For the Toronto Maple Leafs, they lost their longest serving player. For the fans, they lost their own personal whipping boy.
I am personally a huge Jake Gardiner fan. I believe in measuring things, and so when the stats say that he’s one of the most effective overall defenseman in the NHL over the last three years, then I take that as the truth.
I know it can be hard to rethink what you’ve been told to believe, but Gardiner did so many little things overall, that it more than made up for the occasional gaffe that would get replayed 20x more than necessary just because it was Gardiner and it fit the narrative.