Well, At Least the Maple Leafs Most Massive Mistakes Weren't Made by All-Too-Familiar Faces...4/24/2019 While I don't feel one way or the other about the successes or failures of the Maple Leafs, I'm going to take this time to pray for the city in which they play. I'm not particularly religious, nor do I care that Toronto's collective mental state is currently as fragile as Mike Babcock's ego after watching the Bruins hit 'play' on a re-run of Game 7's gone by. Instead, I'm hoping to offer a toxically fanatical following all the forgiveness they can get for the vile things they are inevitably going to direct at their favorite punching bags of past and present. Honestly, of all the players to make gargantuan, game-changing gaffs, those least likely to be offered any sort of pass were Jake Gardiner, Frederik Anderson, and William Nylander, and yet here we are with all four goals against that actually mattered being attributed to their all-too-familiar inefficiencies. Another promising season ended, in any form or fashion, by the Boston Bruins would have been an actualization of a nightmare for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans. However, Jake Gardiner contributing to it by being as sloppy in his cycling as the type of amateur laundry-doer that ends up with an unexpected influx of pink in his wardrobe is the most cold-sweat inducing version of that nightmare...
If there was anything that might trigger the postseason PTSD of Leafs' loyalists, Frederik Anderson almost literally leaking pucks that's he's spent all season stopping would be it...
If there were prophetic frustrations to be self-fulfilled in the eyes of infuriated fans they were all but guaranteed to be with William Nylander, so why wouldn't he be the one to seal the fate of a disappointing season's deja-vu with the type of turnover you're supposed to learn not to make by the time you start lacing your own skates...
I have far too much respect for professional athletes to ever argue that their mental toughness isn't strong enough to withstand the barrage of hostility that comes with underperforming in the eyes of a bi-polar fanbase that hates as passionately as it loves. That being said, if someone were to present the possibility that those most likely to unrelentingly dwell on players' pasts are actually their worst enemies then rendering Games 1-6 forgettable with a similarly self-sabotaged Game 7 loss to a familiarly fortunate foe would make for quite the convincing 'Exhibit A'.
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