New York. This was the year everything would be different and the Maple Leafs for the first time since 2004 passed the first round of the playoffs.
but not.
Although Austin Matthews, William Nylander and the other stars played really well, another season ended in heartbreak.
“I’m sick of feeling like this,” says Mitch Marner, with tears in his eyes after the recent 2-1 loss to Tampa.
Many great hockey games have been played in Toronto in recent years, but not the entire city of millions looked forward with the same frantic anticipation as tonight’s seventh game between the Maple Leafs and the current champions. Tampa Bay Lightning.
As the incredible stars who make up the club’s modern backbone and for the first time played their playoff hockey really well this spring, tried and tested fans dared hope to win their first playoff series in eighteen years.
But it ended up breaking everyone’s hearts again.
This loss hurts more than anyone else
Auston Matthews &co He put in a pretty cool effort up until last night, but the current champions still know more about how to win.
Yes, we get more respect during the handshake than before but we don’t do it for respect. We’re about to win, Coach Sheldon Keefe sighs.
– This loss does more harm than anyone else because we have come so close.
Players agree.
Mitch Marner, who has certainly been responsible for the best playoff games of his career in the past two weeks of spring, can barely hold back his tears when he meets the media.
– I’m incredibly tired of feeling this way. It will hurt for a long time.
William Nylander also had a very successful playoff and would undoubtedly be a boost in Tre Kronor’s World Cup squad, so Johann Garbenlov should definitely call and ask if he wants to continue playing.
