The Leafs' playoff woes are well documented, but this Leafs OT playoff stat is enough to make Leafs Nation feel physically ill
If you are a supporter of the Toronto Maple Leafs, you probably do not need to be reminded that the club's recent playoff track record is not the greatest. The last time the franchise made it past the first round was 2004, just in case you needed to be reminded. If you don't think 2004 was that long ago, let me help you put it into context � The first overall pick of the NHL 2022 Entry Draft, Juraj Slafkovsky was born on March 30th, 2004. So yeah, I think it is safe to say that 2004 was far too long ago.
Okay, so the purpose of this article is not to bash on our beloved franchise. We all know that the first round of the playoffs has been the Achilles' heel of the organization for quite some time. Instead, the purpose of this piece is to share a statistic that will show you just how brutal the game of hockey can be sometimes. If you watched even just a little bit of the 1st round playoff series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning this past spring, then you know there were many times that Toronto really looked like the better team. There were surely some moments that made it seem as though 2022 would finally be the year the buds would win a playoff series. The Leafs had the opportunity to put the series away in Game 6, but were unable to capitalize after a third period collapse which ended up forcing overtime. Despite outshooting the Lightning in that overtime, the Maple Leads ended up losing the game.
Now let's go back the previous season, where the Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against the Montreal Canadiens. We all know how that one ended up, so I will not dive too deep into it. But just as they did against the Lightning, the Leafs had the series lead, and were unable to put the series away. Once again, they found themselves in overtime, outplaying and outshooting their opponents, but still ended up losing the game. Are you getting flashbacks of the Galchenyuk giveaway?
As it turns out, there is a stat out there which does a great job of showing just how dominant the Leafs have played in playoff overtimes when leading the series. According to a tweet by @CorsiHL, the Leafs have outshot their opposition a combined 22 to 8 over a span of three different overtime periods. Care to guess how the Leafs faired in these three overtimes? That's right � they lost all three games.
Since we're talking about the Leafs again, it's pretty insane that in three straight OT elimination games they've outshot their opponents by a combined 22-8, yet the goals have been 0-3� CorsiHL (@CorsiHL) September 7, 2022
So, you can go ahead and bash the recent trials and tribulations of the Maple Leafs in the first round, however, this stat really shows that Toronto has without a question been the more dominant team during some of these series.
So that leaves us with one final question. Do we attribute Toronto's failure to win a series to a few tough bounces and bad luck, or is there something more concerning behind this statistic?
