Maple Leafs Haven't Exorcised Playoff Demons

The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs to advance to round two, but it doesn’t really feel like a victory. The Maple Leafs have a history of postseason failures, and even though they are heading to the second round for the second time in nine years, playoff demons still linger.

In more ways than one, the Maple Leafs and their superstar core still have so much to prove and this series against the Senators wasn’t a walk in the park.

The Maple Leafs got out to a 3-0 series lead but didn’t shut the door right away. The Senators planted that dreaded seed of doubt and won not one, but two games to force a Game 6.

Back in Ottawa for Game 6, members of the “Core Four” stepped up to open the scoring. Auston Matthews and William Nylander put the Maple Leafs up by a pair of goals, but they still struggled to put the nail in the coffin.

The Senators scored two goals of their own to tie the game late in the third period. With a tie game, a history of failures, and immense pressure on one another, it felt like the Maple Leafs lost all of their momentum.

Max Pacioretty eventually scored the game-winning goal, with Nylander potting the empty netter to seal the series for the Maple Leafs. But it felt like a muted victory.

Sure, the Maple Leafs won, but they came far too close to an all-time collapse. Not only did they come close to watching everything slip away, but they can’t be satisfied with just one series win.

They’ve been to the second round before and when you have a team stacked with Matthews, Nylander, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and you loaded up at the trade deadline, it’s Cup or bust each year.

So, with the Maple Leafs squeaking into the second round, who are the opponents? The reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. The same team the Maple Leafs faced in the second round in 2023. The same team that handily beat them in five games in 2023.

The Panthers are coming off of a five-game victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team who had a sneaky chance of contending for the Cup. The Panthers are still full of their typical talent like Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, and Sergei Bobrovsky, but they also added a notorious Leaf killer.

Former Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand is now a member of the Panthers and is ready to take on the Maple Leafs in the playoffs for the fifth time in his career. He's been victorious in each of the first four meetings.

The Maple Leafs have advanced and will have more hockey to play in 2025, but it’s far from a successful season and playoff demons still lurk in the shadows.