The Toronto Maple Leafs after undergoing major change after their second-round playoff exit.

Leafs president Brendan Shanahan got the short haircut after 11 years. More firings seem likely, since Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley is taking a hard look at the franchise’s huge, multi-layered front office.

And here is another big change: Coach Craig Berube will have a greater voice in personnel matters going forward. Berube will work with general manager Brad Treliving to reshape the roster.

“I’m confident in Brad. I’m confident in Craig. I am confident in the resources that we have,” Pelley said Friday during a press conference at Scotiabank Arena, “But I do believe that we as the custodians of the biggest hockey brand in the world have a responsibility to our fans — and that responsibility is winning championships.

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“And we will do everything we possibly can and will not stop until we reach that goal.”

Pelly believes Berube is the right coach to lead that quest. Berube won a Stanley Cup in St. Louis. He possesses a clear vision for what it takes to win in the NHL, and he articulates that vision with great clarity.

Berube does not spew coaching mumbo-jumbo. Chief keeps it real.

“I’m a firm believer that the coach has to be involved more than just on the day of the game and in the dressing room. And we have a wonderful asset in Craig,” Pelley said. “Culture and chemistry is critical. I do believe that if you have the right culture and the right chemistry, it can make the difference.”

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment also owns the Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts franchises. Pelley eliminated the team president role for those teams, too, so that he could become the sounding board for the personnel decision-maker.

He is blowing up the Shanaplan, Brendan Shanahan’s effort to build a champion with Core Four forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.

Heavy investments in four scorers kept the Maple Leafs from spending more on their defensive unit, goaltending and supporting cast forwards.

The blockbuster signing of Tavares for $77 million over seven years didn’t pay off. Neither did the decision to re-up Nylander for eight years and $92 million.

Now Marner and Tavares are headed toward free agency. At least one of them seems likely to move on as the Maple Leafs build a different sort of roster.

“Change is natural in sport, but change is hard,” Pelley said. “This is a results-driven business, and it’s about winning championships. And sometimes you need change to get to the next level. And that’s what we feel we needed right now.

“Make no mistake about it, making the playoffs and winning rounds is not our aspirational goal. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup.”

Here is what folks have been writing about the NHL playoffs:

Shawn P. Roarke, NHL.com: “Edmonton has the upper hand, both historically and emotionally. Despite a shaky second period, in which the Oilers already had a 2-0 lead, the Oilers dominated long stretches of this game after being dominant in Game 2. Not only has McDavid started to find his footing, but other players are getting going as well. Hyman had his first goal in seven games to make it 4-1. Nugent-Hopkins and Kane each had three assists. Skinner stopped each of the 25 shots he faced in Game 3 and added 33 saves on 34 shots in Game 3.”

Greg Wyshynski, ESPN.com: “The final score doesn’t reflect the majority of this (6-1 Oilers victory), which Dallas coach Pete DeBoer can mine for positives among the many (many) negatives and some mitigating circumstances. Having Roope Hintz warm up but not be able to go because of the foot injury he sustained from a Darnell Nurse slash in Game 2? That’s deflating. Having the on-ice officials miss a delay-of-game call on Brett Kulak in the first period only to have Evan Bouchard open the scoring 10 seconds later? Also deflating. So it’s to the Stars’ credit that they got to their game at 5-on-5 in Game 3 better than they have in any game of the series, at least before Edmonton ran up the score in the third. The results weren’t there and a loss is a loss — and a loss by this margin is difficult to stomach — but their second period and the performances from some of their slumbering depth players give the Stars at least a glimmer. But there’s no question Edmonton has this thing in well in hand, and the Stars have to find a way to solve (Stuart) Skinner, which is not something I thought I’d be writing at this stage of the postseason.”

Ray Ratto, The Defector: “When Paul Maurice was hired out of retirement to heal the Florida Panthers’ multitude of competitive leprosies, he was called in some corners “the enemy of fun.” This happened because of the way he likes to play—simple, direct, minimizing open-ice flair, and emphasizing all things heavy. He is not a brutish tactician, but he recognized, without ever having the CV to prove it, that winning in April, May, and June requires a devotion to power, persistence, and crowd control in front of the net that hockey’s regular-season dilettantes never seem to fully grasp . . . Florida wins games the way a certain type of snake eats: patiently and mercilessly, and then wholly and comprehensively. Maybe Paul Maurice is not the enemy of fun after all—he’s just the enemy of your fun. The Panthers, for their part, are having a blast.”

Michael Russo, The Athletic: “Make no mistake, the defending Cup champs are built for this time of year from Line 1 to Line 4, from Defense Pair 1 to Defense Pair 3, and certainly in net with their future Hall of Fame goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky. But besides being so utterly talented, the Panthers, up and down their lineup, are downright mean and nasty. They come at you hard. They test your courage. They not only make you question everything about your game and what got you here, but they also make you decide if you really want it as much as they do. The Canes don’t. They look like a team that no longer wants to be pushed, prodded and picked apart anymore. They look like a team that no longer wants to absorb pucks to the shins, punches to the face, cross-checks to the lower back or slashes to the legs. They are being dummied, both in the final score and all over the ice and sure seem to be awfully close to a summer vacation. The Panthers are the NHL’s bad boys. They are old school in the way NHL players used to do it.”

Adam Proteau, The Hockey News: “Heading into the Eastern Conference final of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes were in a very good place. They demolished the New Jersey Devils in five games in the first round, then eliminated the Washington Capitals with relative ease by sending them home in a five-game second-round victory. And the ‘Canes did it with defense, allowing only seven goals to the Caps, and just 11 goals to the Devils. With that in mind, it was fair to presume the Hurricanes would put the squeeze on the defending Cup-champion Florida Panthers in the Eastern final. But instead, the opposite has happened.” 

“We know it hasn’t been good enough for us, obviously, but if you have that mindset, then the countdown is on. You can’t have it. Hockey is a game of reaction. It’s a game of feeling. Yes, there’s all the other things, the game plan and stuff, but you also have to be feeling good, so you have to get rid of the nerves, get rid of all the tightness in you. We’ve got to have our best game. Just come out and play together and play our game. We know we can be tough to handle if we’re all playing together.”

Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns, on his team facing elimination from the Florida Panthers.

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