I said could be a difference, not will.
You don't make your team worse for illogical hopes and dreams.
I've seen countless teams who constantly rank at the top and don't go far in the playoffs, and I've also seen countless teams who always rank in the middle, yet are good to advance a round or two. There are reasons for that. I'm trying to discuss those reasons.
There are examples of better teams losing to lesser teams over a small sample, but you're not discussing the reasons for that. You're arbitrarily claiming incorrect reasons.
Often, grit is a reason. So is character.
No, not significant ones at least. That's just what you're misattributing it to.
And I don't think it's absurd to say tkachuk has a lot more character and grit than marner.
If your definition of "grit" is simply hitting and fighting, then sure, but that's not really what grit is, and that doesn't help much of anything. Marner has plenty of actual grit, and there's no basis to claim that Tkachuk has more "character". All things considered, Marner is easily better, by a decent amount, in all situations.
Yes, you can go way back...Ottawa used to win more than Toronto...then Ottawa stopped existing...then Ottawa came back...Toronto won more than Ottawa in the playoffs in the ~2000-2005 era...then Ottawa won more than Toronto in the playoffs in the ~2005-2020 era...now let's see I guess?
Lol @ trying to take credit for a completely different team's results, which would still leave you with less cups.
If we're talking about team history, Leafs have already long won the shootout.
But we're not talking about team history. We're talking about the teams right now. We're talking about the current cores. We're talking about Marner and Tkachuk.
The Leafs are better. The Leaf's core is better. Marner is better.
There's no argument otherwise.