You seem confused. They only bring it up regarding Toronto becuase no other fanbase pretends their team is a contender despite never winning in the playoffs. It's completely unique to Toronto.
The Toronto "Core Four" have won a single playoff round in eight years.
Ovechkin already had won five rounds before the season the Capitals won the Stanley Cup. I don't see how you can pretend this is remotely the same thing.
Not to mention, the Capitals weren't pretending they were "contenders" in those years either.
Earlier you were pretending that Mario Lemieux "didn't win until around the point Matthews is at now" which is ridiculous. Matthews is playing his ninth NHL season. By this point in Mario's career, he had two Stanley Cups, two Conn Smythe trophies and he had won nine playoff series. You're claim is absurd.
You want to draw comparisons to Steve Yzerman, as well. With eight seasons under his belt, Yzerman had already captained the Wings to the Semi-Finals in '87.
You can try to pretend that the level of failure of this Leafs team is not unique, but the reality is that the level of failure from this group of athletes is, in fact, quite rare.
You're trying to compare winning a playoff round to winning the Stanley Cup and saying, it took these guys x amount of years to win as if it's the same thing. It's not.
Yzerman went to the Semi Finals in '87, then led his team to the Final in '95 before finally winning it all. Ovechkin's Capitals played 36 playoff games in the three seasons leading up to finally winning a Cup in 2018.
You become a contender by contending. The Maple Leafs haven't done that yet.
