Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews and teammates Mitchell Marner and Jack Campbell skate off in dejection at the end of the third period against the Montreal Canadiens, in Toronto, May 31, 2021.The Canadian Press
Wayne Gretzky understands the torment of Leafs Nation. On Tuesday, the day after the Toronto Maple Leafs lost Game 7 to the Montreal Canadiens and again failed to advance to the second round of the playoffs, he said that his friends and family in Southern Ontario were “all distraught … in shock.” But he won’t join critics who are piling on.
“I thought both teams played pretty hard. Just a one-goal difference here and there,” Gretzky said during a telephone interview. “I thought when they came back from 3-0 [in Game 5, before losing to the Habs in overtime], that might have been the [turning point].” But, he added, “It’s tough. That’s why I always tell people, there’s four seasons: Exhibition games, then the [regular-season] league games, then the first three rounds of the playoffs, and then the finals. They’re all four different levels of competition. It’s tough, it’s a grind. That’s why, when you lift the trophy, it’s pretty special.”
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Gretzky, who played before the NHL’s hard salary cap was introduced in 2005, said the quality of players is distributed pretty evenly across most of the league now. “The parity in professional sports today, whether it’s golf, tennis, hockey with the salary cap, basketball, football with the salary cap – you know, there’s too many good athletes.”
And he urged Leafs fans to take it easy on the players, including Mitch Marner, who has come in for special vitriol because of his failure to produce during years of postseason attempts. “He’s still a young kid and he’s a good hockey player, and I know what he’s feeling,” Gretzky said. “I went through it when we were in Edmonton and we lost four straight to the Islanders [in the 1983 Stanley Cup final]. It’s not fun.”
Still, he acknowledged that the slings and arrows Marner is dealing with are all part of the job. “If you’re going to take the roses, you’ve got to sometimes take the heat. He’s a big enough kid, he’s a big enough person, he’ll bounce back, and I’m sure he’ll be fine.”