NHL column: Toronto Maple Leafs execution postponed – sleeping giant fights for his life

Everything was ready in what is known as the capital of ice hockey to follow from a distance how the Toronto Maple Leafs’ current team structure is sinking far from the shores of Lake Ontario. The news of the giant’s death, however, turned out to be premature.

The NHL podcast has had two episodes since last week’s column: a live chat at Svenska Yle’s podcast festival in Turku and our regular Tuesday episode. The Toronto Maple Leafs are covered in both sections.

The NHL playoffs continue to defy logic – which is why the Florida Panthers are the weirdest team of them all

Things are changing fast in Leafs land. Just over a week after the euphoria that swept Toronto as the Maple Leafs won their first playoff series in 19 years, the discontent, disappointment and anger reached new heights. Or new abysses is perhaps the right description.

The boast of “The Big Four” – Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander – lost the first three games against the defeated Florida Panthers and awaited its death sentence on Wednesday night in Sunrise Florida, 2,300 km from Toronto.

The media in Toronto – especially the powerful media house Sportsnet’s all platforms – published scathing criticism, in-depth analysis and emotional discussions on a continuous basis after loss number three to the Panthers.

Journalists, analysts, fans – all agreed on one thing: the current Maple Leafs will receive their death sentence (if and) when Florida crushes Toronto’s playoff dreams. No one in the organization is safe and many will have to go. Both star players and esteemed high achievers.

The frenzy of victory knocked hopes through the roof

The taste of success, the victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, seems to have even made the disappointment greater. Before the playoffs, it was clear that another exit in the first round would blow up the team building.

Then came the long-awaited victory after a strong-willed effort against the team that had played in the final for the last three seasons and the appetite grew enormous in an instant. Florida was dismissed in the analyzes as a lightweight and the road to the Stanley Cup was wide, lit and open.

No one was satisfied anymore that the playoff demons had been exorcised. A taste of the sweetness of victory instead awakened dormant feelings of real success. About the second most successful organization in NHL history that would regain its dignity.

When the already swallowed treat suddenly got stuck in the esophagus, the reactions became more bitter than ever before.

Then the dreams and the hope of success were given continuation time at the last possible moment.

“The Wall” came out of nowhere

A myth that seems to hold true is that the hardest victory to take is the fourth. On the night of Thursday in Florida, it seemed as if the teams changed jerseys. Suddenly it was the Leafs who were more restrained in the melee, more compact and sacrificial in the defensive game – and had a wall in the goal.

Joseph Woll, who since the start of the 2021 season had guarded the Leafs’ goal in a total of 11 regular season and 0 playoff games, had to jump into game three when Ilja Samsonov was injured. The horror scenario came true and Florida turned the game around when Woll guarded the cage.

On top of that, Matt Murray, the Leafs’ new acquisition last summer, was injured in early April and has just practiced his first sessions – rusty was the word. With that, Toronto once again ended up in a goaltending nightmare during the most important moment of the season.

Now it seemed that Woll was the safety himself in game number four, the fateful game, and contributed greatly to the Leafs reducing the game series to 1–3. And in typical Toronto fashion, it became clear that here he is now: the goalie god we’ve been waiting for.

If the Leafs win one more game, this text is guaranteed not to be alone in naming the 24-year-old Missourian “The Wall”. Or then not. Woll certainly wouldn’t be the first Leafs keeper to be elevated, celebrated and smashed to smithereens in no time.

Team play returned and the superstars shot the goals

A big part of the goaltending being successful and the Leafs only allowing one goal was how the team defended. Suddenly, the rough team play, which in the regular season caused the Leafs to have brilliant defensive numbers, was back.

Shots were blocked, the center lane was firmly defended and the Leafs players had strong and long sticks below their own blue. Florida’s players rarely got good shots away or on target from the best sector. Everyone on the Maple Leafs contributed to helping their goaltender succeed.

It was also extremely important for the team’s confidence and chemistry that both of Toronto’s goals were scored by members of “The Big Four” club. Criticized William Nylander scored the vital first goal and totally saw Mitch Marner’s lucky shot doubled the lead.

In game four, the most critical pieces fell into place: the close matches, the team defense, the goaltending and the production of the stars.

Was it a crossroads in the series, or the exception to the rule? We’ll see when the story’s next chapter opens Saturday night in Toronto.

Nobody should count on the fact that the home arena will give the Leafs a tailwind. The crowd, the people of Toronto, the entire “Leafs Nation” and the local media are ready to activate the current team’s death sentence immediately upon loss and exit from the playoffs.

All mentioned have their finger on the execution button from the first drop – and no one hesitates to press it at the bottom. Then heads start rolling.

The General Manager will not survive

Kyle Dubas, Toronto’s only 37-year-old general manager, is a near-certain casualty if and when the Maple Leafs fall to Florida.

The success model that is built around the “big four”, whose salaries eat up 40 million of the total allowed salary sum of 83 million, is Duba’s creation. After each first-round exit, he has stood behind his core group and kept his mouth dry about the process.

Last spring, Dubas himself also made a demand on the team and himself as general manager: in 2023, success must come – the time for explanations is over.

The victory over Tampa already seemed to give Dubas and his team building a continuation. And if Toronto was now about to be eliminated by the superior regular season one Boston Bruins, it would not be a death sentence for the current Leafs. But going out to Florida is too much.

Kyle Dubas will be fired within days if the Panthers knock off the Leafs.

Others who can go?

The same probably applies to coach Sheldon Keefe. He is very much Duba’s man and in the first three games against Florida was coached out with notice by Paul Maurice. Only one win in the series saves Keefe as coach of the Maple Leafs.

Neither said the chief operating officer, Brendan Shanahan, has the confidence of the owners. The former great player (never played for the Leafs) has now had nine years to deliver results. His much talked about “Shanaplan” is beginning to seem more and more like a gossipy motto without substance.

The stars then? Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander are players of the highest NHL class. At least in the regular season. In the playoffs, however, they have not managed to bear their responsibility for the result in the decisive moments – the same shrinking in important moments has been repeated spring after spring.

At least one of the quartet is gone this fall if the Leafs now leave. That it is not the superstar Auston Matthews must be certain. In other words, it feels quite impossible to try to sell to either the owners or the paying public a summer without changes on the star front.

Who will be the new sheriffs in town?

Who makes the decisions – that is of course the key question. If Shanahan stays, it’s his job to first fire Dubas and then find a new general manager. And maybe regret deeply that he didn’t fire Dubas already last winter and hire Barry Trotz instead. Now Trotz is the new GM in Nashville.

If Shanahan is shown the door, the restructuring begins to flow through the organization from the top – new CEO, new general manager, new coach and changes in the team’s core squad.

In either case, whether the top vacancy is CEO or GM, it will once again be the start of a new era, a new plan for success—new leadership in a stormy organization that just can’t seem to create success.

But maybe the Maple Leafs will get up at nine after all and face Florida. Then you can forget about everything in this text – until Toronto is in danger of going out in the next round.

Thank you for reading.