Another first-round exit. Another elimination by way of the Boston Bruins. Another Game 7 failure.

You don’t have to have spent 30 years around the National Hockey League to know change is on the horizon in Toronto. The Core Four era has been given, justifiably I would say, a significant number of chances to run it back – to prove their early exits were a byproduct of poor puck luck, shoddy goaltending, or extremely tough first-round draws.

In years past, I would have been the first one filing a column defending the run-it-back strategy. It is hard to win in the NHL. You don’t disrupt reliably competitive teams without clearing a very high bar, and the Maple Leafs — strange as it is to say — have been one of the most successful teams during regular seasons over the past decade.

But this exit feels different. On the surface it feels like the next chapter of the same book, but ultimately I look at this series........

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