Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares speaks to the media as their NHL training camp starts in Toronto on Sept. 22, 2021.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, failing to extend their season into June for the first time in team history has left a seemingly indelible mark.
Obviously not the kind of mark that stamps the name of every player, coach and equipment guy on to the barrel of the Stanley Cup for all eternity. And certainly not the kind of mark that accompanied the 1993, ‘94, ‘99 and 2002 vintages of this team, which all played their hearts out only to fall a few wins and days short of playing in both the Cup final and the NHL’s most pivotal month.
Instead, the 2021 edition failed to get out of the opening round of the playoffs for the fifth successive campaign, falling to the Montreal Canadiens in a Game 7 played on May 31. So, despite the high hopes that accompanied winning a division crown for the first time since the turn of the century, the Leafs’ season finished early for a 54th consecutive year.
“It’s always going to have some type of scar or mark,” John Tavares said as the team opened training camp on Wednesday. “Just because the type of season and the expectations we created for ourselves – getting to the point we were at and not finishing the job in the first round and getting that next opportunity.”
Having had to watch most of that now-infamous series implosion from the sidelines, after being knocked out of the playoffs by an errant Corey Perry knee just minutes into the first game, the Maple Leafs captain reported to training camp healthy and feeling no ill effects from either the concussion or the knee injury he suffered on the same play.
While he said he treated the off-season like any he’s had in the past, he said the Leafs had discussions about how to improve on a year that had unfolded almost exactly as planned – until the playoffs. The Leafs scored the sixth-most goals in the NHL and conceded the seventh fewest, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, he said, mentioning things such as “holding leads” and being a “very stingy team to play against.”
The Toronto Maple Leafs failed to get out of the opening round of the playoffs for the fifth successive campaign last season, falling to the Montreal Canadiens in a Game 7.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
He also gave credit to the team’s braintrust for deciding to stick with the nucleus, the Core Four of Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Auston Matthews, who was runner-up for the Hart Trophy as league MVP and won the Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading goal scorer. After that quartet, which accounts for almost 49 per cent of the team’s salary cap, struggled to transfer regular-season dominance over to the playoffs, there have been calls for change from some quarters. But general manager Kyle Dubas has resisted the opportunity to trade one or more of that group.
“It’s not easy to win the Stanley Cup and get to where we want to get to,” Tavares said. “So when you have your manager step up and have your back like that it makes everyone feel really good about things and where we’re at and where we’re trying to get to and we can just kind of keep our focus.”
The focus now is on the surgically repaired wrist of Matthews, the new goaltending tandem of Petr Mrazek alongside the incumbent Jack Campbell, and the void left by Zach Hyman on the top line alongside Matthews and Marner.
Matthews said he doesn’t expect any issues from the wrist that helped him score a league-best 41 times last year, describing the surgery as a “little setback” to his off-season preparations and fully expecting to be in the lineup for opening night against the Canadiens on Oct. 13.
The jury is out on whether Campbell, who only once has played as many as 31 games in a season, can handle the load as the starter after the departure of Frederik Andersen. However, Campbell said he’s excited to form a partnership in the crease with Mrazek, who, last year’s pandemic season aside, hasn’t started fewer than 33 games since the 2014-15 season.
When it comes to replacing Hyman, who scored 15 goals and 18 assists last season before signing with the Edmonton Oilers as a free agent, the criteria is short, Marner said.
“I guess a guy that just works hard,” he said. “A guy that we try and mesh with quickly and get chemistry with quickly, but it’s an open spot.”
Despite being a pass-first player, Marner admitted he has spent much of the off-season working on his shooting. The team’s leading scorer last year with 67 points, the 24-year-old came in for more criticism than most after the team’s playoff exit, with a postseason goal-scoring drought that now stretches to the opening game of the 2019 playoffs.
“I know I have it in me, I’ve proved that I have it in me,” he said. “It’s just trusting [my shot] more and being able to get myself better opportunities to score more.”
Nylander had no such shooting woes on the ice, leading the team in playoff goals with five. But off the ice, it seems he chose to pass. Coming to the media podium wearing a mask on Wednesday, the 25-year-old Swede admitted he’s not fully vaccinated, as he said he had a couple of medical things to take care of first. But he said he will have had both shots by the start of the season – “I just wanted to do the right thing” – and he added his status won’t affect his ability to take part in training camp.
Following on from a season in which he averaged 0.82 points a game and led the team in playoff scoring, Nylander is hoping to take another step in his development. But like his fellow star forwards, he is thankful that the franchise is choosing to keep faith in him and the others.
“It starts from the top,” he said of general manager Dubas. “Him showing that he has belief in us is obviously huge and helps us focus on what we have to do and not be worried about other things happening.”
Neither Dubas nor head coach Sheldon Keefe said they felt any added pressure or job insecurity. And while many of the players used words such as “devastating” or “disappointing” during the course of the morning’s availability, Dubas simply doubled down on his belief that the current players can deliver a Stanley Cup to a long-suffering fanbase.
“We don’t carry the burden of 54 years with us,” Dubas said. “A lot of the people in that [locker] room when I walk in there, weren’t alive then, or most of them weren’t, or all of them weren’t. I don’t think that resonates with them.”