Everything has changed in the span of a week for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the attendant consequences that come with two consecutive losses to an inferior, provincial rival are mounting. Game 6 against the Ottawa Senators is the most important contest of the Core Four era, where Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander are tasked with leading the Maple Leafs to victory in a hostile environment, as a loss would surely dictate the most hostile environment this group has ever encountered.
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube tried to downplay the notion that Thursday’s result rests on the shoulders of his extraordinarily talented forward quartet — which could be extended to Matthew Knies as well, although he isn’t subject to the same weight of cumulative disappointment stemming from past exits.
“It’s on everybody on the team,” Berube said during Wednesday’s media availability. “I get it. That’s all I hear around here: core, core, core, the Core Four. But it’s on everybody on the team. We’re a team, it’s on the whole team. It’s not just four guys.”
It’s a kind gesture, and while the Maple Leafs’ lack of depth scoring has been their most consistent flaw throughout the year, we simply have to disagree with Berube. It’s incumbent upon the Maple Leafs’ core to rise to the occasion and eliminate an inexperienced Senators team that is gaining confidence with every game. This was the reward for finishing atop the Atlantic Division and considering that Matthews and Marner are coming off a nightmare game where they were on the ice for all four goals allowed (in fairness, two of the four goals were empty-netters, but the point still remains) there are few excuses for the team’s headliners.
There’s a steady chronology surrounding the Leafs during the Matthews-Marner era. During the 2016-17 playoffs, the Leafs were merely happy to be there against an experienced Washington Capitals side that would go on to win the Stanley Cup the following year. Two consecutive losses in Game 7 against the Boston Bruins hardened the group to outside noise. Toronto may have reached its lowest point against the Columbus Blue Jackets during a first-round loss in 2020, but it reached its nadir after squandering a 3-1 series lead to the Montreal Canadiens. The following seasons resulted in a hard-fought seven-game loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a five-game upset at the hands of the upstart Florida Panthers, who are now the class of the conference and await the Leafs if they advance to the second round, and another seven-game loss to the Bruins. There are no excuses for this group, and this would constitute the worst loss since the 2021 collapse against the Canadiens, only that it would compound, with Marner, Tavares and Knies all requiring new contracts.
You could read into this as the byproduct of fear and anxiety, as every member of the Core Four is averaging a point-per-game or better, but that would ignore the circumstances. After taking a commanding 3-0 series lead against the Senators, where the Maple Leafs were winning all the key battles outside of the shot differential, it appeared this was a different group under Berube’s supervision, focused on chance mitigation and grinding out goals in high-danger areas. And this series very well could’ve been a sweep, but the Leafs lost in overtime, before getting embarrassed on home ice in Game 5. Surrendering a 3-0 lead against a Senators team that is back in the playoffs for the first time in eight years is an unthinkable outcome, and it would make for a deeply uncomfortable Game 7, with legacies on the line.
It’s time for the Leafs’ Core Four to put their stamp on the series. Matthews and Marner were excellent throughout the first four games of the series, before their form tailed off, while Nylander and Tavares surely have an extra gear in them, while facing second-line competition throughout the series. A win makes all the above moot, but as currently presented, this is the most important game of the Core Four era. It’s time for Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander to deliver.