Ex-Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle reflects on lessons from infamous Game 7 loss to Bruins

“There’s a lot of things that happened that you look back on,” he said. “Everyone will say you should have called a timeout, you should have did this, you should have did that. … There are always some things that you look back at and think maybe I could have done something different, but you can’t change what happened.”

A former player himself, Carlyle spoke Wednesday about how the joy of coaching is getting to stay so close to the game after hanging up your skates. At the same time, it means the frustration of not being able to jump on the ice and help the team when things are going south as they did in that particular playoff game. Ultimately, it came with a major takeaway that is quite pertinent for the Leafs today.

“Sometimes it’s on the players,” he said. “Sometimes the players, especially young players, have to go through those situations, and they’ve gotta be the ones that are gonna make the difference out there.”

Still, Carlyle ultimately takes accountability for the loss, reflecting on one lesson he took as a coach on how Toronto could have been more forward.

“If there was one thing that I could say was a mistake that I made in that situation, it’s that we weren’t aggressive enough,” he said. “We sat back. And that was the one thing I’m very, very sorry about. We weren’t aggressive. Specifically off an opening draw to send two men off the forecheck, no, we only sent one.”