Toronto Maple Leafs: Eerie Similarities to 1992/93 Team
The Toronto Maple Leafs play in the first two games has been putrid to say the least.
A combination of the Toronto Maple Leafs not showing up to play hard, to Andersen having some less-than-stellar performances to Babcock making some questionable decisions, they just haven’t had it thus far. Pile this with the fact that Boston has come out flying in both game 1 and 2 and the Leafs simply weren’t meant to win these two games.
On that note, let me remind everybody that a team needs to win four games to win a playoff series.
I’ll be the first one to admit that I said some questionable things during these last two losses. Everything from “This series is over.” to “These Leafs must not care about winning.”. It was all in the heat of the moment. But looking back, it’s only two games.
If you’re still in need of a reason to be excited for this series, let me provide you with a comparison to the 1992/1993 Toronto Maple Leafs first round.
That team was one of the more exciting ones and featured fan-favourites such as Dougie Gilmour, Wendel Clark, and Felix Potvin.
92/93:
-Leafs set franchise record in wins and points
-4th best team in the conference
-Despite being 4th, due to playoff format, they faced team who was 2nd in the conference
-Faced original 6 team in the 1st round
-Gave up 12 goals in first 2 games in the playoffs
-Game 1 was tied 1-1 after 1, opponent would score next 4 goals
-Game 2 Leafs trailed 4-0 at one point and would lose by 4
17/18:
-Leafs set franchise record in wins and points
-4th best team in the conference
-Despite being 4th, due to playoff format, they faced team who was 2nd in the conference
-Faced original 6 team in the 1st round
-Gave up 12 goals in first 2 games in the playoffs
-Game 1 was tied 1-1 after 1, opponent would score next 4 goals
-Game 2 Leafs trailed 4-0 at one point and would lose by 4
92/93 ended up having Leafs win next 3 games, lost game 6, and then won game 7 in dramatic fashion in OT. A goal scored by Nikolai Borschevsky that’s remembered fondly by Maple Leafs faithful.
If this doesn’t provide you with even the tiniest shred of hope, then I don’t know what to tell you. You might be a massive pessimist or maybe you didn’t have any hope to begin with.
But this eerie comparison to the 1992/93 team should remind you that the series isn’t over until it’s over. There have been many cases in the past of a team coming back from a 3-0 deficit let alone a 2-0 deficit to win the series. The Leafs’ next two games are in front of their home crowd, and they’ll have all the energy and momentum on their side.
The Leafs head into game three tonight missing Nazem Kadri, who’s serving the second game of his three game suspension, and Leo Komarov, who left game three with an injury. With Komarov’s injury, it’s likely we see one of Matt Martin or Josh Leivo draw into the lineup to replace him.
No need to panic, Leafs nation. Until you see the headline “Boston defeats Toronto in game x thriller”, they’re still in it and still have every chance to win the series.
It ain’t over ’till it’s over.