They've managed to injure our players two series in a row. The league let's then get away with it. I hope Carolina gets a fair treatment from the league/refs.

Yes, definitely if we were in the same position. But we won the Atlantic so our expectations were a little bit higher.

I always feel sorry for the fans no matter what because I know the feeling when your team loses or crashes out. I don't feel sorry for the team itself though. Referees could've done better and Florida is a dirty team, but this is how things go the deeper and deeper into the playoffs you get. Leafs do this to themselves as far as I can see. They've run the same core team back almost ten times now and have barely made a dent because Nylander is the only one that doesn't turn into a pumpkin every year when the going gets tough

I agree. It's like you think you're close but also crazy that you keep trying with the same ingredients and expecting a different product.

Honestly yeah. I grew up a habs fan in a leafs town and at some point the teasing about the leafs playoff imploding started to feel like punching down. Also, with the Leafs fanbase and media circus, it has started to feel like those scenes in movies where a kid does something bad and the teacher is about to reprimand them, but then sees how abusive their parents are and feels compelled to jump to their defense instead. Toronto fans started being meaner to Toronto than we ever could be.

It's ironically satisfying that a Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley cup in 32 years. Let's make it another 30!

The thing is, if Leafs ever make it to final, or god forbid win the cup, the Toronto media is going to be absolutely fucking insufferable for the next 50 years. And we can't have that. So I'm sorry. You can't win. But I do feel for you fans though.

> Nylander is the only one that doesn’t turn into a pumpkin every year Flashback to 2019 with Don Cherry ranting about "soft Swede".

>enjoy the regular season, don’t worry about playoff hockey -Steve Dangle

Honestly, it would be weird for a Canadian team to win the Cup at this point, right? It's an American trophy now. It would be like a CFL team winning the Superbowl.

As a Jets fan I'm too busy wallowing in my own self pity to feel sorry for you guys, though I am disappointed that there's no longer any chance of an all Canadian final. Go Oilers I guess.

Yeah, that was a shitty way to go for you guys.

I know what you mean.

The same Don Cherry who said we should've drafted Nick Ritchie instead of Willy??

Leafs fans and the media need to learn to actually LOVE the Leafs and stop with the unreasonable expectations that they must win the cup every year. When they have a good season, like this year, the expectations are even worse. I don’t feel sorry for Leafs fans. I feel sorry for the players that have to deal with your bi-polar “we love you!” / “we hate you” mood swings.

I don't hate you. I don't know that I really hate any team. I dislike when the Caps (my team) plays the Pens, because there's just so much rivalry and it often gets chippy. But these days the Pens are mostly harmless, so it's hard for me to hate them. I do take a certain satisfaction in seeing the Pens lose, along with the Flyers, the Bruins, the Rangers, and possibly a few others, but I can't muster enough energy to hate them. I have nothing against the Leafs. I was very tired of hearing the Habs fans complaining during the first round series. Many vocal Habs fans seem to think the puck is destined to go into the net every time the Habs enter the offensive zone, and any failure of that to happen is obviously a failure in refereeing. I feel like the Caps did playoff hockey fans everywhere (including Habs fans) a favor by eliminating the Habs early. Nothing against the team though, I thought they mostly played well.

Nah, not really "hate" per se. I reserve that for More schadenfreude, I'd say. My bandwagon team is always the team that has been the longest without a Cup and isnt the Leafs. edit: Caps fan

I don't know what is worse, a team that can't make the playoffs or a team that consistently good every year but can't get pass round 2.

Like Ted Lasso said, it's the hope that kills.

It's stupid but I'm still sore about the Habs beating the The Great One on the Kings in '93.