How this era of the Toronto Maple Leafs came to an end

TORONTO — This is how it ends.

With four straight home losses in Toronto and controversy sharing shifts with uncertainty.

With Coke bottles and rally towels littering the ice and cuss words cutting the air.

With John Tavares and Auston Matthews — $22.64 million worth of all-star centremen — combining for 50 shots and zero goals in the most important playoff series of their lives.

With Matthew Tkachuk (who didn’t score either) walking tall to the winners’ podium, holding a jalapeno salmon roll in one hand and a game sheet in the other. With Tkachuk chirping the Maple Leafs fans who chanted “We want Florida!” only to eat their words like a Sam Bennett shoulder. And with the Florida Panthers‘ team shop dropping a mock T-shirt after Nick Cousins freezes the clock in a 3-2 overtime win.

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This is how it ends, the first Toronto Maple Leafs‘ second-round appearance in 19 years.

With Matt Murray, Kyle Dubas’s boldest off-season swing, wearing the ballcap, then walking quietly into the shadows without a sweat.

With seven consecutive offensive efforts of precisely and only two goals — the driest offensive stretch from the franchise in 13 years.

With seven defencemen and a Cirque du Soleil of line juggling. With Mitch Marner skating 31:37, Morgan Rielly 28:39, and 39-year-old Mark Giordano 9:29.

This is how it ends, another year for a fantastic regular-season squad.

With going 0-for-2 on the power-play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.

With all of two regulation wins in the post-season, and with everyone wondering if a 5-6 playoff record is all that much better than a 3-4 playoff record.

With smartly improved depth and not enough production from the big guns upfront.

With Radko Gudas driving the net for a nasty screen on the game-winner, then screaming in young Joseph Woll‘s face, knowing his pirate beard is only going to grow more unruly over the next two weeks, minimum.

This is how it ends, the GM’s lopsided payroll structure and grand skill-trumps-all experiment.

With Scotiabank Arena DJ Cale Granton cuing up Opus’s 1984 smash “Live Is Life” during the third period’s final TV timeout, which just happens to be the Panthers’ dressing-room win song. Which just happens to blare out of the visitors’ quarters and through the bowels of Scotiabank Arena as Cousins walks off the ice, screams, “Let’s (expletive) go!” and enters the party to see 108 unread text messages on his phone.

With the press-box elevator attendant, ready to hit a button, asking his full load: “Where are we going?” And Panthers goalie czar Roberto Luongo not missing a beat: “To the Eastern Conference Final.”

With jokes on one side and hushed disappointment on the other.

This is how it ends, the Shanaplan, the Core Four, and probably the Hall ‘n’ Oates song too.

With William Nylander buzzing around with the most tradable contract and the most dangerous scoring chances, by a mile.

With the four men who wear letters each taking a turn in front of the questions.

Mitch Marner wants the core to stay intact for an eighth run: “Yeah. We all got years left on our contracts. I mean, I don’t know. It’s not up to us. But we got a lot of belief in this group. We got a lot of belief in that core. It sucks right now, but I got belief.”

Auston Matthews, eligible to re-sign on July 1, the same date his no-move kicks in, says it’s too soon to understand what the future holds: “I don’t know. I mean, obviously, our season just ended no more than 15 minutes ago. So, I think it’s just processing all that.”

John Tavares relays the gutted atmosphere of the home room: “Not much really was said. I think the group is still trying to realize that there’s not a tomorrow for us.”

Morgan Rielly, his heart still out on the rink somewhere, struggles to process it all: “I love these guys. I don’t… um… I don’t… uh, yeah… I don’t want change.”

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With the coach pointing not to Rielly’s controversial no-goal in Game 5 but to the group’s careless and effort-lacking stretches early in the series and early on Friday night. That was the difference.

“We lose the series in the first three games,” says Sheldon Keefe, on what may be his final eve behind this bench. “The margin for error is basically none because of our results in the first three games.

“We were in positions to win in Games 1, 2 and 3 and it didn’t handle that well. So, that stings.”

This is how it ends, to a wild card that leans hard into simple, physical play, spends gobs of dough on goaltending, and places effort above all.

With a Hart Trophy finalist rubbing salt in the wound.

“There’s a lot of — probably the most in the league — individual skill over there. Like, some unbelievable talents,” Tkachuk says. “I just think the way we’re able to play as a team was the difference. With physicality, you can see there’s a little bit of them wearing down at the end.

“I just think our team was built for this moment against them, and we don’t have as much skill as them. We definitely don’t. I don’t think there’s many teams that do. But come playoff time, It’s not about that. It’s about sticking together. It’s coming through in those moments. It’s about timely stuff.”

Now it’s about time for stuff.

Changes to the front office, the bench, the roster.

Everything is on the table now that the experiment is in shambles.

“It’s hard,” Matthews says. “It’s hard to win. And I think we know that more than anybody.”

Hard to win.

But getting easy to see that this exact mix won’t.

This is how it ends.

Fox’s Fast 5

• Riellly leaves the post-season second in goals (four) and points (12) among all defencemen.

The longest-tenured Maple Leaf played his heart out and was the most consistent performer for this team when it mattered most.

• What will Joseph Woll remember most about his 40-save performance in the overtime loss?

“The feeling after. Not a great one,” Woll says.

“Looking at how to measure a team, I think results don’t tell the full story. I think this is very special group of people, on and off the ice. And the way that we’ve come together with a lot of moving parts at the end of the season and our ability to just battle and fight to the very end is pretty special.”

• Maurice eliminated the Maple Leafs 17 years to the day Toronto hired him. Now, he’s off to face the Hurricanes in Carolina, birthplace of all three of his children.

“I think I coached all three of their coaches,” Maurice deadpans. “Which makes me old.”

• Why did Rielly’s second apparent goal not count?

“The explanation I got was that there wasn’t a clear and conclusive view of the initial shot that it was in,” Keefe says. “The other shot of the puck in the net, they had said was after the play, and the play was dead.”

• Unprompted, Keefe and Maurice went out of their way to give each other credit from the podium.

“The pressure on the Leafs started in training camp, not in this series. This is a different beast, like no other. Montreal, possibly,” Maurice said. “It’s intense.

“So, I do follow Toronto quite a bit. They’re in our division, right? They have an interesting style of play. Some really good stuff that they do, try to steal. But coaching here, I’ll just say it: I think Sheldon Keefe is a phenomenal coach. We all have windows. We all have our time. He’s coaching in this league for 20 years if he wants to.”

More from Sportsnet

Maple Leafs left too much for luck to decide amid missed calls, chances

‘Heartbreak’: Maple Leafs fans react to gutwrenching series loss to Panthers

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