The hurt. 

 

The pain.

 

The understanding that there will be unwanted and painful consequences. 

 

All were etched onto Morgan Rielly’s face and was evident in his voice around eleven o’clock Friday night when he met with reporters inside Scotiabank Arena after yet another Toronto Maple Leafs season came to an unsatisfying end.

 

Rielly and the Leafs, a few minutes prior, had dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round series between the Atlantic Division teams. 

 

Along with the game, Toronto lost the series 4-1. And, perhaps in doing so, closed the door on this iteration of the Leafs.

 

Which, for, all intents and purposes, was the question posed to the defenseman after the game.

   

“That’s not up to me to decide,” Rielly said, often pausing between words to swallow sobs. “We’re proud of our season. The things we were able to do over the course of it. I love these guys. I don’t…I don’t want anything to change.”

 

Except the choice is not his to make. Rather, it will be made at the executive level of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. 

 

And among the arguments which will be made is that the Leafs have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in seven straight seasons but have only one second round appearance to show for it, and that the only division championship this group has won came in the COVID-19 forced realignment 2020-21 season.

 

The Leafs won the NHL’s North Division, which was comprised of the league’s seven Canadian teams.

 

Eventually, deep playoff runs are expected. Especially when you have earmarked $40.42 million of the $83.5 million salary cap space to top-end forwards Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitchell Marner, and William Nylander.

 

“We all got years left on our contract,” Marner said after the Game 5 loss. “It’s not up to us but we have a lot of belief in this group, we have a lot of belief in that core and it sucks right now, but we’ve got belief.”

 

Belief is important. So, too, is production. And that was a significant issue for the Leafs and their stars. 

 

At first glance, the foursome did contribute offensively in the Leafs’ just-concluded playoff run. Marner (three goals and 11 assists) finished with 14 points in 11 games. Matthews (five goals and six assists) had 11 points in 11 games. Nylander (four goals and six assists) checked in with 10 points in 11 games.  Tavares (four goals and four assists) had eight points in 11 games.

 

But the foursome combined for a slash line of three goals and six assists for nine points in the five games against the Panthers with Nylander (game-tying goal) and Tavares (primary assist on Nylander’s game-tying goal) recording points in Game 5. 

 

Nylander (2-1-3) and Marner (1-2-3) had three points apiece in the series; Matthews contributed two assists; Tavares had just one point. 

 

“Just a play or two here or there,” Tavares said, when asked what he thought was the difference in the series. “Some of that execution and obviously two overtime games didn’t go our way. Just capitalizing…on our chances and obviously could be in a different spot right now.”

 

A best-of-seven playoff series is, by its format, a significantly smaller sample size than an 82-game regular season schedule. 

 

But it is instructive to know that Tavares was a point-a-game player in the regular season (36-44-80 in 80 games); that Nylander finished with 87 points (40 goals and 47 assists) in 82 games; that Matthews, in an injury-shortened season, finished with 85 points (40 goals and 45 assists) in 74 games; that Marner had 99 points (30 goals and 69 assists) in 80 games.

 

When he sat down for his postgame press conference, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said he believed his team lost the series in Games 1-3, before acknowledging the reality.

 

“We believed we had a team good enough to win the Stanley Cup and we didn’t do that,” Keefe said. “There’s eight teams left playing in the second round and I think all eight go in with the belief that they can win the Stanley Cup, and seven of them are going to be disappointed. We’re one of those teams that’s disappointed.” 

 

Indeed, but the question – which can only be answered by the MLSE Executive Board  –is whether it believes a franchise overseen by team president Brendan Shanahan, constructed by GM Kyle Dubas, coached by Keefe, and led by Tavares, Nylander, Matthews, and Marner can reasonably expect to compete for Toronto’s first Stanley Cup since 1967. Or if changes have to be made.

 

Over the course of the playoffs, speculation persisted that Dubas and Keefe could be fired. A second-round series loss will likely not quell the rumors. Matthews ($11.6 million) and Nylander ($6.9 million) are unrestricted free agents after next season; Tavares ($11 million) and Marner ($10.9 million) will be UFAs following the 2024-25 season.

 

And with the likelihood that the NHL salary cap ceiling will only raise by $1 million (from $82.5 million to $83.5 million) for next season, it seems likely that at least one of Toronto’s Core Four could find themselves plying their trade elsewhere in 2023-24.

 

Which wasn’t lost on anyone affiliated with the Leafs. 

 

“Look around the room,” Matthews said. “Every guy battles for each other, works for each other, and this is as tight of a group I’ve played on in my seven years. I’ve played with some really great people, some really great teammates, and had some really tight groups. But it stings obviously to go out like that and not get another opportunity to get another crack at it [with] these guys.”