Toronto Maple Leafs: Be Thankful For the Game 7 Collapse

If you want a touchy subject to discuss with a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, just bring up May 13th, 2013.

That was the fateful date where the Toronto Maple Leafs blew a 4-1 lead with ten minutes left in the third period against the Boston Bruins and ended up losing in overtime. This, of course, would be horrible in any circumstance, but it was game seven of the first round of the 2013 NHL Playoffs. The Maple Leafs had secured a playoff birth for the first time since 2003-04 and their fans were over the moon about it.

And just like that, in a span of ten minutes, it was gone. And in embarrassing fashion to boot.

From a Leafs fan’s perspective, it was without a doubt one of the most heartbreaking games to watch. They just had to hold it together for ten more minutes! But they couldn’t do it. The whole team fell apart.

So you’re probably wondering why I’m writing an article on why we should be thankful for it.

Look, game seven was an emotionally scarring game for me. I was 13 years old at the time, and I remember screaming so much that I nearly threw up and woke up to burst blood vessels on my face the next morning. I went to school with a good amount of Bruins fans (or rather just friends that hated the Leafs), and they absolutely let me have it. I still try and forget that game to this day.

On that note, it doesn’t mean that the game didn’t benefit the Maple Leafs in the long run.

Everyone remembers the motive Brian Burke had when he was named GM in 2008. He knew that it had been 40 years since the Maple Leafs had won a cup, and he knew that fans wanted one more than anything and they wanted it stat. So as soon as he took over the team, he immediately started to acquire big names at the price of prospects and draft picks. He traded two first round picks for Phil Kessel. He sent a multi-player package to Calgary for Dion Phaneuf. He acquired Joffrey Lupul and Jake Gardiner from Anaheim. He did everything he could to establish a core. The only issue was, this core was destined to fail.

Your typical Stanley Cup-winning core would normally consist of a number-one centre, a number-one defenseman, and an elite starting goaltender. Then you fill in the wings with scoring and add as much depth as you can. Burke and the Leafs, meanwhile, tried to use Phil Kessel as the offensive quarterback, tried to force college signing Tyler Bozak into a number-one centre role, made Dion Phaneuf the top defenseman while putting a “C” on his jersey and playing more minutes than he ever had before, and gone through a plethora of goalies in an effort to find an elite, reliable netminder, and failed miserably.

And this was the core that was supposed to guide the Leafs to victory? Yeah, no. This brings me to my next point.

At the time, you could probably offer a Leafs fan a lifetime of failure in exchange for a win in game seven and they would have taken it. But five years later, it’s not looking so bad anymore.

Had the Leafs held onto that lead in game seven and advanced to the second round, how do we know that they wouldn’t have tried to hold onto the core they had at the time and turned a blind eye to the problem?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If the 2013 season wasn’t shortened due to the lockout, then the Maple Leafs would not have made the playoffs. The core they were running with was destined to fail and they would have gone over the deep end like they always did if they had played a full 82 game season.

The playoff birth in 2013 was simply due to the fact that they were in mid-season form and didn’t have time to choke and miss the playoffs like they normally did. But a playoff birth was a playoff birth, and it didn’t matter to brass and fans at the time.

If they had made it past the first round and gone any further that season, then they would still have that sense of false hope that the core they had was good enough to win. They likely wouldn’t have hired Brendan Shanahan at the end of the next season, likely wouldn’t have hired brass like Mike Babcock and Kyle Dubas, and in turn, likely would never have drafted William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Auston Matthews. In fact, they more than likely would have remained in the same spot as they were in back in 2013. Instead, after suffering that brutal collapse against the Bruins, they ended up with a core featuring the three names I mentioned above as well as John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, and Frederik Andersen.

They now have their number one centre (two of them actually). They have their number one defenseman. And they have their elite goaltender.

So, Leafs fans, when you’re counting your blessings over the holidays, remember to include game seven, 2013. As painful as it may be to remember, the pain is absolutely worth it.