The Leafs are more than just a stepping stone team, but now they have to prove that
Aside from the fact that 3 of the last 4 teams to beat the Leafs in the first round, all in Game 7, have advanced to the Cup final, the Leafs have become the stepping stone for other teams making progress in their quest for the Cup. Since 2017, each of the teams that have knocked the Leafs out have either won the Stanley Cup, made it to the Cup Final or have at least made the Conference Finals.
If there's one thing that has become clear, the Leafs bring out the best in their opponents and sometimes the worst in themselves. For instance, since posting an ugly .897 save percentage in 7 games against the Leafs, Andrei Vasilevskiy has has posted a .981 save percentage against Florida and a .922 save percentage against New York and has clearly looked like the Vasilevskiy we've come to expect in the playoffs.
As much as the Leafs have come up short in the playoffs, there is progress being made. The Leafs have been far and away the best team Tampa has faced in the last 3 years, although that could change when the Finals begin against the Avalanche Wednesday night. Hopefully next season the Leafs are able to reverse the roles and use someone as their stepping stone the same way Colorado used St. Louis as theirs this year.
The Leafs are more than the sum of their failures. This team has been a young and developing team, who just this year, had shown everyone that they can hang with the best teams in the league. Their winning percentage against playoff teams during the regular season had shown that. Now it's going to be about building better habits against inferior opponents. If the Leafs can dial in the same way for less important games that they do for the truly important games, they'll be a better team for it and maybe next season it's the difference between playing Tampa in round 1 and playing a Wild Card team in the opening round.
This team boasts a generational goal scorer, an elite playmaker and they've been able to find ways to surround their top paid guys with talent that not only augments them well, but that does so on bargain deals. The ingredients are all there. Now it's just up to Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe to find the right mix of those ingredients to perfect the recipe.
