Leafs: It's time to bury the core-4 storylines

Another bad loss, and the same old “core 4” narratives come out (if you’re not a hockey fan: core 4 refers to Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander, who are the top paid Leafs).

The Leafs fully deserve to be criticized for their efforts in game 5, but just blaming the “core 4” is lazy journalism (once again) on many levels:

• Is it really all 4 “core” players not playing well? Nylander was one of the few Leafs who played well in Game 5. Tavares was fine. Matthews and Marner had a bad game. Against Ottawa, there was a game where Nylander played poorly. In the end, success is not the sole responsibility of 4 guys.
  
  Blaming the “core 4” has been a convenient narrative for many sports journalist and commentators. It’s never that simple.
  

• The core has never been just 4 players. Forget salary, which is a management problem. The core of the team has always included Morgan Rielly; he was there before Matthews and company. On this year’s team, you can add Knies, Tanev, McCabe, and others to the core as well. So if we want to talk core, I’d say there are at least 10 players you would lump into that group.
  

• Almost the entire team did not play well in game 5, yet the media focused on the mistakes by the “core 4.” Marner’s blind backhand pass and then being late on the backcheck led to a goal, and that play was getting a lot of attention post-game. You know who else had a terrible giveaway that led to a goal? Tanev … 15 feet from the blue line and couldn’t get the puck out, and seconds later the puck ends up in the net. Mistakes happen.
  

• “Did not play well” really means did not raise their level of play to match Florida’s. They actually had good chances to tie the game when it was 1-0, and then who knows what happens with the momentum? But fine just isn’t good enough. They absolutely needed to be more aggressive with their forecheck and compete harder in puck battles. So let’s be specific about what the issues were, and not just go with the lazy storyline of the core 4 didn’t come through.
  

So what’s wrong with the Leafs then if we can’t just take the easy way out and just use the “core 4” narrative?

• First, give Florida some credit. Matthews hasn’t scored a goal yet against Florida. You know who else didn’t score a goal against Florida? Nikita Kucherov. The Art Ross winner this year for most points in the league (37 goals and 121 points overall) and past cup champion scored exactly 0 goals and 4 points in 5 games against Florida in round 1.
  

• Second, Matthews is not using his size enough to gain an advantage, and that is frustrating for Leafs fans. A few theories about this:

  • I’m about 90% positive we’re going to find out post-playoffs that he’s been battling an injury. Craig Button mentioned on Sportscenter that Matthews’ shot velocity is down 10 miles an hour. I’ve bee noticing all year that he is not blowing the puck past goalies anymore. Definitely something is not right physically.
    

  • It’s time to accept that Matthews is not a run-you-over type of player despite his size. Lots of big players before him fit that mold – e.g., Mario Lemieux would be one. Barkov of Florida is another. That’s right — not every Florida player is an “I’ll elbow your goalie to gain an advantage” type of player.
    
    Having said that, we saw in the Boston series last year (before Matthews was out with a severe illness) that he can and will use his size to push through heavy checking and take over a game. It’s in him, but it’s not his default. And if he’s hurt, even less likely he’s going to plow through people.
    
    The fact that he has not grown that part of his game under Berube has me leaning even more to injury as the core reason behind his play.
    

  • Going for the big hit takes you out of position. Matthews is trying to be defensively responsible, and that means staying above the puck. Remember the praise he was getting in the first three games for outplaying and shutting down the Barkov line? At one point the Matthews line was outscoring the Barkov line 3-0. He needs to find that balance where he can be aggressive and still do his job defensively.
    
    

• Third, the pressure of playing in Toronto is real.

  • Every playoff series the Leafs lay an egg in at least one game at home. They did it against Ottawa (Game 5), they did it against Boston last year, and they have done this repeatedly in years past. There is always at least one game where the pressure impacts their game.
    

  • Past playoff losses have compounded this pressure. The core-4 narrative was, again, and easy storyline instead of digging into the real issues with past teams — unbalanced roster construction, sub-par defence corp, and poor coaching hires. Yet it was just easy to blame the “core 4,” so here we are with a group of players that have to continue to carry that burden.
    

  • I think Berube has taken the right approach by stressing the business-like attitude. He has deflected a lot of that pressure well. He’ll need to keep doing that to give the team a chance in Game 6. And yes, the players who are being held responsible for each failure, rightly or wrongly, need to learn to play through that pressure.
    

We’ll see what tonight brings. In the meantime, it’s time to let go of the core-4 storylines. They really don’t apply anymore.