Here are five takeaways from the Maple Leafs’ loss to the  Panthers

• Mitch Marner submitted arguably the worst performance of his career, during a game where he had every opportunity to rewrite the narratives surrounding him. Marner had every right to bet on himself during the postseason, and some of the discussion surrounding him and his impending contract has been unfair, at times. There was no room for ambiguity on Wednesday. Marner hadn’t registered a shot in the Leafs’ previous two games and notched one shot on goal during the 6-1 loss. The complete lack of invention, willingness to shoot or meaningfully engage in puck battles was already bad enough, but Marner compounded his dreadful evening with two awful mistakes that directly led to Panthers’ goals. Auston Matthews was hemmed behind his own net, and Marner stood idly by as the Panthers tossed a barrage of shots at Joseph Woll, before Aaron Ekblad opened the scoring. Marner would later carry the puck in his defensive zone, stop, and toss a no look spin-o-rama through the neutral zone that was easily picked off by Gustav Forsling, who one-touched it to Sam Reinhart and Marner failed to pick up a crashing Jesper Boqvist at the back post.
• Matthews wasn’t much better than Marner but he did finish with six shots. The rest of his game was troublesome as he also struggled to win puck battles and was completely outplayed by his counterpart, Aleksander Barkov. Matthews has registered two goals in 11 games and while he’s playing through a lingering injury, this level of production simply isn’t good enough, even if you expected him to play at his 33-goal pace from this season. It’s a different set of circumstances for Matthews, who will be the face of the franchise for several years to come, and while he wasn’t as bad as Marner on Wednesday, it was still an inexcusable performance.
• William Nylander may have been the only Leafs’ skater who reasonably made an effort to win the game. Nylander was robbed on a breakaway by Sergei Bobrovsky after picking off Aaron Ekblad at the blue line, when the game was still scoreless. He set up a solid entry by the fourth line, which resulted into Scott Laughton ringing a shot off the bar early in the second, then generated another breakaway but still couldn’t solve Bobrovsky. This may have been the rare game where you could critique the Leafs’ effort level but Nylander tried in vain to get his teammates into the contest, before the game got out of hand entering the third period. Nylander registered a team-best six shots, alongside Auston Matthews and was the clear constant for his team. Toronto’s leading goal-scorer has proven time and again that he’s ready to respond when the team hits a rut, so this may portend a monster Game 6 from him.
• Nick Robertson played with pace and speed in a game where the Maple Leafs struggled to manage any offence whatsoever. Robertson scored the Leafs’ lone goal which is academic, given that many fans who bought a ticket didn’t even get to witness it. The 23-year-old may be a better option than either Calle Jarnkrok or Pontus Holmberg at this point, but given how the game played out, it’ll be compelling to see if Craig Berube reverts back to the same lineup that won Game 1-2 at home.
• There are no silver linings as the Maple Leafs are on the brink of elimination. Toronto’s executive branch bet on the idea it could win through incrementalism, rather than trading one of the core players. And there was some reason to believe the vision could work, especially after Max Pacioretty submitted some timely goals earlier in the series. At this stage, in John Tavares’ seventh and final year of his existing contract which he signed on Canada Day 2018, the window to win is right now, which may present Friday’s Game 6 as a referendum for the Core Four era, as Tavares, Marner and Matthew Knies all need new contracts entering the summer.

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