A Brief History of Toronto Maple Leaf Playoff Choke Jobs
Toronto keeps inventing new ways to lose in the playoffs. And if they blow a 3-0 lead to Ottawa, it will be their most on-brand collapse yet.
Even among us stat-oriented sports fans, it can be difficult to shake the feeling that certain franchises seem cursed by something deeper than simply bad luck.
How else can we explain it when the same team repeatedly finds a way to turn victory into defeat, failing in increasingly spectacular and/or improbable ways? Are some teams simply held down by the accumulation of past failures, collapsing under the metaphysical weight of institutional baggage? Is the universe indifferent to our suffering, or actively manifesting it as a form of divine punishment??
I can’t answer that! Lol. I’m just a guy with a spreadsheet.
But if the hockey gods are real, they clearly have a cruel streak aimed directly at the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fanbase. It is well-known by now that the Leafs are an astonishing 1-14 in their past 15 potential closeout games of a playoff series, which includes two losses already in 2025’s Round 1 battle against the Ottawa Senators. After initially taking a commanding 3-0 lead in the series, the Leafs will try tonight to avoid needing to play a Game 7 on Saturday in Toronto.
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