Toronto Maple Leafs: Ranking the Last Decade of 1st Round Exits
By Andrew Kogut
The 2012-2013 Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs finish 3rd in the Northeast in the shortened 48-game season and end up facing the 2nd place Boston Bruins.
They go down three games to one in the series and look destined to bow out in five before storming back to tie the series and then take a 4-1 lead in the deciding game with less than 15 minutes to go (all stats from hockey-reference.com).
With no Pastrnak to contend with and a 24-year old Brad Marchand failing to score in the series, this should have been a slam dunk, but the Leafs gotta Leafs.
They give up 3 goals in the last 10+ minutes and proceed to lose the game 6 minutes into overtime. Boston wins the series in seven and the Leafs miss the playoffs the next three seasons.
RANKING: Frederik Gauthier (21st pick overall)
The Leafs weren’t expected to win this series (they had a 44.1 5 on 5 CF% and were 18th overall in GA) and gave a valiant effort, taking a Bruins team (that would ultimately lose in the Cup Final to a stacked Chicago squad) to the limit.
Blowing that game 7, 3rd period three-goal lead in that fashion; however, was still a pretty significant disappointment and added another chapter to the Leafs history of futility. Gauthier and his 30 career points in 170 games are a fitting tribute.