Nightmare North of The Boarder

This is starting to feel like its becoming an old story and fast. The Toronto Maple Leafs. A team built for regular season success that, as of late, can't quite get it done when it matters most come spring time. Look no further then this year. They had a great regular season, winning the North division, the first division title for the team since 2000. They hosted Montreal in the opening round and even opened up a 3-1 lead in the series. Now they are on the golf course, after losing game seven, ending their season.

Yes, we can say that a small factor in this was the absence of John Tavares, who missed the end of the series with a concussion after a freak accident in game one. They missed his offensive presence late in the series. But that wasn't the only reason why the Leafs exited the playoffs.

A big reason why was golatending, and defense in kind played the Leafs. Yes they did have to come back in game five to force OT, only to lose it 59 seconds in. Then in game six they blew a 3rd period lead to lose in OT again. Then in game seven Montreal outplayed Toronto and knocked them out of the playoffs. Toronto is now 12-13 all time in game sevens, and have lost their last 8 in a row. They haven't won a game seven since beating the Blues in the second round in 1993.

Toronto can't get out of their own way come playoff time, especially if they have to go to a seventh game. Toronto is a classic example, at least in my viewpoint, of a regular season team. Meaning they are built great for the regular season, but not so much come playoff time. They have a great offense that can strike almost at will, but they also have trouble at times stopping the attack coming the other way. You can see Montreal exploiting that, at timers, during this first round series.

Look it was smart of the Leafs to lock up their offensive core. Problem is they put too much money into it and haven't really been able to build up the supporting cast up front, or the more important matter, solid goaltending and defense. If they can work in a system to better strengthen that, the this will be an after thought. But it always seems like this seems to happen to the Leafs, the regular season powerhouse who can't get it done when it matters most.