Ranking the Maple Leafs playoff series

[EdJovanovski]

This was written by chatgbt

 

[AvroArrow]

This definitely isn't a troll thread

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

Soft, weak, fragile and heartless.

Their failure isn't a disappointment. It's a franchise core character value.

 

[BenchBrawl]

A work of art.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Please feel free to add some videos to your ranking. I am currently on a train with limited Wifi so I didnt have a good enough access to YouTube to do it. I wrote that out of boredom

A lot don’t think you actually wrote that.
There are to many stats/points in there for poor wifi.

 

[The Shadow]

Why would a Montreal fan take the time to do this in the off season ? Get a life pal

 

[behemolari]

Why isn't 2025 included?

 

[Kaner9]

lol leafs. 2013 obviously.

 

[De Montreal]

Why would a Montreal fan take the time to do this in the off season ? Get a life pal

I was in a train from Toronto!

Enjoyed three days there for work mostly

But also had the GREATEST pad thaï I ever had at a restaurant on Charlotte street

Called Khao San Road

Listen to the waitress and dont take the extra Spicy if you are not used to authentic thaï food

I took only 3/10 and almost fainted lol but very good very very good!

 

[Leaf Fans]

shouldnt this be on the leaf board?

Why?

 

[Leaf Fans]

Soft, weak, fragile and heartless.

Their failure isn't a disappointment. It's a franchise core character value.

Yeah, but the OP had to try and project that onto the Leafs.

 

[DarthRevenue]

Great thread! Question… have the leafs given Bennett his Father’s Day gift yet?

 

[647Hockey]

Good list. I'd put #9 Boston 7th. And then push down 7-8 to 8-9.

That Columbus one is a hard one. Other series have been worse, but then again it can be argued losing to Jackets should be higher as there's no way Leafs should had lost to them. at least in many other series, Leafs were underdogs, but when Leafs lose to a team whose best player was Dubois and made Korpisalo look like a HoF goalie, it was crash and burn. It can be argued too that Jackets should had won faster as Leafs got that one lucky comeback game.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

Good list. I'd put #9 Boston 7th. And then push down 7-8 to 8-9.

That Columbus one is a hard one. Other series have been worse, but then again it can be argued losing to Jackets should be higher as there's no way Leafs should had lost to them. at least in many other series, Leafs were underdogs, but when Leafs lose to a team whose best player was Dubois and made Korpisalo look like a HoF goalie, it was crash and burn. It can be argued too that Jackets should had won faster as Leafs got that one lucky comeback game.

The Montreal loss was terrible, as a non-Leaf fan

 

[647Hockey]

The Montreal loss was terrible, as a non-Leaf fan

Ya. That Habs series was a joke.

Even when Habs won game 5 making it 3-2, I remember texting my bro who likes Habs and he wasnt even excited as he expected Leafs to win anyway. Boy was he wrong and laughed his ass off all the way to the finals after beating Leafs.

I remember telling him no way they'd beat Jets and Vegas too. lol

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

The Habs loss was understandable at least.

The Habs have owned the Leafs for decades. Those ghosts still haunt the hearts and minds of the Leaf franchise. The combination of the Leafs being naturally soft, weak, fragile and heartless and the Leaf culture of embracing failure produced the circumstances where the Habs were given the opportunity to pimp-slap the Leafs...and the Habs took full advantage of the Leaf's dysfunctions.

 

[Son of Nogatco]

Hi everyone,

The Maple Leafs had many disappointing playoff since the start of this century especially post 2004.

How would you rank the team elimination, from the most disappointing to the most acceptable ones?

2013 Round 1 vs. Boston Bruins (Lost in 7)​

Pain Score: 100/10

• The 4-1 collapse.
• Leafs led Game 7 by 3 goals with 10 minutes left... and lost in overtime.
• First playoff appearance in 9 years, and they broke fans’ hearts in the most dramatic way imaginable.
• Cemented the start of a long era of misery.

---

2021 Round 1 vs. Montreal Canadiens (Lost in 7)​

Pain Score: 99/10

• Blew a 3–1 series lead to their archrival, the Habs.
• Montreal was the clear underdog.
• Matthews and Marner combined for 1 goal all series.
• Game 5 and 6: Leafs lose in OT after massive comebacks.
• A complete meltdown with massive expectations.

---

2018 Round 1 vs. Boston Bruins (Lost in 7)​

Pain Score: 92/10

• Another Game 7 collapse in Boston.
• Leafs led Game 7 in the third period (4–3), then gave up 4 unanswered goals.
• Andersen was shaky. Jake Gardiner was -5.
• A reminder that the 2013 demons were still very alive.

---

4. 2019 Round 1 vs. Boston Bruins (Lost in 7)​

Pain Score: 87/10

• Another Game 7 loss to the Bruins. Third time in 7 years.
• Leafs led the series 3–2.
• Game 6 at home was flat. Game 7 wasn’t close.
• Tavares, Matthews, Marner all invisible.
• Felt like the core had hit a wall.

---

5. 2020 Qualifying Round vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (Lost in 5)​

Pain Score: 84/10

• Pandemic bubble.
• Leafs were heavily favored. Columbus had no stars.
• Blew a 3–0 lead in Game 3.
• Game 4: Incredible comeback to tie it late, then win. Game 5: nothing.
• Utter failure on the biggest stage.

---

6. 2022 Round 1 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Lost in 7)​

Pain Score: 80/10

• Leafs had Tampa on the ropes. Series lead 3–2.
• Game 6 OT loss. Game 7: tight, winnable game.
• Controversial no-call on Justin Holl screen.
• Best version of the Leafs to date, but still couldn't get it done.

---

7. 2023 Round 2 vs. Florida Panthers (Lost in 5)​

Pain Score: 75/10

• Finally won a round… and then fell flat.
• Panthers were the 8th seed. Leafs were favored.
• Games were close, but stars didn’t produce.
• Just felt like a waste of finally getting over the hump.

---

8. 2017 Round 1 vs. Washington Capitals (Lost in 6)​

Pain Score: 65/10

• Young, upstart Leafs vs. Presidents' Trophy winners.
• Pushed Ovechkin and the Caps to 6 games, 5 of which went to OT.
• Actually a moral victory — little was expected.
• Exciting, but not painful.

---

9. 2024 Round 1 vs. Boston Bruins (Lost in 7)​

Pain Score: 60/10

• Down 3–1, forced Game 7. Impressive resilience.
• Game 7 went to OT — but the magic ran out.
• Loss felt inevitable, and expectations were lower.

Please feel free to add some videos to your ranking. I am currently on a train with limited Wifi so I didnt have a good enough access to YouTube to do it. I wrote that out of boredom

Enjoy the weekend fellow HFBoarders!

Thank you OP for bringing awareness to this oft-neglected topic

You asked for videos so I thought I should share this very well done highlight package:

 

[Son of Nogatco]

Jeff O'Neill annoys the hell out of me; what grown ass man uses dog in his nickname?

It’s pretty much a prerequisite for drive time sports radio personalities. Some producer probably came up with it.

He’s more of an entertainer than a serious reporter, I think he’s actually really good at his job.

 

[93LEAFS]

Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between Edmonton and Florida, and you felt it best to share your personal rankings on the Leaf's playoff runs over the past decade?

Main character syndrome much?

Pretty sure someone named De Montreal isn't doing this out of love for the Leafs.

Edit: As a Leafs fan, I would consider trying to rank these as cruel and unusual punishment.

 

[goflyakite]

As a Bruins/Sharks fan from Ontario who never really hated the Leafs — I’ll never forgive them for losing the series against the habs with Thornton on their team.

 

[Devilsfan118]

Paging Steve Dangle...

 

[FanCos]

A lot of respect to OP. I'd shake your hand if we met.

 

[KrugAvoy]

Enjoyment Index: 100/100 for all of these

 

[banks]

I won't get into a real ranking, especially for a thread that's clearly a troll job. But I will use this as an opportunity to vent a bit. Haters, feel free top enjoy my pain for this one. You have my blessing.

Of all the eerily similar failures, there's only 3 that truly stand out as unique. I'll define them here with no particular order:

2021 vs the Habs. Being the favourite against a huge rival and still blowing it? That was the only one that was a true embarrassment. Not a disappointment, an embarrassment. Montreal was a joy to watch that year, proving you could go so far with only two things that the Leafs didn't have: Heart and a superstar goaltender.

2025 vs the Panthers. This is the only loss that made me mad. I defended the team after all the other losses. Always arguing that the core could get it done eventually, it just didn't come up heads in a close series. But not anymore. This series broke me as a fan. I tossed a jersey in the trash bin, and enjoyed walking it to the curb for pickup. I've done a 180 on players I used to love. I'm mad. And I don't care about the team the same way anymore.

2013 vs the Bruins. This was more than a sporting event for me. I've touched on it on HF in the past, and still won't get into all the details here. But my whole family was going through a tough time, including health issues and a death in the family. Because of this, we were all together already when this game happened, so it was an accidental family reunion. You could feel it in the room, we needed a win. As a family, it felt like we earned something good. Some kind of reward for going through everything together. We needed hope in the world. We needed a positive thing to rally around, we deserved it. And there it was, a Leafs win was materializing, like it was a gift just for us from the Hockey Gods, or God himself. Then the crash was the most demoralizing experience of my life. It was like all the colour in the room turned grey. It was a living definition for the word despair. We were living in reality, without the happy endings. As the overtime played out to silence, there was a crushing understanding that people are mortal. I can still feel the handle of my mother's wheelchair in my hand as the game ended. They lost. We were losing. The moment wouldn't have been darker with a mushroom cloud growing outside the window. With noting to lift our spirits, we were left there with nothing going on except the health problems and grief. Like a goldenticket-less Charlie, sitting in the slanted shack realizing that the book ends at this chapter without the whimsy. Life is pain, highness.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

2013 vs the Bruins. This was more than a sporting event for me. I've touched on it on HF in the past, and still won't get into all the details here. But my whole family was going through a tough time, including health issues and a death in the family. Because of this, we were all together already when this game happened, so it was an accidental family reunion. You could feel it in the room, we needed a win. As a family, it felt like we earned something good. Some kind of reward for going through everything together. We needed hope in the world. We needed a positive thing to rally around, we deserved it. And there it was, a Leafs win was materializing, like it was a gift just for us from the Hockey Gods, or God himself. Then the crash was the most demoralizing experience of my life. It was like all the colour in the room turned grey. It was a living definition for the word despair. We were living in reality, without the happy endings. As the overtime played out to silence, there was a crushing understanding that people are mortal. I can still feel the handle of my mother's wheelchair in my hand as the game ended. They lost. We were losing. The moment wouldn't have been darker with a mushroom cloud growing outside the window. With noting to lift our spirits, we were left there with nothing going on except the health problems and grief. Like a goldenticket-less Charlie, sitting in the slanted shack realizing that the book ends at this chapter without the whimsy. Life is pain, highness.

Never saw anything like this on hf boards dot com before

Take it easy man