The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a very strange position.
Having lost in six straight first-round *(or qualifying) playoff series, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been declared failures despite having the best roster in franchise history.
It is precisely as non-sensical as that, and if you’re not living it, good luck explaining this incredibly nuanced and weird situation to someone in the future.
I’ll Try.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Need Erik Karlsson
The Leafs’ last six losses have been combined into one Mega Ranger of Failure for narrative convenience, and I don’t know what is more sad: that people are so lazy as to ignore all context in their analysis, or that millions eat it up without thinking about it overly much.
Here is the context everyone ignores: The “six straight losses” include all the rookie years of the team’s best players. In fact, the first loss against the Capitals, and both losses to the Bruins were examples of a young team having great success against Cup Winning Teams they want to eventually emulate.
These should never be retroactively used as negatives to make more recent disappointments seem worse. It’s intellectually dishonest to do so.
The fourth loss occurred after a six month layoff, in an empty arena, against a team that happened to set an NHL record for 5v5 save percentage in the series. It is bizarre to add this series to the list of failures as if it wasn’t the totally random results of a bat$$$$ crazy situation.
The fifth loss was the worst. They blew a 3-1 lead to a team about to become the worst team in the NHL. There are some pretty unlikely occurrences that led to this loss, but it is the first one where you can actually say this team failed.
The first four (Wash, Bos, Bos, CBJ) were either positive experiences that every young team needs, or an insane situation that will never happen again. Be mad about the Montreal series, but remember, Auston Matthews couldn’t shoot the puck, and John Tavares didn’t play.
The sixth in the series of failure that is really just a young team gaining necessary experience in the most frustrating of ways, was against the best team in the NHL in years, one who had won back-to-back Cups, and it was a series which went seven games and in which the Toronto Maple Leafs got totally screwed out of a fourth victory in game six.
Any reasonable person should be able to look at all these losses separately, to look at the regular season success (4 years under Keefe and he has the best winning percentage of any coach who has coached as many games as he has) and the age of the best players and be extremely optimistic about the future.
The management should look at it and bring the best player available into help. That is pretty clearly Erik Karlsson, so make it happen with double-retention and some creative maneuvering.
Thanks !
How many opportunities do elite teams get to add the future Norris Trophy Winner to their team in mid-season? I don’t know that it’s ever happened. I do know that Colorado once won after adding Ray Bourque, and the Leafs should take a note.