The 2016-2017 Toronto Maple Leafs
A year after finishing at the bottom of the league and landing pre-mustached Auston Matthews, the Leafs break out for 95 points and get to face the first-place, 118 point Washington Capitals.
Expectations are quite low for Toronto in this series but they perform admirably well, taking the Caps to overtime in five out of the six games, including a 2OT game two win.
Matthews scores four goals (no comment) while both Marner and Nylander contribute a goal and four points in the series.
RANKING: Jiri Tlusty (13)
The only thing disappointing about this series was how close Toronto came to knocking off the heavily-favoured Capitals.
With better goaltending (Andersen had a .915 save % compared to Holtby’s .925) and a few more timely goals, this could have been a rare Leaf fandom victory. Tlusty was only mildly disappointing, playing in just under 450 total games.