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“For me, I’m in my 10th year,” said Tavares, the lone Leaf scorer in a 5-1 loss to Boston in Game 7. “These opportunities, you recognize and appreciate them more and more. You don’t take any of them for granted. You know how hard it is to win. You never know when it is your time to make it happen, especially when you have a team and the quality we have, the depth we have. You want to maximize that.

“It’s hard to grasp. You want to make the most of this. We didn’t. At some point, you lick your wounds, look at yourself in the mirror and find ways to improve, and find a way to get better and find a way to break through.”

Boston did it again, ending Toronto’s season for the third time since 2013. The Bruins will play the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second round. The Maple Leafs will clean out their lockers, wondering what might have been.

“It sucks,” said Leafs winger Mitch Marner. “We believe in this team. We have a lot of confidence in this team. When the season ends early, it sucks.

“It’s got to stay with us. We have to be hungry for this next year, and make sure we come back p—-ed off.”

While Boston-pc28����in round one seemed inevitable for months, after Tampa pulled away from the pack in the East, the stakes rose and the path to the Stanley Cup seemed to open up when the Blue Jackets upset the Lightning in their first-round series.

Both the Leafs and Bruins considered themselves Cup contenders, moreso after Tampa was eliminated.

Boston earned the chance the Leafs wanted.

“We have to push through this,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “You can’t be talking about going home after a playoff series. We’ve improved our team drastically. This series, we were a way better team than we were a year ago. But we’re at the same point with the same result. That part is disappointing.

“We’re going in the right direction. You see in the NHL, how competitive it is. We knew we were going to play this team (Boston) or Tampa. We knew it was going to be very competitive. I was impressed with our group.”

Boston burst out to a 2-0 first-period lead, feeding off pc28����turnovers, and led 2-1 heading into the third. The Leafs had led in the third period in their previous Game 7 meetings.

But it was still intense, offering the fireworks and big hits and big plays and big saves that a Game 7 should. The Leafs held Boston’s big guns off the scoreboard, but the Bruins put in a better effort — clearing pucks and getting goals from role players, with Joakim Nordstrom and Marcus Johansson scoring in the first period.

The Leafs gained some momentum in the second period and were rewarded with the Tavares goal. Boston got its mojo back to start the third, though, with Sean Kuraly adding an insurance marker, the weakest goal Frederik Andersen allowed all night. Charlie Coyle and Patrice Bergeron both scored into an empty net. Game over.

It was a season that started out so promising, a swashbuckling group of youngsters eager to prove their status as Stanley Cup contenders — bolstered by the addition of Tavares, the hometown star. But it ended the way it always seems to: with a first-round elimination.

“We had the lead in the series and we weren’t able to put them in a tough spot,” said Tavares. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. We’re playing a really good team in Boston. We had a great opportunity, and it’s disappointing we weren’t able to come through.”

The Maple Leafs have not made it to the second round since 2004. They’re 12-12 all-time in Game 7s — 5-11 on the road, the last three of those losses in Boston.

There’s no question that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has his work cut out for him in the off-season, starting with signing Marner to a new deal while finding a way to keep his young core together despite a salary-cap crunch. He’s promised not to trade William Nylander.

The cap will be tight next season. They have $68 million (all dollars U.S.) tied up already — not counting injured Nathan Horton’s $5.3 million — in 10 forwards, six defencemen and two goalies. If Marner signs for about $11 million a year, as has been speculated, that will bring them to $79 million with the cap likely around $84 million.

There won’t be enough left to keep pending restricted free-agents Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson and Igor Ozhiganov as well as unrestricted free-agents Gardiner, Tyler Ennis and Ron Hainsey. Gardiner, if healthy, could command up to $7 million, while Johnsson has arbitration rights which could see him earn a big reward after a 20-goal rookie campaign.

The Leafs, like all teams, can go 10 per cent over the cap during the summer, which would help them match any offer sheets that might come their way.

Keeping the core together will mean losing some pieces. Beyond Gardiner — the only Leaf who played in all three Game 7 losses to Boston and almost assuredly gone — Dubas will have to make hard choices. Nazem Kadri, whose hot-headed play makes him a liability in the playoffs, might be traded — freeing up some of his $4.5 million in space. Connor Brown, overpaid as a fourth-liner at $2.1 million, might be moved.

The biggest obstacle: Patrick Marleau, with his no-movement clause and a $6.25-million cap hit.