This ridiculous Maple Leafs team is at the end of an era. Fans might as well

It’s over. Finally.

The seven-year journey that saw Brendan Shanahan and Kyle Dubas and Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner combine to create a Leafs team that was somehow both the best of the modern era but also the biggest failure — that story ends tonight. Or maybe Friday. Or maybe a few days after that. But definitely soon.

It ends in one of two ways. Either with one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history, as a team that can’t win when it matters finds a way to do it four straight times and finally, mercifully, permanently slays its own well-earned reputation for always playing down to the moment. Or it ends in defeat, maybe even a humiliating sweep, at which point the process of tearing it all down finally begins.

Two pathways, headed in opposite directions, but only one destination: One way or another, it’s the end of an era. This is finally over.

If you’re a Maple Leafs fan, you’re probably thinking: Praise Wendel. We can’t take any more of this. Just let it end.

And that’s why today, as we count down the hours to Game 4, shouldn’t feel like a funeral. If anything, this is a celebration. Embrace it. We’re getting out, whichever way this goes. This prison is either going to throw open the front doors or it’s going to crumble down around us, but either way, we’ll finally see the sun. It may be just hours away. And it’s a good thing.

So that’s what you get today. No gloomy pre-mortems, in which we say goodbye to a team that’s technically still alive but headed towards inevitable crushing defeat. (I already did that, in 2021.) No hand-wringing about how hard this team has been to love. (I did that one too, earlier this season.) No ominous threats about who’ll deserve what if it all ends badly. (I did that one a few weeks ago.) Not even any howling at the skies about how unfair it’s all been. (I … well, that’s pretty much been my entire writing career.)

And not even any analysis of how it all went wrong. That may be only hours away, and when the moment comes then you’ll get a firehose of feedback on that topic. Some of mine may already be pre-written. What can I tell you, this team teaches you about efficiency.

But that’s not for right now. It’s game day, maybe the last of the season, and maybe the last of the era. You Leafs fans know the drill by now. And the dread. Once more into the ditch, dear friends, once more.

But I just can’t bring myself to serve up another helping of mumbly misery for this team. I’m done. I’m all angsted out. I guess I must not be a playoff opponent in a do-or-die game, because this Maple Leafs team has beaten me.

My very first post on The Athletic was way back in 2016, as the story was just beginning. The Leafs had just drafted Auston Matthews — there he is at the top of the page, pre-mustache, looking impossibly baby-faced — and optimism was everywhere. Matthews had scored four goals in his debut. Marner looked good. So did fellow rookie