At the beginning of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, this writer picked the Toronto Maple Leafs to beat the Florida Panthers in seven games. 

While the Maple Leafs still can make that prediction accurate with a win in Game 6 Friday in Florida, the way the Maple Leafs played in Game 5 – or more to the point, the way they did not play in that game – we’re now of the opinion the Leafs will lose in seven games.

Isn’t that exactly what we’ve come to see from this core group of Leafs? We’re probably going to see them win Game 6, just to give their long-suffering fans some hope. But if they can extend the series, it would be just like these Leafs to lose another Game 7.

To be sure, there are things the Maple Leafs can do to win their next two games – things we saw in Games 1 and 2, when they beat the Panthers to establish a 2-0 series lead.

For one thing, the Leafs established their offensive presence early in the games. 

In Game 1, Toronto outshot Florida 14-3 in the first period and had a 2-0 lead 12:51 into the opening frame, eventually winning the contest 5-4. In Game 2, after the Panthers scored the first goal of the game, the Leafs answered back to tie it and built a 3-2 lead in an eventual 4-3 Toronto win.

Those performances gave Leafs fans hope that this year would be different, that the Buds would somehow get to the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 2002. But those hopes have evaporated after Florida roared back to win the next three games, outscoring the Leafs 13-5. 

While there wasn’t always a connection between the number of shots on net the two teams were putting up – Toronto matched Florida in Game 5 with 32 shots apiece in the game that ended with a demoralizing 6-1 drubbing – it was the quality of shots that told the story. 

Indeed, the Panthers were far superior when it came to limiting Toronto shots to the periphery, preventing second and third follow-up scoring opportunities, and allowing Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to build confidence in allowing only one goal in Games 4 and 5 combined.

And now, because of their inability to close out the series, the Maple Leafs are tasked with the near-impossible challenge of winning two games in a row yet again in this series. That’s why we’re seriously skeptical that, even if Toronto does win Game 6, they’ll eliminate the Panthers in a Game 7. Far more likely is the possibility that the Leafs either lose Game 6 or lay an egg in Game 7. 

NHL Rumor Roundup: Latest On The Maple Leafs, Golden Knights And AvalancheA crushing 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of their second-round series has the Toronto Maple Leafs facing elimination on Friday. 

If the Buds do fail to come back and win this series, the anger among Leafs fans will be hellacious and justified, and major roster changes will follow this summer. At the beginning of the season, Leafs players and management knew the stakes that were in play – get out of the second round, or get out of town – so there’s no sense of surprise that the mix of talent could change drastically for Toronto this summer.

It feels that bleak for Leafs fans, and while stranger things have happened than a Leafs comeback in this showdown, the likelihood that an era is coming to an end for the Blue and White is unmistakable.

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