The Toronto Maple Leafs blew a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens and lost in Game 7 of the First Round for the third time in four years.
If you’re still a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, kudos to you. After seeing this team collapse once again, I don’t even understand the point of watching anymore.
After losing Game 1 and their captain John Tavares, the season seemed doomed. We all sat there thinking to ourselves, “Uh, oh, it’s happening again.” After a dominant Game 2 win, we regained some hope. We all thought, if we could split the next two games in Montreal, the Leafs would be back in the driver’s seat.
Then, they won Game 3 and won Game 4 on the road, to give themselves a 3-1 series lead. Finally! After so much pain and agony, they’re going to actually do it. They’re going to wrap this thing up in Game 5 and head to Winnipeg.
Wrong.
A crucial giveaway cost them Game 5, then they lost once again in overtime of Game 6 to force a Game 7. Although Montreal hadn’t won the series yet, every Leafs fan I spoke to had already lost hope. There were no positive vibes, but instead, every fan was reliving the negative past of being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
Toronto Maple Leafs Are The Biggest Laughing Stock inSports
This was supposed to be the game where Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner showed up. They were supposed to put this team on their back and guide them to victory. Instead, Carey Price shut the door and they fell 3-1 to the Canadiens.
If you’re going to sit back and feel good about this team moving forward, you’re a buffoon. You’re living in a fairy-tale if you seriously think the Leafs deserved to win this series, or they just got unlucky.
If you’re saying to yourself, “if it wasn’t for Carey Price, they would have won this series,” just think again. Although that statement is somewhat true, you can’t live in a world of what-if’s or should’ve and could’ve. The Leafs lost and are an embarrassment to the city of Toronto.
If you watched Game 7 closely, one of the biggest things that jumped out was the lack of intensity. If you would have showed me this tape without knowing it was Game 7, I would have thought it was just another regular season game on a Monday.
There was nothing after the whistle and barely any hitting. Toronto looked pathetic and their entire team looked scared to play. They were afraid to get dirty and it cost them this series.
How many times is this team going to go through a playoff series without any sand-paper? I know the objective is to score goals, but the playoffs are completely different. You need to hit and grind and score “bad” goals in order to win, and unfortunately the best players on the Leafs couldn’t provide that this playoffs.
I don’t know what happens next for Toronto. All I know is that someone better get fired or traded soon. I’m not going to name any names, but the Leafs should be embarrassed for their effort and for the fact that they not only lost the series, but did it with zero effort against their long-time foe.
All we wanted was one playoff series win, and this team couldn’t even do that.
Wake me up in October when the regular season starts again because I don’t want anything to do with Toronto Maple Leafs hockey until then.
Goodnight.