So another year, another Toronto Maple Leafs first/qualifying round loss.
It shouldn’t be much of surprise anymore but I really thought it wouldn’t happen (again) this year; that the path to the Finals was never this obstacle-free; that Jack Campbell may finally provide some clutch goaltending and that, surely, with this group of rugged, seasoned veterans there was no way a talented team like this (facing off against a squad that probably finishes somewhere in the bottom ten in a normal, non-covid plagued NHL season) could possibly bow out early for the fifth straight year. Unfortunately I forgot to take into consideration that this is the Toronto Maple Leafs and they are capable of just about anything.
It is with that in mind that I thought I’d take a look back at all of the first round playoff exits in the last ten years (spoiler alert, there has been six! of them) and instead of giving each exit a rank out of ten in terms of disappointment.
think it would be apropos to ascribe a similarly choke-worthy, gag-inducing bust of a Leafs first-round draft pick (within the last 25 years) that sufficiently encapsulates each playoff exit’s degree of disappointment. Here there are, in sequential order: