April in Toronto usually means great weather and the start of patio season, but for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, it's usually the worst month of the year.
Any normal sports fan would tell you that April is their favourite month because you have the Final Four, The Masters, NFL Draft, MLB, NBA and of course, the NHL playoffs. It's an overloud of sports with something fun to watch every night, but if you're a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, it's usually torture.
The NHL playoffs will start April 19 this year and as we all know, our beloved Leafs will be in the mix. These last few games will determine whether or not they'll win the Atlantic Division, but either way we will be seeing a First Round match-up against either Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers or Tampa Bay Lightning.
As we get ready for the playoffs, the Leafs are now going to be holders of a statistic I never thought I would write as a fan. With nine straight playoff apperances, the Leafs now have the longest playoff streak in the NHL. They'd previously been tied with the Boston Bruins, but since they're going to miss the postseason, the Leafs are now the sole owners of that statistic.
As a Leafs fan, part of me is incredible happy about that statistic, while another part of me gets very sad. The optimist in me is thankful for the Auston Matthews Era and all of the regular season success it has brought us because besides the 2013 Lockout year, the team had missed the playoffs every year from 2005 to 2017. There was zero hope for more than a decade, and then the one time they made the playoffs, they blew a 4-1 lead with 11 minutes left in Game 7, resulting in one of the worst collapses in sports history.
Maple Leafs will clinch playoff spot for the 9th straight season
The Leafs were a historically terrible franchise, so I'd much rather be in the playoffs and lose in the First Round than have a zero percent chance at a championship. However, the pessimistic Leafs fan in me is horrifed that they this team has only been able to win one playoff series in the last eight years.
That may change this season, but how sad is it that there are franchises who have only made the playoffs once in that Leafs winning streak who have more playoff round victories than the Leafs. I know I've written this stat before but despite going to the playoffs for eight straight years, the Ottawa Senators have more playoff round wins than the Leafs and the Senators have not made the playoffs in the past seven years.
That statistic makes me sad every time I write it but it's crazy to believe that the Leafs have now made the playoffs for nine straight years. You know the old saying goes "ninth times the charm" so maybe this is the year that they actually go on a long playoff run, but I'll have to see it to believe it.
Even if the Leafs lose early again in the playoffs this year, just be thankful that the team continues to be good enough to make the postseason year-after-year. Teams like the Senators and Buffalo Sabres would kill for that consistenty so it's better to have a chance than on the wrongside looking in every year.