You almost knew it was going to happen. The Toronto Maple Leafs managed to maintain their historic choke streak and once again lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games.
The team hasn’t managed a trip to the second round of the playoffs since 2004, and it always seems to go down in the most painful way possible.
It was a hair-raising game, but the Leafs would lose crucial Game 7 to Lightning Saturday night by a score of 2-1adding another heartbreaking chapter to what is sure to be the worst postseason curse the NHL has ever seen.
Leafs fans lol pic.twitter.com/HF8D3JNtzN
— Tim and friends (@timandfriends) May 15, 2022
The Leafs fell behind at the end of the first period and went into the third losing 2-1, but despite some decent opportunities to even the score with an extra forward in the closing minutes, the Buttons couldn’t do that for another year.
There were some questionable phone calls, a disallowed goal and all the classic evidence of a cosmic curse the franchise seems unable to shake.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s number one player is really showing up for them tonight. #LeavesForever #TBLvsTOR pic.twitter.com/sUmB5Uhc1Y
— Ben Power (@BenPower236) May 15, 2022
Many fans were unhappy with the referees, to say the least.
Bad interference gave this game 7 a two-goal balance. I enjoy making fun of the Leafs as much as anyone, but the fanbase has every reason to be boiling.
— Andrew Berkshire (@AndrewBerkshire) May 15, 2022
Saturday night’s defeat is just another punch to the gut in a long parade of misery, the team once again losing the series lead and pushing the tide of bad luck closer to the territory of mathematical impossibility.
Pathetic.
– Sid Seixeiro (@Sid_Seixeiro) May 15, 2022
Even as the Leafs held a one-goal lead in a potential Game 6 on Thursday, fans knew better than to count their chickens, and the team predictably lost the lead and then dropped into overtime, forcing a decisive Game 7.
The leaves are starting to choke 😂
— Tom Wilson is the goat (@tomwilsondagoat) May 13, 2022
And based on the many miserable experiences of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first-round Game 7 over the past decade, a good chunk of fans correctly assumed that this wasn’t going to end well.
Maples Leafs will choke on Lightning, won’t it?
— Damien Woody (@damienwoody) May 14, 2022
Some of the NHL’s biggest stars will now have a head start on the golf season as fans will likely be out for blood in the off-season as it appears neither the talent-packed roster nor the franchise’s front office are able to deliver more. three playoff wins a year.
If you want to get a sense of how long it’s been since the Leafs actually got a series in 2004, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter still haven’t launched. Leafs star Auston Matthews was just six years old, while linemate Mitch Marner was just seven.
Matthews, Marner and Tavares in big games looking like a playlist of The Weeknd songs #LeavesForever #Sheets #LeafsNation #GoBolts pic.twitter.com/fxr5lLTttk
— Darth Quint (@SithLordCanuck) May 15, 2022
The last time the Leafs got a series, the Toronto skyline looked like this, Google looked like this, Amazon was primarily known as an online book seller, and Netflix was still a fledgling mail-order company.
But hey, there’s always next year, right?