2021- Montreal Canadiens
Leaf fans have heard this one plenty of times… Leafs were up 3-1 and blew their first round series against the Habs.
This was a crazy series. Auston Matthews couldn’t shoot the puck and would have surgery after the season was over. John Tavares didn’t even get five minutes of ice time before being horribly injured.
The Leafs became the only team in NHL history to force overtime by overcoming a two goal deficit in back-to-back games and lose both times.
Of course that is a record held by the Toronto Maple Leafs!
After the miraculous comeback over the heavily favored Leafs, Montreal faced the Winnipeg Jets in the second round. The Canadiens swept the Jets advancing to Western Conference Final? Yes the divisions were weird let’s just move on.
Montreal’s next opponents were the Vegas Golden Knights where many had the Knights going to the Cup Final. But just like all the other teams in their way, the Habs would defy the odds, eliminating the Golden Knights to book their ticket to the Stanley Cup final.
The team they needed to beat were the Tampa Bay Lightning who were on a whole different level, beating every team in their way, in hopes to repeat as Stanley Cup champs for the first time since the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Tampa beat Montreal in five games, making them the second team to make the list on, “beating the Maple Leafs curse.”