Maple Leafs' Core 4 Face Defining Moment With Franchise Future on the Line Tonight

As the Maple Leafs look to take Game 6 on the road in Florida, all eyes are going to be on the Core Four as they look to showcase what little life they have left and push things to a seventh game yet again, hoping for a different result.

They're going back to what's worked, and with the importance of the game not really advertised much, it's not just your typical playoff contest.

This will determine where the Maple Leafs are headed, and how wildly different this team is going to (and need to) look.

We've seen Game 7's before, we've seen Toronto with their back against the wall, but never with such high stakes.

Win tonight, win Game 7, with a strong showing from the Core Four? You bet your bottom dollar that fans alone would build statues of the quartet, giving them the heroic welcome they would rightly deserve.

But follow up a 2-0 series lead with four straight losses to the defending champs? It might be time to blow it up from top to bottom.

Look, all credit needs to be given to Brendan Shanahan for what he has built, but it hasn't been perfect, heavily flawed at times, and he might be the first one who will be packing his things and headed out the door.

Brad Treliving's job should be fine, and Craig Berube just got here and turned the team into a contender.

It's not his fault the stars haven't shone.

John Tavares and William Nylander have done their best to keep the team in it, but Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner have hardly touched the elite level expected of them.

Speaking of, if they don't perform well together again in Game 6 and leave broken and disappointed then you can almost guarantee Marner is going to be gone and perhaps he should.

Something has to change, and Matthews and Nylander are both sticking around for the long haul. John Tavares is more likely re-signing but might start to regress in a year or two leading to questions about his fit in the lineup.

Though he's not part of the Core Four, Morgan Rielly has the potential to be moved, not to mention Max Domi, Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg, and Calle Jarnkrok are also high probabilities to be shipped out.

Toronto has their fair share of free agents they could look to that wouldn't exactly replace Marner, but would add some necessary pieces.

It's going to sting to not have them all together, but the Maple Leafs might prove PK Subban right, and spinning their wheels for nearly a decade with the same lineup that's had minimal success is a bit perplexing.

Whether it's bringing in new faces, promoting a youth movement that can be mentored by the stars still left, or a complete implosion that sees an unrecognizable Leafs team take the ice next season, the Core Four experiment is over with a Game 6 loss.

Perhaps it should be though, because they've thrown everything they can at the wall and nothing's stuck so far.