You are again blowing things up because its your team though.
I'm not blowing anything up, I just happen to care about the Leafs which is post on the Leafs board.
Lets just do a local comparison to the Panthers.
Their team is built around Barkov/Ekblad/Huberdeau right?
I don't follow them too closely so I really don't care who they're built around.
How have they done?
2014-2015: Missed the playoffs
2015-2016: 1st in the Atlantic, got squashed in the first round in massive upset (dagger by Tavares)
2016-2017: Missed the playoffs
2017-2018: Missed the playoffs
2018-2019: Missed the playoffs
2019-2020: 10th in East, Lost in the play-ins
2020-2021: Lost in the first round
It's FLA so TBH, I really don't care how they've done.
Why have there not been a million threads on the main boards and their home forum about blowing up the entire pathetic choking team?
I no idea what goes on their home forum and I don't care. The main boards in general hate the Leafs though, if you're not aware of that then take it from me, it's true.
Theres no bigger choke than failing to even qualify for the playoffs....and I'm not going to call them that. Theres countless more example all over sports just like this, all of which are far worse than the Leafs.
That's not the way I see it, sorry. Most teams that don't make the playoffs don't make it because they are simply bad teams, choking has nothing to do with it.
Theres countless more example all over sports just like this, all of which are far worse than the Leafs. Wheres the morons in the Canada threads saying Huberdeau and Ekblad should be nowhere near team Canada?
Again, I don't care about FLA players. There are many excellent players who get put down by some idiots because they play on bad teams. It even happens to superstars like McDavid so I'm sure there are people saying it about FLA players as well, they just get less attention because FLA isn't a big hockey market.
The Leafs and their core are by any measure far more successful than they have been right?....and yet they are darlings in even the Toronto media as the hometown media spits on its own team.
Are they really? LOL that's pretty dumb but TBH I don't really care. The Toronto sports media is mostly a relatively uninteresting form of entertainment and I decided a long time to not waste a lot of time on it.
I'm not taking part in the massive market that is so invested in losing here. I'm rooting for my team to win.
And I'm with you, 100%.
Remember that feel good story of the accountant who took the net for the Hawks and beat the Jets? It was great and he made some sick saves too. No one remembered it after a couple of weeks though it seems.
It sounds vaguely familiar but no not really.
Remember that feel good story of the Zamboni driver who took the net for the Canes and beat the Leafs? Of course you do and its not a feel good story, its shoved down our throats as a negative story. Its a big part of the problem. I just tune it out though now with our embarrassment of a press led by 80 iq losers chasing down hot dog vendors in slanderous hit pieces and never made to pay a price when called out. Just feels like I have to push back against this nonsense.
Hahaha of course, that zamboni driver nonsense is one of many overblown narratives in the media and once again, that's why I pay almost no attention to Toronto sports media.
I agree with you the media sucks. If it bothers you so much then I sympathize, myself I've learned to tune it out so it doesn't really bother me.
You haven't addressed my main point though, here it is again from the post you quoted:
What are the plenty more examples? I'm not just talking about not winning, I'm talking about 4 years in a row, everything is going along in a completely reasonable fashion and then when it all comes down to one game, our level of play just drops. Instead of rising to the occasion, we just play terrible, more than once I'd say we even play our worst game of the playoffs.
In 2018 we had a good regular season and the playoff series against Boston was a tough fought battle that all came down to the third period of game 7. We led 4-3 going in and we got dominated and lost that 3rd period 4-0. Why is it that with the season on the line, we as a team played some of our worst hockey of the year?
In 2019 we had a good regular season and the playoff series against Boston was a tough fought battle that all came down one game. We got dominated and lost that game 5-1. Why is it that with the season on the line, we as a team played some of our worst hockey of the year?
In 2020 we had a good regular season (not a ton of points but considering all the injuries we had, not bad at all) and the playoff series against CLB was a tough fought battle that all came down one game. We got dominated and lost that game 3-0. Why is it that with the season on the line, we as a team played some of our worst hockey of the year?
In 2021 we had a good regular season (not a ton of points but considering all the injuries we had, not bad at all) and the playoff series against MTL was a tough fought battle that all came down one game. We got dominated and lost that game 3-1.
Why is it that for the 4th year in a row with the season on the line, we as a team played some of our worst hockey of the year?
In case you're counting, that's us getting outscored 15-2 in the last 10 periods in which our entire season was on the line, no you simply can not blame it all on the goaltending, that is a total team collapse and that my friend, is what I call choking.
To be clear, I'm not saying we're a team of chokers. I like our team. I really hope that this spring, things are different. But until we at the very least win one playoff series, perhaps you can understand why I'm not quite ready to pound my chest and talk about what a great team we have. And I'm sick of people saying that people like me aren't "enjoying" how we're playing - yes I am. Not enjoying it is as much as I would be if we didn't have 4 seasons of playoff choking behind us, but enjoying it all the same. Not enjoying it as much as I enjoy it when we win in the playoff but still, I'm enjoying it.
If you have some theory on why we have collapsed to end the last 4 seasons then I'd like to hear it. And if you have examples of this happening to other sports franchises then I'd be interested to hear about it because like I said, I've never seen anything like it. And I'm not talking about the Red Sox not winning the title for eons or us not winning the title for over 50 years, I'm talking about playing hard and playing well for a full season and for most of a playoff series and then when we're almost at the finish line, we just disappear.
I don't think you can explain it, so far I haven't heard anyone with a plausible theory so who knows, maybe it's just a massive co-incidence of maybe the team really is cursed.
You probably can't explain it and that's fine, I don't expect you to able to explain what nobody else can either. But please stop trying to convince me with a bunch of numbers that we've actually played well, that we have not actually collapsed in these situations because we absolutely have.
Once again, the numbers over the last 10 periods are 15-2, it doesn't get much more clear than that.