Okay, so I am trying to get everything back to normal. I am back in new Jersey, and will begin working again tomorrow at my weekend job.
That said, I wrote much of this less than a week ago, in response to the Maple Leafs getting bounced out of the first round of the playoffs once again.
It would be nice if they improved, and started winning playoff series again. It would be even better if they finally managed to start going very deep in the playoffs, and even hoisting the Cup once again. At this point, any Canadian team would be a welcome change, but it would be especially sweet if Toronto won it.
In any case, this is what I wrote a few days ago, before the passing of my father kind of put everything else on hold temporarily:
Well, the Toronto Maple Leafs had another very disappointing postseason. It was an intense, back and forth series against the defending champion Lightning. But in the end, it was the Lightning, and not the Leafs, who moved on.
Once again, the Leafs failed to get past the first round. Once again, a promising season ends in disappointment. Once again, the Leafs seemed on the cusp of eliminating an opponent, only to collapse in consecutive elimination games.
It is frustrating to root for this team.
Toronto lost, and once again, the Maple Leafs just could not get out of the first round. They are the NHL franchise with the longest active championship drought, having failed to win a Stanley Cup since way back in 1967, which also happened to be the last time that they reached the Stanley Cup Finals. It was the 12th time that they had ever won the Cup, and they were just two behind the Montreal Canadiens, who would go on to win it ten times over the next decade and a half, to firmly establish themselves as far and away the most successful franchise in the NHL.
How long ago was that, exactly? That was well before I was born. The Cold War was still active, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were still alive, and people were just still finding out about the Summer of Love and hippie culture. Woodstock had not yet happened. The Fab Four were still together, and absolutely on top of their game, as they were about to release Sgt. Pepper’s, one of the most influential and iconic music albums in history. The war in Vietnam raged on, and this was before even the Tet Offensive. Lyndon B. Johnson seemed like he would surely run for another term. Charles DeGaulle was still in office in France and, in fact, he was about to make his famous “Vive le Québec libre” speech at the Hôtel de Ville de Montréal when he visited that city for the Expo.
So, it has been a long time, to say the least.
Yet, it is even worse than this. Toronto has not advanced beyond the first round since way back in 2004. In other words, they have not won a playoff series in nearly two decades. Since 2018, they are 0-10 in series clinching postseason games. They owned a 3-2 series lead against Tampa Bay in this series, and lost both of the final two games. Last year, they owned a 3-1 series lead against Montreal, and collapsed to lose the last three games there.
Since I root for Canadian teams, this year’s loss by Toronto pissed me off. I mean, the Stanley Cup championship drought was bad enough. Now, one of the truly iconic teams of the NHL, a member of the “Original Six” and historically one of the most successful franchises in league history, not only has not won the Stanley Cup or even reached the Cup Finals in well over half a century, but they now have not so much as won a playoff series since 2004.
How long ago was that?
So, will we see the Maple Leafs finally advance, and perhaps not just beyond the first round, but perhaps someday, in the not too distance future, get to see them finally hoist the Stanley Cup again for the first time in over half a century?
Well, according to Mats Sundin, the future actually looks very promising for this franchise.
Mats Sundin thinks Leafs fans will eventually be rewarded for their patience with this core:
"I wouldn’t trade the core of the Leafs for any other core around the league. They’re going to have chances to win a championship. I’m very, very optimistic about what management of the Leafs has done to build the young core of great players… It’s coming." (source: Sportsnet 590)
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