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Toronto Maple Leafs Season Was Great, but It Sucks to Lose

By James Tanner |
Apr 17, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bozak (42) is embraced by forward Auston Matthews (34) after scoring the overtime winner in a 4-3 win over Washington Capitals in game three of the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 17, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bozak (42) is embraced by forward Auston Matthews (34) after scoring the overtime winner in a 4-3 win over Washington Capitals in game three of the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost a heartbreaker to the Capitals last night.

Leading with only seven minutes and change to go, the Toronto Maple Leafs went down in overtime to the Captials.  Specifically, the speedy Marcus Johannson who had both Captials goals.

For the Leafs the loss is pretty confusing.

On one hand, it’s pretty great that they did as well as they did.  They were the worst team in the NHL last year, and they just took the best team in hockey to five overtime games in six tries.

The best part of that is that they didn’t just almost win because of goaltending or lucky bounces. The Toronto Maple Leafs stood toe-to-toe with the Capitals.  They outplayed them in at least half the games.  If you didn’t know better, you’d have never thought it was an 8th seed against a first seed.

My every measure imaginable, the Leafs season was a complete success:

  • A huge jump in the standings
  • depth at every position
  • rookies / young players performing far above expectations
  • no huge red-flags to suggest they over-achieved
  • if anything, all those O.T losses suggest they’re better than their record
  • a ton of cap space going forward
  • an overall excellent salary cap situation
  • don’t have any significant imminent departures from the roster
  • room to grow and reason to believe it will happen

Toronto Maple Leafs: Season is a huge success

There is no doubt the Leafs had a great season.  Still, what could have been………

It feels almost greedy to say this, considering everything has pretty much turned into a best-case-scenario since Dave Nonis was fired.  But still,  18 overtime losses in 88 games?  That is so incredibly unlikely to occur.  With just some better luck in OT the Leafs would have had easier opponent.  They would have had home-ice advantage.   They would still be playing.

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Even the Washington series was winnable.  With just a bounce here or there, the Leafs win.  They wouldn’t  even have to do anything differently.  Sure, both teams got some lucky bounces – but if you take the best team to OT in five games, you could easily have defeated them.  Even in the one game that the Leafs played poorly; the one that didn’t go to overtime – they almost own that!

So the season was a great success.  The team is stacked.  The future appears to be bright.  Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck to lose.

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