9 Keys to a Winning Toronto Maple Leafs Playoff Lineup

The Toronto Maple Leafs will once again be screwed over by the NHL's extremely dumb playoff seeding format.

In the past, the Toronto Maple Leafs have not been rewarded for being one of the NHL's top teams, and instead have been forced to play Tampa Bay twice in the opening round because three of the NHL's best teams just happened to be in the same division.

That might sound like an excuse for failure, but it's been a major factor. The most ridiculous version of this was the years the Leafs lost to Tampa in the first round, but other than the year they lost the Canadiens in the first round, this has been a pretty big factor every year.

That hasn't changed this year, and so whoever doesn't win the Atlantic Division title gets a bizarrely hard first round matchup for a top team.

This means that despite one of the NHL's best records, the Leafs will be rewarded with a first round series against one of the only teams in the league with a better roster than they have - Boston or Florida.

Since that's the case, they are going to have to dress the best possible playoff lineup.

Here's how.