"You can have regrets about the result, but don't have regrets about the effort."

Those were words Toronto Marlies coach John Gruden says were in his post-game address to the Marlies players after they were bounced out of the playoffs on Saturday night, losing to the Cleveland Monsters when they shot the puck past Matt Murray in the second overtime, with only 55 seconds left in the period. The Marlies lost Game #1 on Thursday in overtime as well.

The Marlies wound up in the best-of-three scenario after slowly dropping down the North Division standings and finishing in fourth place, meaning they had to face the fifth place Monsters in the play-in tournament. They were solidly in third place with only ten games left in the season, and second place before that and could have skipped the play-in, but slowly dropped down the division standings after a string of losses near the end the season.

To say the players were devastated is an understatement. Captain Logan Shaw was visibly wiping away a few tears while coming to acceptance that all the work and effort through the whole 72-game regular season was lost and rendered irrelevant over the course of only two games in three days.

"Ten minutes they dominated. Ten minutes we dominated," said Gruden about the team's effort in both games. That domination by the Marlies on Saturday started with two straight goals by Zach Solow, who has been a reliable scorer for the team all season.

It was a true back and forth game, and the Marlies were able to tie it up in the third period at 3-3 in the most dramatic way when Robert Mastrosimone was awarded a penalty shot and got it right in the net.

Both teams made it through the first overtime without scoring despite there being many chances. When the second overtime period started it had become obvious the players were exhausted, with it now at 8:00 p.m. for a game that started at 4:00. The play became a bit sloppier, but there was still energy and it looked increasingly like it would go all the way to a rare third overtime, but that was not to be when in the final minute James Malatesta, a 2021 draft pick by the Blue Jackets, ended the game.

Gruden attempted to find something good about the end result noting that he was happy "it was a good goal, it wasn't some fluke goal that went in," but it was clear he didn't really think that was something to be proud of, simply a statistic about the game.

Logan Shaw, very emotional, summed up the season saying "we built something and everyone in there should be proud, and we built it together," adding "we had something special," and "it's tough to lose like that when we worked hard all year, from September 17, when training camp started, it wasn't easy, some long road trips, some late nights, some tough losses."

Hinting that he knows there will be changes for next season, he added "there's a lot of guys in there who may never play for the Marlies again, but I will call them my best friends forever."

He ended with "I'm proud to call myself a Marlie, but I would like to come back next year and finish better than we have the last couple of years."

Finally, a thank you to the Marlies organization for letting us cover the games this season. Kate, Danielle, Todd, Christian, Tomas, you are all the best.

Toronto Marlies