From the heartbreak of the players inside the Toronto Maple Leafs' dressing room to the gut punch absorbed by a fan base that hasn't celebrated a Stanley Cup title since 1967, the shared despondent mood had one common theme Friday.
This was an opportunity lost.
When Florida Panthers forward Nick Cousins scored against Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll at 15:32 of overtime to give the visitors a 3-2 victory at Scotiabank Arena, the sobering slap of reality hit Toronto.
Its season was over. The Maple Leafs had been eliminated 4-1 in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round, a series most experts picked them to win. And now they must deal with the fact that major changes could come, both to the roster and in the front office, after another promising postseason ended prematurely.
He may not have a say in the matter, not only because they fell short again, but also the way they did.
Yes, they won their first Stanley Cup Playoff series in 19 years by defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the best-of-7 first round. But there were some alarming underlying warts in that series, and they came to the surface against the Panthers.
The facts don't lie.
Toronto went 1-5 at home in the playoffs after going 27-8-6 here during the regular season. It did not score more than two goals in any of its final seven playoff games after finishing 11th in the NHL in goals (279) during the regular season.
Matthews, who had 40 goals during the regular season, did not score in the second round. Neither did Tavares, who had 36 in the regular season. In fact, with Nylander scoring twice and Marner once in the five games against the Panthers, the "Core Four" finished with just three goals.
But it goes beyond the players.
What does the future hold for Kyle Dubas, who has seen the Maple Leafs go 1-5 in playoff series since being named general manager May 11, 2018?
The same can be asked of Sheldon Keefe. Since being named coach Nov. 20, 2019, Toronto is 1-4 in postseason series.
For his part, Keefe made no excuses. The team's downfall, he said, came when the Maple Leafs lost the first three games against Florida, giving them "zero margin for error."
"It's going to take time for the sting of this series to wear off," he said. "This is a missed opportunity for our group.
"You can't take away anything from Florida. They did a great job. But we were in positions to win in Games 1, 2 and 3 and didn't handle that well. So, that stings.
"I love how our team didn't lay down. Instead, [it was] the opposite of that in Game 4. The way the team came together, to me, that was incredible progress for our group in that moment."
Still, it wasn't enough.
Again.
"I believe we had a team good enough to win the Stanley Cup," Keefe said. "And we didn't do that."
To be fair, Dubas did his part prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 3 to bring in pieces that should have made Toronto a more difficult team to play against in the postseason. Forwards Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari came in from the St. Louis Blues; forward Sam Lafferty and defenseman Jake McCabe from the Chicago Blackhawks; and defenseman Luke Schenn arrived from the Vancouver Canucks. In the end, they helped the Maple Leafs win one series, not the four needed to reach the ultimate goal.
Dubas was not given an extension last summer, meaning he was in the final year of his contract.
So, what now?
In the case of Matthews, he has one year left on his contract. The Maple Leafs can start negotiating with him on an extension July 1. Will he be interested? And, will Dubas still be the GM by then?
Perhaps the most intriguing question is: What happened that his offense, headlined by the "Core Four," dried up? Despite having great looks and playing well defensively in the series, blocking shots and delivering hits, Matthews was held to just two assists against the Panthers.
"We dug ourselves in a hole there," he said of the series. "And it's all on us, shooting ourselves in the foot at times. We obviously were down 3-0, but I don't think there was one second [when] we doubted if we took it one game at a time and we played to our ability, we could claw our way back."
But, as he said, "we couldn't get the job done."
"It's tough," he said. "This is the tightest group I've played with in my seven years. Some really great teammates. Some really great people.
"It stings, obviously, to go out like that and not get an opportunity to get another crack at it with all these guys."
