The Most Pathetic Toronto Maple Leafs Loss of the Auston Matthews Era

We just witnessed the worst Toronto Maple Leafs loss of the Auston Matthews era.

How in the world could that game have gone any worse for the Toronto Maple Leafs? With home-ice advantage for the second year in a row against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team looked uninspired from the opening puck-drop.

What have we been saying about this team for the past six months? From Game 1 in October, we said that nothing matters until the playoffs start. Well, from the effort that the Leafs gave on Tuesday night, it looked as if they were still in pre-season mode.

You can’t put the blame on one individual person for this loss, but instead, need to blame every single person in the organization for this effort. From Sheldon Keefe to Auston Matthews, nobody gave an effort that they should be proud of.

Over the course of the Matthews era, the Leafs have had some terrible playoff games. In fact, it was as early as last playoffs that they lost 7-3 to Tampa Bay. However, as much as that loss was terrible, that game had different circumstances.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were on the ropes and had more desperation than Toronto last year and played their best game of the series, making sure the Leafs wouldn’t go up 3-1 on them.

As for last night’s loss, it was much more pathetic because you can’t simply fall over and die when you’re on home-ice for Game 1 of the playoffs, especially with all the build-up around having not won a playoff series in 19 years.

Toronto Maple Leafs Lose Game 1 in Pathetic Fashion

Prior to the start of this game, the fanbase was tense. There cautious optimism around this game, but many of us expected a tight battle. The Leafs weren’t a lock to win, but they should have, at least, been the hardest working team on the ice.

Instead, they were down 3-0 before we could flinch and continued to give up terrible penalties all night. You can’t allow Tampa Bay’s power-play to strike, but even worse, you can’t allow them to be the harder team to play against.

Ever since they lost to the Lightning in last year’s playoffs, the narrative has been about how this season is going to be different. It was supposed to be time for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to put the team on their back and the added depth at forward and defense was supposed to make this team a harder and more physical team to play against.

We definitely saw some big hits by newly acquired Noel Acciari and Jake McCabe, but other than that, the team looked lost. Michael Bunting pulled a “Nazem Kadri” and got kicked out of the game for a bone-head move, doing the exact opposite of what he’s supposed to.

Bunting’s best attribute is to create penalties and be a pest to the opposition, but instead, could be suspended for the next game.

For a fanbase that wanted some hope and optimism this playoff-run, that effort during Game 1 should not give us any confidence that they’re going to win this series. Tampa Bay looked like the back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup Finalist that they are and Toronto looked like the loser we all know them to be.

If the Leafs give the same performance they did in Game 1 and lose Game 2 at home, you can kiss this season good-bye.