Toronto Maple Leafs Win Their Worst Game, Are Great in the Playoffs

The Toronto Maple Leafs had what I’d like to call a Reverse Playoff Game last night.

In the playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs will typically be the best team in the game, then lose because of some random, unlikely,  nonsense.

Thrash Columbus? Doesn’t matter, they will set an NHL record for save percentage in a playoff series.

Destroy the Habs? Even though Matthews can’t shoot the puck and Tavares isn’t playing?  Doesn’t matter.

You could even become the first team in the history of the NHL to force back-to-back overtimes from a multi-goal deficit and still lose, and then everyone will collectively pretend there are reasons beyond random bad luck, despite enough evidence to fill ten Air Canada Centres.

That has literally never happened before.  It has only every happened to one team: The Toronto Maple Leafs.

There is video evidence of it happening while the Leafs led the Habs in overtime shots 12-1, the one shot going into the net as it fluttered past Campbell after originating 80 feet away.

Toronto Maple Leafs Rant Joined in Progress…

What about getting jobbed by the refs even though you were the better team despite the vast unfairness of a finishing 4th overall and having to play the back-to-back champs?  Been there, playa.

Three bad luck situations couldn’t happen in a row, not according to people who routinely ignore math.

No sir,  the Leafs must obviously suck, as the playoffs are pass/fail and anyone who fails has no excuse because we’re alphas and we are tough, and there’s no such thing as injuries, which are for losers, and….I can’t even stay in this character since, in genera,l the party-line is so anti-intellectual it’s hard to remember why exactly we hate and are scared of everything. It’s not supposed to make sense, you’re just supposed to be angry, it doesn’t matter why!!!

So it was fun last night.  The Leafs pretty much stunk, other than Samsonov and Matthews, but then again, when those guys are on, they could make the Coyotes into a team that wins the occasional game.

One of the most dishonest things about hockey coverage is that no one talks about how the Leafs are actually quite an impressive playoff team.  This of course would go against the easy narrative, since they always lose, and to even mention it requires fending off a lot of Trolls, but it’s the truth, so that shouldn’t matter.

The Leafs were the better team against Columbus, Montreal and Tampa.  They also were a team full of kids who took the Legacy Teams of Washington to six games, and the Boston Bruins to 2 x straight game-sevens, where the player their GM takes the most blame for trading was suspended twice.

It’s honestly embarrassing that everyone just writes this team off despite the fact that they’ve played well enough to win every series they have lost.  Whenever someone is like “They lost six in a row” it’s like, well, OK but you’re counting the 3 x they were a young team that over-achieved as bad, retroactively?

Like I said: Embarrassing

The last 19 playoff games the Toronto Maple Leafs played, they were the better team by expected goals 15 times. Marner and Matthews were unbelievable in game seven.

The media narratives that surround this team are a joke.  This is a great playoff team that has consistently been unlucky.  They have a Cup Winning roster and have for years.  There is money in trashing the Leafs on TV and the radio, and poisoning their own fanbase against them.

Its a matter or pride for me that I’ve never fallen for it. This is a great team, and they are just a few months away from winning their first Stanley Cup.   Was I talking about last night’s game? It stunk.  The Leafs had one of their few duds. They still won though. Imagine that.  it happens.