It’s time for Maple Leafs’ core to change the narrative in Game 6
Once again, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a chance to eliminate the Ottawa Senators, and come out on top in this postseason edition of The Battle of Ontario.
However, if they want to win Game 6 on Thursday night, they’re going to need their big guns to step up.
Earlier in the series, when the Maple Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares were putting up numbers and carrying the team to victory. However, with the chance to clinch a spot in the second round, the “Core Four” have been almost absent, allowing the Senators to climb back into the series with wins in Games 4 and 5.
The stat says it all – 1-13 in elimination games. This group has failed time and again to get the job done. Unless Marner, Matthews and company come alive in Kanata, this series will be heading to a do-or-die Game 7.
On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli explains that the Leafs should be better, but their stars fail to shine in clutch moments in the postseason.
Frank Seravalli: This was supposed to be easy. This was the easy matchup in the bracket. This was the team you were supposed to wipe your hands of, and move along. When you have a 3-0 series lead, and you’re potentially talking about Game 7? Well, that’s on you. When you have the firepower that you have and you get shut out in Game 5, that’s because it’s not a clinching scenario, but you’ve made it a clinching scenario.
Look, it can be different. That’s the best part about life is that you have an ability every day to write a new story, to tell a new tale, to change the narrative. How many times are we going to see this team do the same thing time after time? I’m not picking them. I didn’t pick them. I picked the Sens because I won’t, I refuse to pick them until we see something different. We have yet to see anything different as much as the first couple games of the series look totally different for a team that had all the composure in the world.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…