Sad-sack Maple Leafs have big decisions to make, starting with management

Mirko Bibic didn’t score a goal against the Florida Panthers, which meant he wound up tied in the series with Auston Matthews.

Edward Rogers and Tony Staffieri didn’t score either — same as captain John Tavares.

Yet those three scoreless but powerful men — more than even Larry Tanenbaum — representing the majority ownership of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment — will determine which direction the failed Maple Leafs will go in after today, after another year of lost opportunity, after more broken hockey hearts and playoff emptiness.

The time has come for change. You can’t wait any longer on this failed plan. The question that Bibic, the CEO of Bell, and Staffieri the CEO of chief rival Rogers and the sporting voice of Rogers, the ubiquitous prodigal son Edward, need to deal with first is the status of club president Brendan Shanahan.

If they choose to maintain Shanahan as president, then he has to present to them some kind of plan which isn’t same old same old: The Leafs lost 3-2 in overtime Friday night, lost the series 4-1 to the Panthers, scored 10 goals in five games in the series. Two in each game. A ridiculous number for a team of this kind of high-end skill.