If the Toronto Maple Leafs get swept and lose in the second round of the playoffs, except a ton of changes.
It’s crazy what a week can do for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Doesn’t it feel like it was ages ago that we were celebrating the first round win against the Tampa Bay Lightning?
For the first time in 19 years, the Leafs were in the second round and things were going to be different. The curse was broken and this franchise wasn’t a laughing-stock anymore, but here we are.
We’re somehow in the same place that we’ve been for the past 19 years as this team is on the verge of getting swept. I understand that Sergei Bobrovsky is playing great but the Leafs should not be down 3-0.
For those of you saying that Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander have just been unlucky during this three-game stretch, you’re delusional. The effort is not there and it was full-display for Game 3.
Marner and Matthews were invisible, when they should have had the greatest game of their lives. Instead, they looked content going off into the sunset cashing their $10-plus million cheques and spending next week on the golf course.
It was an ugly performance and as a result, there needs to be consequences if they lose and especially if they get swept. You can make the argument that the Washington Capitals never broke up their core and ran it back during Alex Ovechkin’s prime, which eventually resulted in a Stanley Cup, but Ovechkin is a competitor and top-10 player of all-time.
Even when they lost, he was performing at a high-level and would hit everyone in sight. This core is soft as butter and don’t play like that, so it’s time to make some changes if they get swept.