The Toronto Maple Leafs conducted their exit interviews on Monday, two days after suffering yet another Game 7 defeat to the Boston Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs. They once again provided answers to the same queries.
Why didn’t they go further? How close are they? And is it finally time to break up a core that has been together for the past eight years by trading away Mitch Marner?
“It’s the same s— pain, to be honest,” said Marner. “It’s not an easy thing to do — win the Stanley Cup. We know that. Everyone knows that. It’s the hardest trophy to win for a reason. It’s seven games and it’s an all-out war out there every single game.
“It won’t ever get any simpler. It’s never easy to do that. Evidently, challenges breed hardship. We’ve experienced a great deal of that, and it has only improved us.”
On July 1, the 27-year-old, who is still in the first year of a six-year, $65.41-million contract, may sign an extension. It’s unclear at this point whether that occurs.
Marner, though, wants to stay in Toronto after scoring three points and one goal in seven games.
“That would be the objective. I have said how much I adore this city and this place. I’ve obviously grown up here,” he remarked. “We’ll get to work on that right now and try to work something out. To me, it’s everything.
Although Matthews disclosed that he had an early illness, he purposefully avoided disclosing any more conditions that might have been plaguing him. Matthews missed the last period of Game 4 and all of Games 5 and 6.
“I got really, really sick after Game 2,” stated Matthews, who finished with four points and a goal in five games. “At the start of Game 4, I was still sort of getting over my bizarre hit that stopped me from playing. That’s going to be as thorough as I get. It was obviously really difficult. quite annoying to observe.”
