And who on the Leafs will be doing the forechecking? As for grit, I can't wait until this argument falls away. Is Dallas gritty? The Rangers? This idea that there is one path to success (i.e., toughness) is irrational. The Leafs had oodles of grit this year, and it resulted in the same outcome. Turns out grit can't score in the playoffs either. Toughness isn't about how much you can hit or pointing at your biceps like a wrestler - it's about how strong you are at pushing through and creating opportunities, or stopping opposing opportunities, when time and space decrease. Vancouver has piles of grit on its backend, and none of it is helping their best offensive player figure out how to succeed when he doesn't have nearly as much time and space as he has in the regular season. More than anything else, the Leafs need their best players to be their best players when time and space are limited. So far, that hasn't happened with enough consistency. I still think it can, and maybe Berube is the guy who can bring it out of them, but it won't be because of how much grit the team adds.
While I agree with your overall point that your best players need to be your best players, I think you're barking up the wrong tree by claiming grit and toughness aren't useful in the playoffs/
That grit you're maligning includes players that were tied for 1st and tied for 2nd in scoring for the team. Bertuzzi, Domi, Knies, and Lyubushkin all played a physical game and they all put up as many if not more points than Marner and Tavares. At least Nylander and Matthews have the excuse of missing games and not being fully healthy and John is old and was given more defensive assignments but what's Mitch's excuse? Also the Leafs had a lack of grit every season aside from this one and last and they also suffered a similar fate so I don't think the problem was trying to be grittier.
I would also say that the remaining teams do have a decent amount of grit. Florida and Boston are self-explanatory, Dallas has guys like Benn, Pavelski, Marchement, Robertson, and Tanev. Colorado has guys like Colton, Duhaime, and Manson, plus their core players have demonstrated a fair bit of fight and nastiness in their games over the seasons. Canucks have multiple mutants on their defence and have Miller and Joshua causing havoc up front, Oilers have Kane, Hyman, Perry, Desharnais, Nurse, and Ekholm who all play with an edge and get physical, and Draisaitl can be a nasty piece of work when he wants to be. The softest remaining teams are in the Metro, and even then the Rangers Trouba headhunting and employ the biggest dude in the NHL in Rempe to go along with Trocheck, Goodrow, and Kreider. Hurricanes only really have Staal who's overly physical, but Svechnikov, Jarvis, and Aho all have more hits than Marner did and surprise surprise are scoring at a better clip than he was.
Depending on who the Leafs bring back, right now the forecheckers will be Knies, McMann, Dewar, Tavares, and Reaves when he plays. Bertuzzi if he's brought back will also do that. Matthews can also get in on the forecheck when he wants and if he makes the team Cowan will be a bowling ball on that front too.
