put up with.