You know if this wasn't the same excuse for the past 5 times we lost in the first round I would believe you, but enough of this "coin flip, could've went either way" talk..
it was "Washington was too good" or "we always have to face Boston" and now we got CBJ and still couldn't pass a team in a playoffs.. it's clear now that we aren't a playoff type of team.. and the proof from the past 5 years Trumps any and all other excuses... Soft possession hockey doesn't get you through the playoffs.. teams will adjust and find ways to shut you down like all the other years with this team.. it's clear you need to mix the possession with gritty dirty area goals and consistently wear them down game after game to implement your strategy... This team has a bunch of rich kids playing soft hockey and rely on lesser players to carry the grit while they take the most ice time... Enough excuses already.. all of them have been done and over with.. even the "we don't give our players icetime and Babs plays the 4th line 2minutes left".. you literally had Matthews -tavares- Marner loaded on the top line for almost all of game 5 and still couldn't come up with a goal.
No more excuses.. change the Strat and play with actual grit and heart in the playoffs!! Do what you do in the regular season to stay healthy, but come playoffs, pull up your boot straps and finish your damn CHECKS.
This.
After Tampa (who are structured very similar to us) got swept by the Jackets, did they go out and do nothing? No, they went out and overpaid for guys like Pat Maroon, Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow, and Zach Bogosian to try and make their team tougher to play against.
Much was said about how the Leafs "depth didn't show up" and that was the reason for the loss, and they're not wrong.... but the "lack of depth" wasn't an issue of lack of resources. What is depth?
-Is it your 2nd line? The Leafs had one of the most expensive in the league with Mikheyev-Tavares-Nylander or Marner.
-Is it your 3rd line? Again, the grouping of Robertson-Kerfoot-Kapanen
should have been a more than competent 3rd line. Their $7.5m cap hit was basically on par with what Columbus spent on its #2 and #3 lines.
-Is it your 4th line? I'm not sure that I necessarily see anything
wrong with a grouping of Clifford-Spezza-Engvall.
To me, the real problem is/was that despite grossly over-matching Columbus in offensive firepower, the big guys simply couldn't "bring it" every shift. Columbus leading point-getter was Dubois with 49. They had 2 guys with 20 goals, and one of them was a defenceman. Toronto had 4 players with a minimum of 59 points, and Matthews who had 80. They had Matthews with 47 goals, Nylander with 31, Tavares with 26, and Hyman with 21. Toronto was the 3rd highest scoring team in the league this year, Columbus was 28th. Columbus should have been chasing this series trying to get matchups to stop the double-headed monster of the Leafs top 2 lines. Instead, they simply threw whomever out there, waited for their opportunities, and the Leafs scored at will when it was 6 on 5 with the globetrotter line on the ice (as they arguably should).
As for what the solution is, as much as I'd like to say it's clearing house with the 3rd line and replacing them with some grittier players like Tampa did, I don't see how that's possible given the current cap situation. They've got 17 players under contract next year, with $4.5m of space and 6 roster spots to fill -- essentially league minimum per player. The right side of their D includes Justin Holl and Martin Marincin.
Presumably, they'll have Robertson joining the fray on the left side, but as talented as he is, he's not overly gritty. Moving out Johnsson will probably allow them to retain Dermott and Mikheyev, but at the end of the day, that leaves you with a group that looks quite similar to the one that the Leafs iced in games 1-4 of the series, with Barrie & Ceci out, Sandin & Liljegren in.
Personally, I think they've either gotta move Nylander, thereby bringing Kapanen into the top 6 and using the money to get a defenceman like Manson and a grittier player onto the 3rd line, or clear out all 3 of Kapanen/Johnsson/Kerfoot, and build a much better 3rd line, or the nuclear option of moving Marner and going for a big name on the blueline.