The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't really clicked this season at all.
From day one, they were a work-in-progress after a bad summer, but the weird thing was that the new Toronto Maple Leafs didn't really do any work during the season.
Multiple times it looked like Keefe was about to fired, then the team would have a miraculous comeback and go on a winning streak.
Specifically I'm thinking about an early-season game in Tampa which would have been (I think) their fifth loss in a row and they won after being down by three goals in the first period, but there were at least two similar situations (the big comeback and ultimate OT loss to Columbus was another).
There were times when the team appeared desperate for both a goalie and a defenseman, and the team just did nothing. I've never seen a team that was expected to compete for a championship just sit there and do nothing every time something came up, all season long.
Ultimately having 5 superstars and a great cast of supporting scorers worked out, at least for a while, and over a 28 game stretch the Leafs ended up being a top team, winning over 70% of their points and leading the league in scoring.
Only problem? Despite this excellent run, every team the Leafs were competing with went on a similar one, and now with only ten games left the Atlantic Division is lost to them and Tampa might pass them and turn them into a Wild Card team, which will be a humilation.
And while anything can happen in the NHL's Annual Tournament of Variance, i.e the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs do not seem like a good bet to win the Stanley Cup.
If we are lucky, this will put a reverse jinx on the team and this too-soon list of regrets will come back to haunt me when they win the Cup.
So here goes nothing.