TORONTO — The Florida Panthers are off to another Eastern Conference final.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, meanwhile, are once again left to pick up the pieces.
Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists each as Florida throttled Toronto 6-1 in a dominant effort to take Game 7 and win the teams’ second-round playoff series Sunday.
Seth Jones, with a goal and an assist, Anton Lundell, Jonah Gadjovich and Sam Reinhart also scored for the defending Stanley Cup champions. Aleksander Barkov also had two assists.
Florida will play the Carolina Hurricanes for a spot in another title series. Game 1 goes Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.
Max Domi replied for Toronto, which now heads into an uncertain off-season.
The Leafs led the Atlantic Division matchup 2-0 on the back of consecutive home victories before the Panthers won three straight to go up 3-2, including a 6-1 whitewash in Game 5 that looked a lot like Sunday.
Toronto staved off elimination with a 2-0 road decision Friday, but were unable to match Florida’s desperation from puck drop in the winner-take-all finale.
The Leafs, who have won just two series in 11 tries across the Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner era, now pivot to a potentially turbulent summer. Marner is set to become an unrestricted free agent July 1, while John Tavares is also on an expiring deal.
Team president Brendan Shanahan — the unwavering supporter of the franchise’s core of talented forwards led by Matthews, Marner, Tavares and William Nylander — 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.
More coming.
The Canadian Press
