The Toronto Maple Leafs Straight Up Refuse To Win Series Clinching Games, Ottawa Forces Game 6 After Spanking Toronto
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.There are teams who are significantly worse. There are teams that never make it to the postseason, and are just god awful from the start of the season to the end. But out of every professional sports team on the planet, there's not a bigger group of losers than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Since 2018, the Leafs are now 1-13 in potential series clinching games. They were able to climb back from being down 3-1 in the first round of the 2018 playoffs against Boston, but ultimately ended up losing in game 7 of that series. In 2019 they lost the final 2 games of their first round series against Boston after being up 3-2, and lost that series in 7 games again. They lost in game 5 in the qualifying round series to Columbus in the 2020 Bubble. Once again in 2021, it was a game 7 loss in the first round of the playoffs. This time they lost the final 3 games of that series after blowing a 3-1 series lead. It was another game 7 loss in the first round in 2022 to Tampa Bay. They were up 3-2 in the series, and lost game 6 in overtime. Then they lost game 7 to give them 9 straight losses in series clinching games.
Finally in 2023, they got over the hump and won their first playoff series since 2004. They took down the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games, but they still lost in game 5 with a chance to put the series away. They got stomped by the Panthers in the next round. Then we get to last year where the Leafs once again lost in 7 games to the Boston Bruins.
This year they stormed out of the gates in the Battle of Ontario and jumped out to a 3-0 series lead against the Ottawa Senators. Leafs fans were already making highlight videos for the 2nd round. They were already trying to plan where they'd be watching all the Cup Final games at in a few weeks. Game 4 goes to overtime and then…
Jake Sanderson tells the team to load the bus up with some gas because they are bringing the series back to Toronto. The Leafs couldn't close out the Senators in Ottawa, but maybe they just wanted to close out the series in front of their hometown crowd. So it's on to game 5 we go and…OH MY FUCKING GOD.
This goal right here. This is the one. This is the goal where you can tell that it's not just the Leafs having bad luck or anything like that. The Toronto Maple Leafs have no idea how to win a series clinching game. You lose 4 or 5 over the span of a few years and it's bad luck. You go 1-13 over the last 8 seasons and that 1 win clearly becomes the exception. Are they cursed? Do they just hate playing hockey? Do they just refuse to compete?
I mean it's a god awful turnover from Auston Matthews. Just serves up a pizza right to Gaudette. Nylander decides to coast the entire backcheck and lets Cozens get in behind everybody. Ridly Greig took a god awful penalty to give Toronto a massive powerplay in the 3rd period, and it turns into a shorthanded goal for the Senators. Matthews, Marner and Nylander have literally never scored a powerplay goal in games 5-7 in playoff series. Those are guys who you pay to be killers, and it's almost better to just decline penalties once it gets to crunch time.
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It's incredible cinema. At some point you'd think you would get sick of seeing the same collapse over and over for the Leafs. At some point you'd think it would be better if they started to build up a little more hope by advancing through a few more rounds before the heartbreak. But somehow it gets better every single time. They've already blown a 3-1 series lead over the last few years. Why not try to one-up themselves by blowing a 3-0 lead?
See ya game 6 back in Ottawa on Thursday night. Continue praying to the hockey gods for a reverse sweep.