Don't look now, but there's a bit of a trend forming for those who bounce the Leafs in round 1
If we exclude the play-in round in the COVID playoff bubble in 2020, the Toronto Maple Leafs have blown series leads in each of their series against the Boston Bruins in 2019, the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2022. It stinks, for sure, but believe it or not, these round one losses are important. They're important because that routine disappointment and embarrassment is almost the only way that the Leafs are going to develop that killer instinct that the team appears to be lacking.
These losses all have something in common as well. After coming from behind in the series to beat the Leafs in round one, each of the Bruins, Habs and Lightning have gone on in their respective years to appear in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Eventually, our time will come. After watching that first round series unfold the way that it did, with Vasilevskiy really being the difference between the Leafs moving on and the Bolts holding on (if we exclude the abysmal officiating), there is a lot less of a feeling like the sky is falling in Toronto. This is a team who, just last year, blew a 3-1 series lead to the Montreal Canadiens. The same Canadiens who limped into the playoffs as the last seed. To see the Leafs, just one year later, taking the back-to-back Champs to 7 games and actually playing well enough to win that series - at some points looking downright dominant - it shows the growth and the determination. It also shows that the Leafs are building that scar tissue.
Year over year, the team just seems to get better and better. Eventually, that bottle will be full and the top is going to come off. Progress IS being made, whether people want to acknowledge it or not. The result may be the same over these past few seasons, but the circumstances aren't anywhere near the same - especially between last year and this year. Sooner than later, the Leafs will be that team in the Finals. Especially when players like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are steering the bus.
