Top 5 Lessons The Canadiens Can Learn from Toronto’s Demise

Eric Bolte-Imagn Images While the Montreal Canadiens continue to find success, their longtime rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs , have finally admitted their Stanley Cup window has slammed shut. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the lessons the Canadiens should remember as the Maple Leafs attempt to identify what went wrong. 1 – It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock And Roll There’s no fool-proof recipe when it comes to building a Stanley Cup contending roster, and the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry .

Take the Washington Capitals, for example. Even with the best goalscorer in NHL history in the lineup, it took them two years to qualify for the playoffs. And once Alex Ovechkin got his first taste of springtime hockey, it took him and the Capitals 11 years to finally capture the Stanley Cup.

That’s 12 years of disappointment, a heavy price to pay for any fan base. In fact, many of the best teams in NHL history have failed miserably in their respective playoff pushes. The Boston Bruins produced the most points in league history in 2022-23, with 135, and yet, they were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the first round.

The Tampa Bay Lightning secured 128 points in 2018-19, the third-highest haul in NHL history. They were unceremoniously eliminated in the first round in four straight games by the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Maple Leafs never made it out of the second round, failing to win two consecutive series for nine years, which eventually led to them removing talented players from the mix in exchange for more truculence, a recipe that slowly yet surely distanced them from the ultimate prize.