After a lacklustre showing against the Ottawa Senators in Game 5 of the first round series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs have once again put the entire nation in panic mode. Many have witnessed the Leafs’ collapses in recent memory, dating back from their matchup against the Montreal Canadiens during the COVID era and all the way to their encounters with the Boston Bruins.
But because the Maple Leafs were once up 3-0 in this current series against the Senators, they better make sure that they don’t become a part of NHL history. In addition, a potential series loss of epic proportions could significantly affect the team’s psyche and winning mentality going forward. However, if they somehow manage to do the unthinkable and let it happen, which Leafs should be gone immediately right after blowing the series? Here, we will take a look at five candidates that would suffer the fateful consequences.
5 Leafs who should be gone if they blow this first-round series against the Senators
Max Pacioretty
When the Leafs added former star winger Max Pacioretty to their roster this year after a successful professional tryout, they were hoping that he could somehow rediscover some of his prior dominant form that had made him an offensive force to be reckoned with for many seasons. Even if he turned out to be half as good and played solidly to provide some much-needed secondary scoring depth, Toronto would likely be happy with their investment.
However, following a strong start to his 2024-25 NHL campaign, Pacioretty’s tenure with the Leafs has been plagued by injuries and ineffectiveness for the most part over the course of the season. In the end, the 36-year-old veteran winger recorded just five goals and eight assists for 13 points over 37 games played during the regular season. That included a huge dry spell in which he went pointless during the entire month of January.
Inserted into the playoff lineup for the Leafs starting from Game 3 of the series, they were hoping Pacioretty could provide a much-needed spark to ignite the offense from their bottom-six. Unfortunately, he has been highly invisible during his time on the ice, as he has been held pointless in three games while. More significantly, Pacioretty has sported just a 39.5 percent CF% and a dismal 27.4 percent expected goals rate during 5-on-5 situations, suppressing any type of offensive momentum that the Leafs would generate as a result.
It has now become obvious the Pacioretty revitalization experiment has failed, so he will likely be one of the first ones to be gone from the Leafs organization if they suffer the surprising early exit at the hands of the Senators.