Maple Leafs need to shake things up after another brutal Game 7 loss

The Toronto Maple Leafs have seen this movie before, and the ending never changes. Another Game 7. Another crushing loss to end another season that started with so much promise, hype and hope.

This time it was an emphatic 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday that might finally lead to sweeping changes to the Maple Leafs' core. 

For Florida, it will be its third consecutive trip to the Eastern Conference Final, with a potential third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final on the line.

For Toronto, it's just more continued mediocrity for a core group of players — and a franchise — that has now become defined by it.

It should result in sweeping changes this offseason. Nothing should be left off the table as it relates to both pending free agents and players still under contract. 

It's not just that the Maple Leafs have failed to win a Stanley Cup with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. 

That would be forgivable, and perhaps even understandable. 

Championships are hard, rare and require an immense combination of talent, depth, production and luck all coming together at the same time. There is no shame in not winning a championship over any nine-year run. You're not guaranteed one, no matter how much talent you have.

The unacceptable part is that in nine seasons, the closest this group has come to a championship is roughly 40% of the way to one. 

It takes 16 playoff wins to lift the Stanley Cup. The most this group has ever won is seven. The second most is five. In seven of those years, they never won more than three.  

That can't happen. 

It can't keep happening.

During this run, the Maple Leafs have made changes to their complementary players. They have changed head coaches multiple times. General managers have changed. 

The only constants that have remained have been their core four of Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander. And one of the most common denominators in these playoff shortcomings is a lack of offense from that group when the games matter the most. 

The offense always fails them in Games 5-7 of the series, and this season was no exception. After jumping out to a 2-0 series lead, the Maple Leafs lost four of the next five games, scoring only eight goals in the process. They scored just four goals over the final four games, with the "core four" accounting for just one of them. 

How do you keep bringing them back again and again?

The Maple Leafs have put off making changes to the core long enough. They can't put it off anymore. 

Marner and Tavares are already scheduled to be unrestricted free agents after this season. Given Tavares' age, it would make sense to let him go. 

You also have to ask if they can afford to invest $12M-14M in Marner, given the spottiness of his playoff production and how many zeroes he has posted in big games. 

As crazy as it might be to suggest, Matthews shouldn't be untouchable either, given that he is the captain and has never taken over a playoff series (or even many games) on his own, despite his Game 7 comments.