Today the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Ottawa Senators in Game One of their playoffs. Can we pray for ONE Cup? This year, let it be

[shockedcanadian]

Leafs have been the most absurd chokers for years. Very good regular seasons but constantly lose come playoffs. This after decades of futility rivalling the old Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Soz failures.

In the last 9 seasons they have 1 playoff series win and 8 losses. Most of their losses in Game Seven as they go the distance and lose time and again.

May somehow they win a Cup finally. I usually don't have much confidence but they are playing a team-first game and were excellent down the stretch playing playoff style hockey.

 

[yeh]

I've been to a dozen or so hockey games in my life, but can't say I'm a regular fan. I watch tv games and have listened on the radio, but haven't watched lately. Anyway, hasn't it been almost 50 years since the Toronto Maple Leafs won the whole thing (1968?)? What happened to them?

Also, what happened to Montreal? They used to be the New York Yankees of the NHL, but at least the Yankees can still pull off a title now and again.

The casual fan would say cheap ownership. Is that the case here? If you're good enough to reach the playoffs regularly, then that says something. Do they just not sign the best players?

 

[shockedcanadian]

They almost blew a 3-0 series lead. Florida will be a different challenge altogether.

Where are you from, friend...?

You just joined yesterday and you follow hockey and the Maple Leafs? What are the odds, eh?

 

[odanny]

Leafs have been the most absurd chokers for years. Very good regular seasons but constantly lose come playoffs. This after decades of futility rivalling the old Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Soz failures.

In the last 9 seasons they have 1 playoff series win and 8 losses. Most of their losses in Game Seven as they go the distance and lose time and again.

May somehow they win a Cup finally. I usually don't have much confidence but they are playing a team-first game and were excellent down the stretch playing playoff style hockey.

Not this year, they flamed out in spectacular fashion in a Game 7 home loss to the defending champs, 6-1, and this comes after another ugly beatdown at home against Florida in Game 5.

The fans of the Leafs never had a chance to cheer much in their series against Florida, surely not at home games.



Though these Leafs are now gone, they will always live on in our hearts, remembered not-all-that-fondly for winning a ton of regular-season games, piling up individual accolades (and cap hits), and coming up small whenever a true showing of determination and fortitude was needed.

May they rest in peace.

---

If you want a silver lining here, after a brutal 6-1 loss in Game 7, I can offer you only this: The Leafs left no grey area here. No one who watched this series can come away convinced that they are “this close” to breaking through. No one can defend the status quo.

If there was lingering doubt that this group was different than the ones that lost their previous six winner-take-all games, it was obliterated by Toronto’s two worst performances of the season in Game 5 and Game 7. This was a series that was right there, after they caught Florida off guard in the first three games. It was then given away with successively weaker performances.

The deep frustration that has been building in this fan base over the past six or seven years is now so obvious and unavoidable, for the players, coaches, management, and — perhaps most importantly — ownership, that major change is needed.

That was hammered home rather emphatically when the fans in attendance threw jerseys on the ice and booed the Leafs off of it repeatedly, two home games in a row.

“For me, it’s all between the ears,” head coach Craig Berube said of his team’s performance in those games. “It’s a mindset. These guys are capable of doing it. You’ve just got to execute it. And we didn’t execute it … That’s the bottom line.”

He was also asked if the composition of this team’s roster needs to change to “have more fire in it.”

The Leafs only scored 17 goals in the series, 2.43 per game, and only four of them came in the final four games. The power play — with four of the highest-paid players in the NHL on the top unit — converted at only 10 percent. They were heavily outshot and outplayed with the series on the line multiple times, but most egregiously in Game 7, when Florida ran them out of the rink in outshooting them 18-5 in the second period.

Toronto’s $47 million Core Four group of forwards scored only once in four games after Game 3, following a pattern late in series that’s persisted for years, where they get tighter and less effective the more that is on the line.

When it happened in 2018 and 2019, the excuse was that this was a young team up against a very strong opponent in the then-dominant Boston Bruins.

When it happened in 2020 and 2021, against lesser competition, the conversation was over whether these were anomalies, due to a hot goalie or bad luck, and if a change to the mix around them was needed to get the most out of their still-learning stars.

But the debate over whether they needed a true heart transplant at the top of the lineup started in earnest two or three years ago, after they didn’t learn anything following frittering away that 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens. That upper management dug in and held on, changing everything but the main pieces of the roster through what’s now four more ugly losses, has led us to here.

The Maple Leafs imploded again. How they lost shows what needs to change

It's been a long nine years, but at last it's become clear that the Leafs are in need of a heart transplant.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Mashmont]

Leafs have been the most absurd chokers for years. Very good regular seasons but constantly lose come playoffs. This after decades of futility rivalling the old Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Soz failures.

In the last 9 seasons they have 1 playoff series win and 8 losses. Most of their losses in Game Seven as they go the distance and lose time and again.

May somehow they win a Cup finally. I usually don't have much confidence but they are playing a team-first game and were excellent down the stretch playing playoff style hockey.

I went to an Islanders' game once. Afterwards, their fans sat there waiting for the fourth quarter.

 

[shockedcanadian]

It's interesting that the guy who I replied to is no longer on the site and his post is no longer there in this thread but he commented on the Leafs beating Ottawa on May 1st. Luckily I took a screenshot as it was an interesting post right as the game ended. I suspect a DRPS creep based on my information (shhhh, just one of a few creeps trying to obfuscate and confuse while they send various jurisdiction to burn through their bottomless budget pit).

Was this creepy one looking to confirm something regarding my IP, ISP or username? I even called the suspected creepy one out with my comment referring to the Stasi wannabe as "friend".

Creeps and those bigger creeps who blindly support them, the classic "just following orders".

I get the feeling Americans have many of your own Creepy Ones operating this site and they protect the Canadian Creepy Ones with vigor. Creepy indeed. What a way to ruin your site. Zombies who piss on the same Rights Canadian Creepy Ones piss on.

Just what should American soldiers go to fight for? To protect American freedoms to work with Creepy Canadian cops?

Reminds me of the story about U.S police agencies going after the Black Panthers in the 60s and they had to discontinue the operations because half of the people who made up the Black Panthers were undercovers...

 

[apolitical]

I'm not a fan of Winnipeg or Canada's teams, but I thought it would have been cool if they'd won it all after tying game 7 with 1.6 seconds left. Now, that will be just a footnote.