One statistic about the Leafs and the defending Stanley Cup Champs is causing concern
There's no getting around it. The Leafs have a very, very tough opponent in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2020 & 2021 Stanley Cup Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The big, bad Lightning have been about as dominant as a team can be over the past few seasons, but have taken a bit of a step back this year in the regular season, finishing third in the Atlantic behind the Leafs and the Panthers. Still, they're the Lightning and the Leafs are going to have to get out of bed for every game and they're going to have to earn the edge by outworking the Bolts every minute of their matchups to avoid a 6th consecutive first round exit.
The Leafs don't exactly have the strongest track record against the defending Stanley Cup Champions when facing them in the postseason. In fact, the Buds have lost their last 6 consecutive playoff series against the defending champs, dating back to 1975. The last time they won a series against the defending Stanley Cup Champions? You guessed it.. 1967.
The Leafs will have plenty of internal demons to expel if they want to have any hope of snapping their 55-year Stanley Cup drought, and it's going to be an uphill battle straight from the get-go. Granted, there were no easy outs in the Eastern Conference, but the Leafs drew arguably the one team that nobody wanted to match up against.
What's surprising about this year's team is that I don't think they cared who their first round opponent was. They have their eyes on the prize and they'll have to take things one game at a time no matter who their round one opponent was. There was a pretty good chance that, if the Leafs got past the first round, they'd have to encounter the Bolts eventually, so why not just get them out of the way in round 1, before the Lightning have time to really hit their stride in the later rounds?
The Leafs/Lightning will open their series on Monday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Buckle up, Leafs Nation. The real season begins on Monday.
| POLL | ||
30 AVRIL | 587 ANSWERS One statistic about the Leafs and the defending Stanley Cup Champs is causing concern Will the Leafs knock off the defending Stanley Cup Champs for the first time in 55 years? | ||
| Yes | 436 | 74.3 % |
| No | 85 | 14.5 % |
| Either way, it's going 7 games! | 66 | 11.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
