Admittedly, it was hard to keep a straight face when John Tavares said it. The wound was fresh. His Toronto Maple Leafs had been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs in crushing fashion minutes earlier.
I believe he believed his words: “We’re right there.” Right there? After one playoff series win in two decades? After dropping a fourth Game 7 to the Boston Bruins since 2013, blowing a third-period lead in three of those defeats? After going 0-6 in do-or-die games across eight seasons of the Auston Matthews / Mitch Marner era? With the Stanley Cup playoffs still going on six weeks after Tavares’ comment, the idea of Toronto being “right there” feels downright embarrassing. And yet: there’s a degree of sympathy when you drill down and examine one of the common denominators across their playoff defeats over the past eight seasons: that they couldn’t get a save when they really needed one.
Here’s a look at Toronto’s save percentage compared to its opponents’ save percentages across its eight series defeats since 2016-17: They have been outgoalied in five of eight series, though the margin isn’t as wide as some perceive it to be. The Leafs have received .919 or better goaltending for each of the last five series in which they were eliminated.
It’s more the consistency in crunch time that is the problem. Game 7 this past spring was the quintessential example. Ilya Samsonov had a .
938 SV% that night but allowed a backbreakingly soft tying goal and had .
