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The world may have changed the last five months in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Toronto Maple Leafs showed against the Columbus Blue Jackets that they have not. The Leafs 3-0 loss in Game 5 of their best-of-five series at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday once again served as confirmation to what many observers have been saying about the club over the last few years.
Toronto’s core group of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner and their supporting cast can put up big regular season numbers playing a game based on high skill and speed, but when scoring chances become tough to come by and playing defense and physicality rise in importance for winning, the Leafs are too flawed to have any postseason success.
The vaunted Toronto offense that finished third in the NHL during the regular season was shutout twice by Joonas Korpisalo and averaged two goals per game in the series, which is hardly enough production to cover-up their ample defensive issues.
Prior to the season, the excuse could rightly be used that Toronto lost to teams in Washington and Boston that were more experienced and had superior depth, but the loss to the blue-collar Blue Jackets exposed that the Leafs have no answer if they can’t outscore their problems.
Moves made by GM Kyle Dubas to shore up the defense last summer proved completely inadequate, as Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci did not address the issues that needed to be remedied.
The switch from Mike Babcock to Sheldon Keefe in November was made in part to get more out of a core group that began to tune the veteran coach out, but it also may have been the last chance for that group to fulfill their promise before a change in course was necessary. It is unlikely that there will be any changes in management with Team President Brendan Shanahan, Dubas and Keefe, but salary cap realities and a fourth year of postseason failure will necessitate significant changes.
Even more than that, there has to be an acknowledgement from Shanahan and Dubas that their decisions have led to a roster that is one-dimensional and for the Leafs to have success, it must be more multi-dimensional like the Bruins, St. Louis, Washington, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Los Angeles have been over the last decade.
Barrie, Ceci and Kyle Clifford will almost certainly not be back, but with the cap staying flat at $81.5 Million for the foreseeable future, Dubas cannot simply spend money to upgrade the blueline. If Toronto is looking to trade for defensive help or open up cap space to make a bid in free agency for Alex Pietrangelo, they will have to move players off his roster.
Trades involving secondary forwards like Kasperi Kapanen or Andreas Johnsson may not be very impactful, as they will likely not bring back what the Leafs need in return. After their failure this season, there has to be an admission that spending nearly 50% of their budget on four forwards did not work and only moving one of that group will allow for the changes that Dubas needs to make.
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Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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