This is the biggest Leaf the Leafs have ever Leaf’d.
Toronto Maple Leafs. Montreal Canadians. Rivalry as old as time – as old as hockey. And guess what, we had a first round Game 7. That’s a story you write about but nope, we saw that with our own eyes. It seemed, before, like maybe the Maple Leafs could do this but alas-
The Montreal Canadians ended the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season in a treacherous final game. The Habs won 3-1 in the end.
The game started at a crawl, as these last few have for the Leafs. No goals in the first but the Habs got on the board quick in the second period. Brendan Gallagher grabbed the first goal 3:02 into the second. The Leafs had some close calls and almost goals but Corey Perry struck once more for the Habs on the power play at 15:25.
The third period did not get any better for the Leafs. Tyler Toffoli scored an empty net goal to get the score 3-0. William Nylander at least stopped this from being a shutout with a goal 18:24 into the period. But in the end, the Leaf couldn’t do it.
They had more shots on net and so so so many great chances to get on the board but they couldn’t do it. I feel like they got in their own way. They got into their heads about playoff chances, the past, and it showed out there. The Leafs were electric in the regular season. They’ve played this Habs team numerous times. As I said in my Canadian playoff preview, the Leafs went 7-2-1 against the Habs this season. Auston Matthews just won the Rocket Richard, Mitch Marner led the team with 67 points (20G 47A). You had guys like Joe Thornton and Jason Spezza have have been fighting for the Cup for their whole careers. Then they take a 3-1 lead in this series and blow it. Their superstars, aside from William Nylander, were basically silent throughout the playoffs after such great seasons. Seriously, what the fuck happened?
It seemed like when they started this rebuild of Dubas and Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Andersen – when they got all them – it seemed like a new Leafs team. Removed from the dark past of failed playoffs. But they’re not that new at all. They just can’t get themselves out of this hole and it makes you scratch your head. They killed the regular season, they’re an awesome team when they’re hot- they were hot in the start of this series, but the playoff hits and all that work crumbled like newspaper in the rain.
If the Leafs want a chance at the Cup, Dubas is going to be making huge changes to the roster this offseason. No way around that.
Anyway, go Habs I guess.
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