It’s pretty amazing how this team has made themselves the enemy.
After becoming the only team in the NHL that had an opportunity to sweep their 1st round opponent, the Leafs surrendered 2 games to the Senators before finally clinching a berth to round 2.
Those 2 losses brought Leafs Nation from very high, to very low. Once again, the narrative that this team doesn’t know how to finish an opponent when they’re down resurfaced. Going into last night’s game, the stat lines of them being 1-13 in elimination games, while their 0 for 30 powerplay in those same games since Auston Matthews showed up on the scene were bandied about.
Damning stuff.
They’re now 2-13 in those games after last night and they scored on their only powerplay opportunity, making them 1 for 31 with the man advantage. Are you impressed now? No? Yeah, I’m not either.
Just twice in their career’s, the Big 3 of Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander will play in the 2nd round of the playoffs and for the second time they’ll face the Florida Panthers when they get there. It was a blood bath last time, but the only team that bled were the Leafs (not literally, they were too busy dodging hits and playing it safe for that), and I expect it will be much the same this time around. The Panthers are a proven playoff team with a Stanley Cup to their name, one that the Leafs simply wouldn’t be able to beat if they ever had them on the ropes. They’re a team that just rolled over the Tampa Bay Lightning in 5 games, which is a team that Toronto would have had trouble beating as well. This means that saying they wouldn’t be able to beat them if they had them on the ropes is getting ahead of yourself. They’re a team that the Leafs will have trouble getting on the ropes at all. In fact, it already feels as if the Buds are on the ropes themselves and that is exactly the reputation they have built for themselves.
It’s a reputation of losing, greed and arrogance and if you’ve ever watched any kind of movie, those are all characteristics of the antagonist in the story. They’re the enemy. They’re the bad guy.
Hilariously if they had just won Game 4 I would be writing a completely different narrative right now. It would be one of intrigue, excitement and wonder.
I wonder if Berube actually has them in the right mindset to do something special? I wonder if they’ve turned the corner? I wonder if they actually have it? Instead, less than 12 hours after the team I’ve cheered for my entire life won their 1st round series against a heated rival, I’m writing about how screwed they are before round 2 has even started.
So, once again I say, it’s pretty amazing how this team has made themselves the enemy.