Game 1 was a fun game to watch, but unexpected. Obviously, the most important thing that happened was the John Tavares injury, but it’s not like the Habs played a bad game whatsoever. Carey Price came out and had an amazing game, backstopping the Canadiens to a 2–1 upset victory. Both netminders played very well, but it looked like Toronto was the better team. They surely had this series in the bag, right?
Game 2 was more of what everyone expected in this series. Despite game 1 being a very close battle, the Leafs looked like they were easily the better team here. It looked like a 1st seed Stanley Cup Contender versus a 4th seed that almost threw their spot in the playoffs away. An absolute dominant performance by Toronto, where they outshot the Canadiens 34–23. With a 5–1 win, the Leafs tied the series heading to Montreal. Jack Campbell looked unbeatable in these two games, and if he can outplay Price this series is already over.
Game 3 was a questionable showing. Despite the Leafs looking like the better team, I don’t think that they outplayed Montreal by a large margin. The shots were tied at 29, and neither team converted on either of their powerplays. By when the final whistle blew, Toronto took the series lead, and took back home ice, with a 2–1 win. It would be pretty hard to mess this up at this point.
They’re doing it! Look everybody, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to win a series! An absolute dominant win. Jack Campbell played a fantastic game, and the Leafs were able to score 4 goals in a 4–0 win. They may have been outshot, but the Canadiens had 2x the amount of powerplays as the Leafs. William Nylander, Alexander Kerfoot, and Alex Galchenyuk had a really good series up to this point. It doesn’t matter that the top line only had 1 goal combined. They’ve proven that they can win without Tavares, so winning one more and ending the street will happen in only a matter of time!
Uh oh. What are you guys doing? You can’t be in a series-clinching game but be down 3–0 25 minutes in? You have to kick them while they're down and end this thing. Well, at least there’s another goal from the top line… and a 2 goal 3rd period from Jake Muzzin? This is it, this is their moment. Hold on, Galchenyuk, what are you doing? You’re not a Canadien anymore you know that right?
Alright, no problem, no one said it would be easy. Now we know how you guys are when it comes to game 7’s so how about we try to not let them get that far. After a bad penalty from Nylander, a goal from Corey Perry, as well as a terrible goalie interference challenge from Sheldon Keefe, and then an uncontested puck over the glass penalty from Marner, followed by a goal from Tyler Toffoli, it was 2–0 Montreal. That’s alright though, the Leafs came back last game so they can do it again. Jason Spezza and TJ Brodie, not necessarily the most expected heroes but here we are. Jake Muzzin looks like he may be out for a while, so this is your best chance. 2–2 game. OT again. Let’s just not mess this up. Oh no, Travis Dermott what are you doing?
Boys, this is it. Game 7. Home Ice. You have the better team, no one thinks otherwise. Just go out there and play the game you love. We knew they would blow it. Most Leaf's fans did. Game 6 was their game 7, and they seemed very numb heading into this game 7 because they knew what was happening. The Maple Leafs lost game 7, 3–1, in a terrible effort to win their first series since 2004. Matthews, Marner, and Hyman combined for 2 goals and William Nylander and Jason Spezza were your best players. Yes, Tavares was injured, but you also won 3 games without him. Either this team is cursed by the ghost of Harold Ballard, or this team's core just isn’t built for the playoffs. We’ll get into what I’d do in their season in review, but in my eyes, you have to change some things. Congratulations Montreal.
It’s hard to talk about the good with the Leafs in this series, but William Nylander was certainly a bright spot. This team has to make some changes this offseason, but I personally think Nylander has to be untouchable, right? He was the only member of the core who showed up in this series, and I think that he was the Leafs' best forward by a fairly large margin. Morgan Rielly looked solid in this series. He certainly stepped up with the loss of Jake Muzzin, and I think that this team's top 4 were a bright spot in this series. I don’t think that you can try to alter those guys this offseason, that clearly wasn’t the problem here. Zach Hyman was part of the problem, however. He wasn’t at his best in this series, but he gets most of his production from getting into the hard areas and benefitting from Matthews and Marner's superstar-level play. That play wasn’t there all series, so we’ll see how that impacts Hyman's free agency decisions this summer. Campbell was fantastic in this series. I’ve heard this before, but the comparison to a Golden Retriever fits Campbell perfectly. He’s a really good goalie who didn’t get to impact how his stars played. This isn’t on him.
Tyler Toffoli was solid in this series. He had a huge impact on the Habs, and it looks like he’s proving that he is as good as he proved in the regular season. The Canadiens gameplan was simple. Dump and chasse, and crash the net hard. This resulted in their defenceman not having a huge offensive impact when it came to the scoresheet, but they had a good series. Petry, Weber, and Chiarot all impressed me. Besides when the puck hit off of Petry and in for both of the Leafs' goals in game 6, I thought they were consistently solid in their own end to finish off the series. Corey Perry, what a signing. After a really bad season last year in Dallas he showed up in the playoffs, so Montreal took a shot at him. He has come in and played very well for them in a depth role, and as much as you may not like him you have to give him credit for how he has been able to revive his career. Carey Price outplayed Campbell in this series. I understand that he had the worse Save% and GAA, but I think you can look beyond that here. Price is a playoff performer, and he came in and performed. He wasn’t a world-beater, but he was very, very good. He was a piece of the puzzle that resulted in Matthews’ and Marner's slumps in this series.
This is the worst collapse the Leafs had had in franchise history. I’m not kidding. They should’ve won this series. They could’ve easily swept the Habs if they played a bit more solid as a team defensively in game 1. But that’s hockey, and you have to imagine that Kyle Dubas won’t take this loss very lightly. I see people throwing out that Marner should be traded, and I think those people are delusional. Look at how long it took Ovi to win a cup, patience is key when you have young superstars in this league. Have you ever considered that Marner is always nervous late in playoff series because he has seen this story one too many times? He didn’t have a good series, but neither did Matthews. My guess is that one playoff series win for this core will boost their confidence so much, and that’s only in a matter of time. To the Canadiens, you kept to your strategy. You outworked the Toronto Maple Leafs, and now you have the rested Winnipeg Jets ahead of you. Harold Ballard is laughing in his grave.