The Toronto Maple Leafs faced the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night under very unusual circumstances.
In the last three seasons, the Toronto Maple Leafs have lost fluky playoff series after fluky playoff series and been labeled failures, while a team that really isn’t any better than they are went to three straight Cup Finals, winning two of them.
That team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, was the Leafs “reward” for finishing fourth overall last year. Despite the stupidity of the NHL’s Playoff Seeding, the Leafs buckled down and were the better team, only to win three times and get screwed by the refs in game six, and then get goalied in game seven (despite playing one of their best games ever).