This is a long winded way to say blow it up.
Again the 'Core Four' are the only ones accountable, even when they deliver it's never enough and everyone else on the team gets a pass on outright sucking because they don't make 10 million. It's shallow analysis.
I'll over simply it, a bunch of game 7s, Leafs would have been fine if they got a few more saves but they keep being cheap in net.
As for the 'fix everything with a Marner trade'? Really, look at this thread, 'maybe if the Leafs retain someone might be willing to take Mitch'. Nah, not begging anyone do 'do us a favor' just extend the 100 point winger and figure out the rest over the course of the next 8 years. Instead people want to panic and ship him to be short sighted reactionary cause Leafs Nation tummy still hurts after a pwayoff loss
'Playoff style hockey' is a cope, the style of play in the playoff is 100% based on the matchup. Boston will play different than Edmonton. Mitch is a snakebite Boston and Florida, just like every other superstar those teams play. You don't give up on a superstar/cornerstone because he didn't dominate in a series no forward on either team dominated.
A true hockey deal for Mitch, sure I'm open to that but giving him away because a section of Leafs Nation are straight up emotional cry babies? Nah.
To an extent, yes. The Leafs were equipped to go far in 2019, when they had absolutely ridiculous depth. Tavares, Matthews and Kadri down the middle. Wingers which inlcuded Nylander, Marner, Kapanen, Johnsson, Hyman, Marleau & Brown. The way they were able to achieve that, is because Matthews and Marner were both on their ELCs.
The Leafs knew they were killing that by giving the big money to Matthews & Marner instead of bridge deals. In foresight, it honestly wasn't the worst idea, with projected cap increases, those deals should have "turned green" around year 2 or 3, and been incredible deals towards the end.
Obviously, COVID happened, and that stagnated salaries around the NHL. It took until 23-24 for Mackinnon to make Matthews the 4th highest pair player in the league, and that only lasted 1 year before Matthews is now overpaid as the league's most expensive player. For Marner, even today, he's still overpaid, his comparables are mostly in the $9m range and hasn't neccessarily grown all that much from the 94-point player he was in 2018-19.
With Nylander now being overpaid as well (how Treliving managed to think giivng him more than his buddy Pasta was appropriate, boggles my mind) , barring Marner signing an absolute sweetheart deal ($9m), the Leafs would have to knowingly sign up for years of disappointments before the cap rises enough to allow depth to fill out. You could make an arguement that was a reasonable approach when these guys were 21-22. They're now 27-28, in the prime of their careers, and as their cap hit %s decline, so will their likely productivity.
There's also the much more basic challenge of fit & style. There's an old saying in hockey to win the cup you have to beat a fast team, you have to beat a big team, you have to beat a solid defensive team, and you have beat one that's going to try and beat the living daylights out of you.... something about basically that you have to be able to beat 4 different types of teams, which is 100% true.
Those 3 guys all excel in the same type of game -- one where there's open ice and where there are odd man rushes. They were equipped to beat Tampa because Tampa is happy to play that style. While Matthews is quite adaptable to a cycle-based game, Nylander and Marner aren't really suited for it. You can't have $24m of wingers that lose effectiveness against specific teams/styles.