The Maple Leafs’ Cup drought hits 57 years with another Game 7 loss, and another one at the hands of the Bruins

The Bruins are off to Florida for the second round. The Leafs are on their way home to empty out their lockers and wonder how another strong regular season was followed by a too-soon exit from the playoffs.

“It’s very difficult, obviously, not to be moving on, getting the result we want,” Leafs captain John Tavares said. “Extremely difficult, especially with the type of team that we have, the type of character that’s in here, and just the belief in the locker room. Very proud of the group, the way we stuck with it and gave ourselves a chance.”

The Leafs are still searching for a Game 7 victory. They last won one in 2004, against Ottawa. But now 2024 joins failed attempts in 2013, 2018, 2019 (all against Boston), 2021 against Montreal and 2022 against Tampa Bay. The Leafs also lost the winner-take-all Game 5 to Columbus in the qualifying round of the pandemic-induced summer playoffs of 2020.

“We’ve been talking about this for a long time, trying to break through for a long time,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “So any answer is going to fall on deaf ears in that sense. And I get that. All I can say is that the way this group pulled together here in this last week, and through this season, was different. The feeling around the team was different. We played different.

“I thought we showed signs in this series of a team that could win.”

But they lost, or course.

Injuries were certainly a factor. They played the first three games without William Nylander, who said it was migraines that affected his vision that kept him out of the lineup, combined with a concern that he might have suffered a concussion.

“It sucks, to be honest,” Nylander said of the loss. “We were really close and we battled back into the series and I don’t know what to say, it’s just an empty feeling right now.”

Auston Matthews made a dramatic return to the lineup, after missing two games. He declined to say what kept him out of the lineup, and he didn’t appear to be 100 per cent.

“I’m not going to get into it,” he said. “It was really hard to watch those two games. But just really proud of the guys to fight and battle back and give ourselves a chance. Tonight was an extremely tight game. I’m pretty sure we had the same number of shots and it’s tough. Could have gone either way but, obviously, it didn’t go our way.”

Rookie goalie Joseph Woll was a surprise scratch due to an injury suffered late in Game 6 that apparently got worse the next day. That handed Samsonov the net in what turned into a goaltending duel with Jeremy Swayman.

After more than two periods of tight, defensive hockey, the offence burst through in the middle of the third.

Matthews set up Nylander — two players who missed a combined total of five games and one period in the series — for the game’s first goal at 9:01 of the third period. The Bruins got it back on the next shift, with Hampus Lindholm picking the corner through traffic at 10:22.

And an early overtime dump-in by Lindholm, scooped up by Pastrnak, ended it.

Four of the longest-serving and most expensive Leafs were on the ice for that goal: Marner, Rielly, William Nylander and John Tavares — along with Ilya Lyubushkin — who saw all the great defensive work they had committed to all series vanish in an instant.

“It’s tough to talk right now,” Samsonov said. “The season is over for us.”

The Bruins successfully avoided becoming the first team in league history to blow 3-1 series leads in back-to-back years.

And the Bruins also continued their post-season mastery of the Leafs. Toronto last beat the Bruins in the post-season in 1959. The Bruins have taken the last seven meetings, starting in 1969 and including four in the Matthews era.

“This series was very close, the thinnest of margins you can get: Game 7, overtime,” Keefe said. “So obviously very disappointed to not come on the right side of it. Love how our team fought to put us in this position to compete and play in this game and have a chance to be one shot away.

“Obviously, you reflect on the series, you don’t love the hole that we dug ourselves, right? That’s a big reason why we’re here, but loved the fight of our team, tough circumstances, being down like we were, guys in and out of the lineup and such.

“The group pulled together to give us a chance. Obviously, love and appreciate that part of our group. It’s a tough one to lose, tough way to go.”