Yet another curse is attached to the Leafs, but this one makes their opponents suffer
The life of a diehard Leafs fan is one of pain and suffering. In many ways, the team seems cursed. Horrendous bounces, bad calls and bad luck seem to follow them like a dark cloud. It's well-documented that there are believers in a curse brought on by notorious former Leafs owner Harold Ballard. Now it seems there's a new curse hanging over the Maple Leafs. This time, it's their opponents who are suffering the consequences.
Flash back to 2019, the Boston Bruins beat the Leafs in 7 games en route to the Stanley Cup Final. They would wind up losing to the St Louis Blues.
We'll skip 2020, as the Leafs technically didn't *make* the playoffs, even though points scored in the qualifying round counted as playoff points. Look, I don't blame the NHL for that, 2020 was a rough year for about 7 billion people give or take. At any rate, the Leafs were bounced by the Blue Jackets in the qualifying round.
In 2021 the Leafs were back in the playoffs as the #1 seed in their division. Of course, we all remember what happened there. A blown 3-1 series lead and a crushing loss to our oldest rivals. The Habs rode Carey Price's last hurrah all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before being utterly dismantled by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In 2022, the Leafs fared better against the Lightning than the Canadiens, taking the series to 7 games before losing, thanks in part to a horrendous no goal call. The Lightning would make it all the way to hit third straight Stanley Cup Final, but couldn't pull off the three-peat, losing to the Colorado Avalanche.
This year, the Leafs finally got over the first round hump, only to run into a Florida Panthers team on a Cinderella run. The Panthers took the Leafs out in five and swept the Hurricanes, but fell apart against the Vegas Golden Knights in the Finals. Once again, the team that eliminated the Leafs from the playoffs wound up having their hearts broken in the Stanley Cup finals.
Four straight opponents who managed to eliminate the Leafs from the playoffs have now lost in the finals. Depending on how you look at it, beating the Leafs seems to guarantee a trip to the Finals. It also seems to guarantee that the result won't go their way. Interesting stat or supernatural curse? We'll let the readers decide on this one.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 14 | 174 ANSWERS Yet another curse is attached to the Leafs, but this one makes their opponents suffer Is there a curse attached to beating the Leafs in the playoffs? | ||
| Definitely | 52 | 29.9 % |
| No | 81 | 46.6 % |
| Reading this just made me sad | 41 | 23.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
