How QB development helped Cade Klubnik, Drew Allar reach the CFP
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
THE LOW POINT for Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik came after a Week 9 loss to NC State last year.
The Tigers were 4-4, assured of ending a streak of 12 straight seasons with 10 or more wins, and Klubnik was on the hook for the dynasty’s demise.
At least, that’s how it felt at the time.
Klubnik had been a prized recruit, but his ascendance at Clemson had come in fits and starts — a dizzying debut in mop-up duty, a long-delayed takeover of the offense in a rollicking ACC championship game win, a bowl loss, and now this.
In another era, the roller-coaster ride would’ve been part of the deal. Quarterbacks rarely develop into superstars overnight. It requires, as Clemson coach Dabo Swinney likes to call it, time “in the crock-pot.”
In this era, however, coaches and QBs rarely tolerate the slow simmer, and so the familiar narrative began for Klubnik, too.
“It was tough,” Klubnik told ESPN. “I had a lot of people in my ear after last season asking if I wanted to leave.”
That’s the preferred path these days. Look no further than the 2022 class, for which Klubnik was the crown jewel.
This year’s College Football Playoff will feature four starting QBs from the 2022 class: Klubnik, Penn State‘s Drew Allar, SMU‘s Kevin Jennings and Boise State‘s Maddux Madsen. Georgia‘s Gunner Stockton could add his name, depending on the health of starter Carson Beck. But they are the exceptions.
Of the top 30 QB recruits in that class, just four ended the regular season as a starter, and more than two-thirds have transferred. Klubnik and Allar are the clear-cut success stories, and even they’ve been dogged by criticism and setbacks. That they’re still here, on the verge of playoff games, is borderline miraculous.
Klubnik turned down all overtures from the outside. It helped that Clemson ended the 2023 season on a five-game winning streak and that Klubnik had seen marked — if gradual — growth in each outing. But it was more about his relationship with Swinney, about the time in that crock-pot.
“I never had any doubt with Cade,” Swinney said. “If I did, I would’ve gone and taken a big-time portal guy. But I believe in Cade. He’s a worker, he’s gifted, he’s smart. He deserves all the credit because he’s really grown.”
This is how the story is supposed to unfold, Swinney said. Quarterbacks are always a work in progress, and Swinney is aware of how rare it is to see someone like Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence sprint up the growth curve.
After last season ended, Swinney pulled Klubnik aside for a meeting. His message was simple: No, 2023 wasn’t good enough, but yes, he believed unflinchingly that Klubnik would become something special at Clemson.
“After a season you wouldn’t ever dream of having,” Klubnik said, “to have somebody like that come and tell you he still believes in you and trusts in you, that means a lot.”
So Klubnik stayed, and he improved, and though he still hasn’t blossomed into the latest version of Lawrence, he threw 33 touchdowns and has Clemson back in the College Football Playoff for the first time since Lawrence left town.
Klubnik isn’t so much a success story. He’s a byproduct of staying the course.
THERE WAS A familiar sense of dread as Klubnik fished the cell phone from his locker in the aftermath of Clemson’s Week 1 loss to Georgia in September.
A year ago — heck, even a few months earlier, he said — this would’ve been the salt in the wound. He had already deleted all social media apps from his phone, determined to avoid a toxic feedback loop, but the silence was sometimes worse. After a good game, the texts praising his play were ubiquitous — a week later, after accounting for seven touchdowns in a blowout win over Appalachian State, he’d have upwards of 120 messages waiting — but after losses, it was crickets.
This time, there were just five texts, all from friends or family who didn’t care if he won or lost.
There’s a lesson in that, Klubnik said.
“Find your circle,” Klubnik said. “You listen to the four or five people. Those are the people that are there for you in the hard times.”
That’s not always easy.
For star recruits, there’s always an endless supply of opinions from people outside the circle. The struggles are the result of a bad fit, bad coaching, bad fans, bad vibes. The money is better elsewhere. There will be less pressure and more praise. The grass is bright green, just on the other side of the transfer portal.
For coaches, it’s nearly as bad. The pressure to win — and win now — is immense, and living with a QB still paying his dues might mean you’re out of a job before seeing the fruits of that labor.
“It’s hard to have patience, because you have so much noise,” Swinney said. “It’s a lot harder than it used to be. Everybody wants to win yesterday, and unfortunately with quarterback play, it’s developmental.”
Swinney’s former defensive coordinator, Brent Venables, lived that paradox at Oklahoma this season. The Sooners went 6-6 in 2024, due in part to myriad injuries at receiver and along the O-line, but the brunt of the criticism fell on the coach and his quarterbacks.
Venables opened the year with sophomore Jackson Arnold (a former five-star recruit) as his starting QB, then switched to freshman Michael Hawkins Jr., then flipped back to Arnold, who ultimately landed in the transfer portal after the regular season. It was hard to find much enthusiasm amid the constant criticism of the QB play, but Venables said he worked tirelessly to recalibrate the message.
“Well before the season started, you were talking about these moments,” Venables said of the team’s offensive struggles. “We spend a lot of time throughout the year developing toughness and mindset. And every week you have to start completely over with your process. And if you do it the right way, [improvement] is usually more incremental than not.”
Incremental improvements can be a tough sell when the expectations of immediate success mix with the temptations of an easier path somewhere else.
Klubnik admits he was unprepared for the wave of criticism he endured, along with the endless pressure to win or move on during that 2023 campaign. It was the first real failure in his career, which included three state championships in high school and an ACC championship game MVP in his first significant action at Clemson. Suddenly the talent and the work weren’t enough to guarantee results, and so the little voice in his head that worried he didn’t belong was amplified by the countless voices from outside nudging him out the door.
“Just because you’re not listening to the criticism doesn’t mean you don’t hear it,” Klubnik said. “Those words can definitely be heavy.”
There were times last season, Klubnik said, when he didn’t want to go to class or go out to eat. He was the face of Clemson’s football program, and in a small college town, there was nowhere to hide.
Looking back though, Klubnik is grateful.
“Pain like that, it does something to people,” he said. “But it can make you better. I’m thankful I went through stuff like that because I came out better on the other side.”
To fail is to learn.
The problem, of course, is the lessons are only fully realized long after the losses are added to the standings.
NOBODY TOLD ALLAR to stay quiet. In fact, his coaches encouraged him to put his own stamp on Penn State’s offense last year, but that wasn’t his nature. He had spent his first year on campus learning under incumbent Sean Clifford, a four-year starter. With Clifford, it all looked like a well-oiled machine, so when Allar took over, he figured it was his job to conform to the status quo.
It mostly worked. Penn State went 10-3 in 2023, and Allar threw 25 touchdowns with just two interceptions. But in the big moments against Ohio State and Michigan, when the Nittany Lions needed something extra special from the QB, there was only more of the same.
It was only later, after Penn State brought in new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki to rejuvenate the offense last offseason, did Allar understand that he had gotten the math backward, that he needed to help tailor the offense, not conform to it.
“It’s about experience,” Allar said. “You can talk about development all you want, and learning behind somebody, but experience is the biggest thing. You gain more perspective on the things you need to be on top of, on communication with the staff, about being open and honest with them.”
He had heard all that before he took his first snaps at QB1, but it took a year of living it to really understand.
And yet learning on the job is a luxury afforded to too few elite QB prospects.
Of 2022’s top 30 QBs ranked by 247’s recruiting composite — a consensus of all major recruiting services, including ESPN’s — just seven have at least 10 starts under their belts, three years into their college careers. Of those seven, just two — Klubnik and Allar — remain at their original school. Nine have avoided the transfer portal, and of that group, four have either one or zero starts to their name.
Some of those top-30 QBs — Maalik Murphy, Walker Howard, Nate Johnson — are in the portal for a second time. Combined, the top 30 have a Total QBR of just 56.0, are completing less than 60% of their throws and average just more than 6 yards per dropback. More than a dozen still haven’t started a game.
There is no simple explanation for why the 2022 class is so rife with bad evaluations, but there are ample possibilities. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted critical junior seasons for this class and kept coaches from doing serious in-person recruiting. The extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of COVID also resulted in a wealth of veteran QBs in their fifth, sixth or seventh years retaining starting jobs, which relegated younger QBs to the bench.
Name, image and likeness took over the sport after many members of the 2022 class were committed, and the opening of the transfer portal at the same time made it easy for QBs to leave in search of more money, more playing time or more acclaim. The bottom line for the Class of ’22 — and likely, many more recruiting classes to come — is the odds are slim that more than a handful will find success with the team they sign with out of high school.
“If the kid’s not great as a freshman and the head coach is under a lot of pressure to win right now, you move on to the next guy,” Swinney said. “So there’s been this mass deal of one-year guys. Go get a guy that’s got a ton of experience.”
It’s the catch-22 of modern QB development: Every coach wants someone with experience, but getting experience requires a coach to live with the ups and downs of a young quarterback.
It’s perhaps not surprising then that, looking back at the Class of 2022, the biggest stars aside from Klubnik and Allar were largely overlooked on the recruiting trail.
Iowa State’s Rocco Becht was ESPN’s No. 36 pocket passer. USC‘s Jayden Maiava was No. 23. TCU‘s Josh Hoover was No. 24. Fernando Mendoza, a two-year starter at Cal before entering the portal this month, was No. 72.
Then there’s Madsen (No. 56) and Jennings (unranked), who’ll start playoff games alongside Klubnik and Allar this week, despite being largely passed over as recruits.
Those guys had the luxury of low expectations, which afforded them time to learn their craft without the constant pressure to perform immediately. When mistakes happened, they were expected. When success finally came, it was a surprise. Jennings, who played high school football in Texas at the same time as Klubnik, had a college experience that looks virtually nothing like what Clemson’s QB endured.
“Patience is not a good word in our world when it comes to coaches, fans, administrations,” Swinney said. “Sometimes the answer is right there, you just have to have some patience.”
AFTER CLEMSON LOST to South Carolina in the regular-season finale, a game that could have ended the Tigers’ playoff hopes, Klubnik slumped into his car and cried.
Losing is never easy, even with two years of starts under his belt.
But then a few hundred miles away, another former blue-chip recruit who had fallen from grace at Ohio State was engineering a miraculous comeback in Syracuse.
Kyle McCord has seen both sides of the modern QB’s story, proof the portal can be a curse or a blessing. A year ago, he won 11 of 12 games as Ohio State’s starter. He posted an 83.8 Total QBR, the second-best mark in the Big Ten, threw 24 touchdown passes to just six interceptions and had more than 3,100 passing yards. “When you’re a young quarterback, you care a lot about what people have to say about your performance, but you play great one week and they love you and you don’t the next week and you’re terrible,” McCord said. After a loss to Michigan at the end of the 2023 season, most Ohio State fans thought the latter. So McCord was shown the door. Ohio State opted to replace him with a transfer: Will Howard from Kansas State. (Interesting side note: The Buckeyes chose Howard over junior Devin Brown, ESPN’s No. 4 pocket passer in the Class of 2022, who entered the portal this month.) McCord landed at Syracuse, a school desperately in need of a veteran. In 2024, he threw for more than 4,300 yards with 29 touchdowns, including three in a Week 14 win over Miami that opened the door for Clemson to make one last push for the College Football Playoff and gave Klubnik another chance to live up to all those expectations. “Failing’s not fun, but it teaches you a lot,” McCord said. “I’ve learned the most from my failures. It’s easy to be a quarterback when you’re winning, and everything’s going great, but the moment it hits the fan and things are going south and you have to be the guy that calms the locker room down, that’s not easy to do at all.” KLUBNIK EDNURED THE ups and downs of 2023, stumbled in the opener this season, then righted the ship to get Clemson into the College Football Playoff. Allar stuck it out at Penn State. The Nittany Lions hired the right offensive coordinator. Now, they’re in the field, too. There’s probably little use in searching for a blueprint in those journeys beyond a simple understanding that most players get better with age and experience. “Just going through it, you learn from those mistakes you made,” Allar said. “You gain perspective.” Sometimes, the portal is the best path to figuring things out. Sometimes, a coach can’t wait for the seeds planted today to blossom when he also faces the threat of being fired. And sometimes, on increasingly rare occasions, there’s a player like Klubnik or Allar, who sticks it out just long enough for the pieces to finally click into place at the same school where the journey began. The point, perhaps, is that the job is hard, and no one has the perfect blueprint. It’s just about knowing the right guy when you see him. “I wasn’t where I wanted to be last year,” Klubnik said, “and I’m not where I want to be this year. I still see things I want to get better at.”
With a long-awaited ruling in the settlement of the House case expected this week, college sports are on the precipice of a major overhaul.
While Judge Claudia Ann Wilken still needs to issue a final approval on the long-awaited settlement, a decision is expected to arrive in the near future.
Changes will come quickly to the way college sports work if the settlement is formalized. Most prominent among them will be a change in how enforcement works, as the NCAA will no longer be in charge of traditional enforcement, and a CEO will soon be put in place with powers that never existed prior.
The CEO of college sports’ new enforcement organization — the College Sports Commission — will have the final say in doling out punishments and deciding when rules have been violated, according to sources, a level of singular power that never existed during the NCAA’s era of struggling to enforce its rules.
The CEO’s hire is expected to come quickly after the House settlement is finalized and has been spearheaded by the Power 4 commissioners from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. Their pick to lead the new agency will quickly become one of the most powerful and influential people in college sports. The hiring of a new CEO of the College Sports Commission already is deep in the process, per ESPN sources. The conducting of the search process before the job can officially be created is indicative of how quickly the entire billion-dollar industry will have to transform before games are played again in August. Nothing can happen formally until the judge’s decision, but the process is well underway.
The CEO of the commission will be one of the faces of this new era of college athletics. Sources have told ESPN to expect the person to come from outside college athletics and not to be a household name to college sports fans. The CEO is expected to make seven figures and, once the settlement is in place and they are hired, will have significant authority.
“All the institutions are going to have new membership agreements that we’re all agreeing to these new rules,” said an industry source familiar with the process. “The CEO is going to have responsibility to make sure everything is enforced and the governance model is sound. It’s a critically important role for the future of college sports and college football.”
The CEO is expected to report to a board, which is expected to include the power conference commissioners. The CEO will also be in charge of essentially running the systems that have been put in place — LBi Software and accounting firm Deloitte have been lined up to handle salary cap management and to manage the clearinghouse for name, image and likeness.
With the NCAA no longer involved with traditional enforcement, it will mark a distinct industry shift. (The NCAA will still deal with issues such as academics and eligibility.)
According to sources, a vision of what this leader could look like, and the extent of the position’s powers, is illustrated in drafts of so-called association documents that all schools are expected to sign to formalize the new enforcement entity. Basically, the schools need to agree that they’ll follow the rules.
While sources caution the documents that have been circulated are still in draft stage, sources say the draft includes language that the CEO will make “final factual findings and determinations” on violations of rules. The CEO will also “impose such fines, penalties or other sanctions as appropriate,” in accordance with the rules.
The schools have to accept these rulings “as final,” with the exception being if a school or athlete wants to challenge the discipline. They’d be required, per sources, “to engage in the arbitration process,” which is expected to be the sole recourse.
Per sources, when cases do end up in arbitration, under the procedures that govern arbitration, subpoena power is a potential option via the discovery process — an authority that was not available during NCAA investigations.
As college sports have zigzagged to where they are thanks to the direction of myriad lawsuits and rulings, the association agreement could also include a clause where the schools “agree to waive any right to a jury trial with respect to all disputes arising out of or relating to this agreement.” That notion would still need to be accepted by all the schools, and it’s not expected to prevent lawsuits from entities outside of the schools.
It’s worth noting that the lawsuits that have brought major changes to NCAA rules in recent years have started with attorneys general or with athletes. Congress is expected to still be needed to help create a legal framework for the new system to function without being tripped up by the current patchwork of state laws.
Enforcement has long been a thorn for the NCAA, which is now offloading one of its most controversial and least effective departments. All schools agree with enforcement as an ideal, but the issues come once the enforcement is enacted on them or their athletes.
Few coaches this generation have seen NCAA enforcement as an effective threat to follow the rules.
“It all starts with enforcement, and I’ve said this for a long time, ‘Until we have an enforcement arm put into place, we’re always going to be working sideways,'” Ohio State coach Ryan Day told ESPN on the “College GameDay” podcast recently. “I feel like before we set a rule, before we do anything, we have to put a structure in place where we can enforce rules on and off the field.”
The new organization looks to have expedited timelines and a highly compensated CEO to be the face of the decisions. (The NCAA used a committee on infractions.)
The drumbeat leading to the settlement is indicative of the past generations of behavior, as schools have been rushing to spend outside of the expected cap, with frontloading so significant that the highest-paid basketball roster is expected to have compensation totaling close to $20 million and football rosters are expected to be in the $40 million range.
Will schools fall in line once rules are put into place? Will the threat of enforcement be enough to settle down the landscape? It’s difficult for coaches to imagine player salaries going backward for 2026.
The ultimate deterrent will be stiff and consistent penalties to deter rule-breaking behavior, which have been elusive historically because of lack of NCAA enforcement prowess and the lengthy process of enforcement.
Purdue AD Mike Bobinski told ESPN in March that the punishments need to “leave a mark,” and he mentioned the New Orleans Saints’ Bountygate sanctions as an example of the type of punishment that changed behavior. (Then-Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season as part of the penalties.)
“We’ve screwed this thing up now to the point where we have to be willing to draw a line in the sand, and that will create some pain,” Bobinski said. “There’s no two ways about it, and we’ll find out who’s just going to insist on stepping over the line. But if they do, you got to deal with it forcefully and quickly.”
He added that the Big Ten has put a lot of thought and conversation into this, as he said the mindset has to be changed to where coaches and programs can’t consider breaking the rules “worth it.”
Bobinski added: “People are working hard on this thing. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy or it’s going to be accepted right out of the box, but I’d like to think we’ve got a chance at least to do it well.”
ESPN reporter Dan Murphy contributed.
Following the Florida Panthers‘ Game 7 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, the NHL’s final four is official: The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers will take on the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals, while the Dallas Stars face the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals.
This Eastern matchup is a rematch of the 2023 conference finals, won by the Panthers in a sweep. Can Carolina win this time, or will Florida head back to the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight year?
To help get you up to speed before the series begins Tuesday, we’re here with key intel from ESPN Research, wagering info from ESPN BET and more.
Paths to the conference finals:
Hurricanes: Defeated Devils in five, Capitals in five
Panthers: Defeated Lightning in five, Maple Leafs in seven
Leading playoff scorers:
Hurricanes: Seth Jarvis (four goals, six assists), Sebastian Aho (three goals, seven assists)
Panthers: Brad Marchand (three goals, nine assists), Eetu Luostarinen (three goals, nine assists)
Schedule:
Game 1: Panthers at Hurricanes | May 20, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 2: Panthers at Hurricanes | May 22, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 3: Hurricanes at Panthers | May 24, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 4: Hurricanes at Panthers | May 26, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 5: Panthers at Hurricanes | May 28, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 6: Hurricanes at Panthers | May 30, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 7: Panthers at Hurricanes | June 1, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Series odds:
Panthers: -125
Hurricanes: +105
Stanley Cup odds:
Panthers: +250
Hurricanes: +300
Matchup notes from ESPN Research
Hurricanes
The Hurricanes reached the conference finals for the sixth time in franchise history and third time in the past six years. Carolina’s three conference finals appearances since 2019 are tied with the Edmonton Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights for the second most in the NHL. The Dallas Stars have gone four times in the past six years.
Logan Stankoven is expected to make his Eastern Conference finals debut, after he appeared in the Western Conference finals with the Stars last year in his first NHL season. He will join Ville Leino (2009 and 2010) as the only players to play in both the Eastern and Western Conference finals in their first two seasons in the NHL (since 1994).
The Hurricanes have lost 12 straight games in the conference finals round. Their last win was Game 7 in 2006 vs. the Buffalo Sabres, when now-coach Rod Brind’Amour scored the eventual winning goal on a power play with 8:38 left in the third period after a puck-over-glass penalty. That 12-game losing streak includes being swept by the Panthers in 2023.
Carolina won its 10th playoff series under Brind’Amour since 2019; only the Lightning (11) have more series wins during that span.
Andrei Svechnikov‘s series-clinching goal 18:01 into the third period is the second-latest series-clinching goal in regulation in franchise history. Eric Staal scored 19:28 into the third period in Game 7 of the 2009 first round at the New Jersey Devils.
With their series win over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in the second round, the Hurricanes became the first team to eliminate the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer since the 1997 Philadelphia Flyers, who ousted Wayne Gretzky and the New York Rangers in the conference finals. Brind’Amour, then with the Flyers, had the series-clinching goal.
Panthers
The Panthers advanced to their third straight conference finals with a 6-1 win over the Maple Leafs in Game 7 in Toronto. Florida joins the Dallas Stars in 2023-25, Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020-22, Chicago Blackhawks in 2013-15, Los Angeles Kings in 2012-14 and Detroit Red Wings from 2007-09 as the only teams in the salary cap era (since 2005-06) to make it to three straight conference finals.
Florida trailed 2-0 in the series before coming back to win 4-3, marking the first time in franchise history they’ve overcome a 2-0 series deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series (they had previously been 0-5). The Panthers are the seventh reigning Stanley Cup champions in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to win a best-of-seven playoff round after facing a 2-0 series deficit.
The Panthers now have a 4-1 record in Game 7s, including 3-0 on the road, becoming the third franchise to win each of its first three road Game 7s (along with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild).
Brad Marchand had three points for the Panthers (one goal, two assists), giving him 10 career points in Game 7s, moving ahead of Alex Ovechkin (eight) for the most Game 7 points among active players, and tied him with Paul Stastny and Jari Kurri for 10th place on the all-time list. Marchand’s three-point total gives him 37 career playoff points vs. the Maple Leafs, passing Alex Delvecchio (35) for the second most by any player against Toronto in their playoff history, behind Gordie Howe (53). Marchand improved to 5-0 against the Maple Leafs in Game 7s for his career, becoming the first player in NHL history to defeat one franchise in five winner-takes-all games.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice also stayed perfect in Game 7s as a head coach, improving to 6-0. He is one of two head coaches in NHL history to win each of his first six career Game 7s, along with current Dallas bench boss Peter DeBoer (9-0).
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Greg Wyshynski
No player in Stanley Cup playoff history has tormented an opponent the way Florida Panthers winger Brad Marchand has tormented the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Panthers eliminated the Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 on Sunday night in Toronto, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes. Marchand became the first player in NHL history to defeat the same opponent in at least five winner-take-all games. He moved to a perfect 5-0 in Game 7s against the Maple Leafs — winning with the Boston Bruins in 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2024, before winning with the Panthers on Sunday.
Marchand had a goal and two assists in the victory.
“I grew up a Leafs fan. I enjoy playing against the Leafs. I enjoy interacting with fans. Like, it’s fun. It’s not something I’ll forever get to do,” he said after Game 7, which was Toronto’s seventh straight loss in a Game 7.
Marchand said that he hadn’t historically played well against Toronto in Game 7s. “It wasn’t me that beat them, it was our team,” he said. But Marchand was anything but a bystander in Florida’s Game 7 win. Marchand set up two goals — including the primary assist on Eetu Luostarinen‘s critical third-period goal just 47 seconds after Max Domi scored for the Maple Leafs — and tallied an empty-net dagger for his third goal of the playoffs.
With his three-point effort, Marchand is now second all time in career playoff scoring against the Maple Leafs with 37 points, trailing only Hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe (53).
“I think the thing about Toronto is that their fans are very in your face. They’re aggressive. They let you hear it all the time. So it’s just fun to interact [with them]. I interact with a lot of fans and I enjoy that part of it,” said Marchand, who also passed Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin (8) for the most career Game 7 points (10) among active players.
Boston traded Marchand, its captain, to Florida at March’s NHL trade deadline, ending a 16-year run with the Bruins that included a Stanley Cup championship in 2011 and two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
“It was his personality that I didn’t know,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He’s moved into that Matthew Tkachuk ‘hate them’ [role]. That’s a horrible word, but it’s close. And then they get here and they’re the exact opposite person that you thought they were. He’s just a wonderful human being.”
The Panthers dominated the Leafs from the opening draw, carrying play in Game 7 after Toronto extended the series with a Game 6 road victory Friday night. After two periods, the Panthers held a 70-33 advantage in shot attempts. That included a 39-14 gap in the second period, when Florida scored its first three goals.
Marchand factored into two important ones. Just 4:03 after Seth Jones opened the scoring, Marchand’s shot was deflected by Luostarinen off of goalie Joseph Woll‘s pads, and center Anton Lundell was there to clean it up for his fourth goal of the playoffs to make it 2-0. In the third period, Marchand’s pass was tipped home by Luostarinen.
“There are moments that you need to enjoy. Careers fly by. I’ve been at it a long time. I’m very fortunate. But it’s almost over. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by. I wish I was able to enjoy more moments,” Marchand said.
With the loss, the Maple Leafs suffered yet another postseason failure. Toronto hasn’t advanced past the second round since 2002. They infamously haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, the longest drought in the NHL for any franchise — including those that have never won a Cup in their existence.
After the game, Marchand was complimentary of this Toronto team. He said of all the Game 7s he has played against the Leafs, he was most nervous about this one because “they competed way harder than they ever have.” He felt criticism of this group, which might have played its last game together, was unwarranted.
“If you look at the heat this team catches, it’s actually really unfortunate. They’ve been working at building something really big here for a while,” he said. “They were a different brand of hockey this year, and they’re getting crucified. I don’t think it’s justified.”
That said, Marchand did have a little fun at Toronto’s expense on the TNT postgame show. When asked what the difference was in the Panthers locker room from Game 6 to Game 7, Marchand said “we just had that be-Leaf” — a winking reference to one of the rallying cries of Toronto fans.
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