Empty seats amongst dejected fans are seen during the third period between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers, Wednesday, May 14, 2025.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The really bad news isn’t that the Maple Leafs lost again on Wednesday. It’s that they started out better than they had in Game 4 in Florida, and lost much worse.
By midway through the second, Toronto’s big players were already doing that hands on knees, head bowed thing after whistles. Over on the bench, everyone had some variation of the blank, it’s-happening-again look on their faces.
It’s hard to describe that look, but native Torontonians are able to identify it from a great distance. Like cherry blossoms, it’s particular to this time of year.
An illustrative moment - Mitch Marner passing the puck out of his own end to a Florida player in the neutral zone, then lollygagging back to guard the weak side of his own net. Panther Jesper Boqvist was not lollygagging. That was the goal that sealed it.
That’s about when Leafs coach Craig Berube began cycling through line-ups like a man trying to put a slot machine on tilt. Nothing worked.
Berube started the fourth line to begin the third. The message could not have been clearer if he’d started walking up and down the bench slapping people in the back of the head. It didn’t help. Toronto lost 6-1.
In the end, the only Leafs who distinguished themselves were Pontus Holmberg and Calle Jarnkrok. Both had the good sense to be scratched.
At different points - right after Joseph Woll watched a puck into his own net, the end of the second - the home crowd booed their team, but without gusto. It’s fun during the regular seasons, but in the playoffs? At that point, it’s financial self-harm.
I don’t know what people actually pay for these tickets. A foolish amount, I assume. Still, I feel the teensy, tiniest bit bad for anyone who paid big money to watch The Game That Changed The Story and got treated to a three-hour-long formal surrender instead. The one thing they can’t say is that they didn’t see it coming.
The Florida Panthers thumped the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in their second-round NHL playoff series.
The Canadian Press
On another team, after a loss like this one, at this time of year, the dressing room would have been either funereal (bad) or enraged (better). Not the Leafs. You got a strong mid-November vibe off this group afterward.
“Time to reset, refocus,” said Marner.
On what? Skating backward?
“I don’t have any excuse or explanation,” said Auston Matthews.
If the problem is neither known nor knowable, fixing it could be difficult.
The best any of them could do was allude cryptically to “things that were said in the room.”
I’m guessing that if pep talks, screaming tirades or Maoist struggle sessions could make the Leafs good when it matters, they’ve already have done that.
Berube rolled out his preternaturally calm and collected routine afterward. Usually, that’s reassuring. On Wednesday, it seemed cavalier.
“It’s sports,” he said at one point. “Things happen.”
If that’s actually the case, I’m not sure why the team needs so many coaches.
As Berube continued, the anger began to seep in - “We let ‘em come tonight. We stood around and watched” - but there was no real edge to it.
Almost uniquely in this group, Berube knows what coming from behind to win big in the NHL looks and feels like. So it should probably worry people that he is all of a sudden starting to sound like every other Toronto head coach - some variation of ‘We did our best, we’ll be better and if not, oh well - it’s sports’.
Bobrovsky is now in control of the series, and that’s bad news for the Leafs
Here’s the obligatory acknowledgement that this isn’t over yet. It only seems that way if you’ve been watching the Leafs for more than one calendar year.
It’s possible the Leafs will save their blushes in Florida on Friday. That would set them up for their biggest win in more than thirty years at home on Sunday.
The problem is that nobody in Toronto believes that will happen, and that probably includes the players.
You have to hand it to this group. After getting Ottawa in a headlock and wrestling them (clumsily) to the ground, it did not seem likely that this post-season could end up on a downer.
That’s how low the bar is in Toronto - beating a team in its first playoffs in nine years is good enough to qualify as mission accomplished.
After going up 2-0 on the defending champions, any sort of disappointment no longer seemed possible. Even if it ended badly for the Leafs, they would be going out on their feet for a change.
But this group can always surprise you (by not surprising you). Once again, they find themselves in the position of turning a good news story into a total shambles.
Forget about how many playoffs they’ve messed up. How many playoffs have this generation of Leafs left with their collective dignity intact? One? Two? And those were a while ago.
Every year, thirty-one teams aren’t good enough, but they’re not all disasters. Only the Leafs have this superpower.
At this point, the goal isn’t winning the series. Based on the evidence of the last two games - how poorly the Leafs have been vs. how good the Panthers have been - that’s a pipe dream.
The goal now is playing well in just one contest. Don’t allow three or four terrible goals. Don’t let Max Domi take some of the most knuckle-headed penalties in hockey history. Score a couple, maybe.
Otherwise, the Leafs are headed for another bout of ruthless self-examination, to be followed several long minutes later by acceptance and then whatever fun summer plans they’ve already made.
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube during third period action against the Florida Panthers, Wednesday, May 14, 2025.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press