Berube, Leafs players to speak after Panthers Game 7 blowout ends playoff run

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube and several players will speak to reporters Tuesday after their Stanley Cup quest was crushed Sunday by the Florida Panthers.

The media availabilities for the coach and the players are scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke.

The Leafs are nearly 48 hours removed from a crushing 6-1 Game 7 loss on home ice against the Panthers in their second-round playoff series Sunday night. That result, which saw boos ring out from the home crowd as well as jerseys being tossed on the ice, means the Leafs’ 58-year-long Stanley Cup will continue yet again.

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An uncertain off-season now lies ahead as star forwards Mitch Marner and John Tavares will become unrestricted free agents on July 1. Those two players, along with captain Auston Matthews and forward William Nylander, have formed the “Core Four” since 2018 as the highest-paid players on the team with the expectation of getting it to the promised land.

Leafs president Brendan Shanahan — an unwavering supporter of the club’s Core Four— is also without a contract beyond this season.

Toronto is now 0-7 in Game 7s, and 0-6 with Marner and Matthews dating back to 2018, in the NHL’s salary cap era. The Core Four era has also seen the team advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs only twice.

After Sunday’s game, several Leafs players sought to explain what happened on the ice. Tavares told reporters the team is “never going to quit.”

“We’d love another opportunity,” he added.

Whether that will happen or not is unclear; it’s also unclear if and when Leafs management will speak to reporters.