Good morning and happy Toronto Maple Leafs game day to most of you.

I say most because there’s a segment of fans who have given up all hope and retreated back to the safety of defeat, wallowing in their own misery as they’ve become used to over the past decade+.

The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a major loss when John Tavares was injured in an on-ice collision in game one of the first round series against the Montreal Canadiens.

John Tavares, Corey Perry and Nick Foligno

They saw a smaller loss when the awful Maple Leafs powerplay allowed a short handed goal from Paul Bryon, and couldn’t score one more goal to tie the game after that.

Maple Leafs lose John Tavares, and Game 1

Right now the Maple Leafs are down 1-0 in their biggest playoff series since facing the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2004 playoffs ahead of the cancelled 2004-2005 NHL season.

However a lot of people would have you believe we’re back to having Tyler Bozak as our number one centre, Colton Orr with a guaranteed spot in the line up every night and Vesa Toskala stating in goal.

They want to pretend we don’t have the 2021 Rocket Richard winner Auston Matthews as our number one centre.

They want to ignore Mitch Marner scoring 67 points in 56 games.

Jack Campbell went from career backup to playoff starter, winner of eleven straight in his Leafs debut.

Jason Spezza goes out of his way to take care of his team mates, the Marlies, and stay by John Tavares side when he’s injured.

“They got their money, they have no heart”

“Typical Leafs”

“We’re cursed, we don’t deserve nice things”

“What did we expect?”

Common words and phrases that we’ve seen and heard every day and every season since the NHL “restarted” back in 2005. The Maple Leafs were a disappointment to us all for so long it seems that it can be hard to cheer for a strong, hard working, amazingly talented team that we have,

I’m not about to sit back and let the waves of defeat wash over me after one game. Yes, the Montreal Canadiens are one win closer to round two. However, they barely limped into the playoffs. The Maple Leafs were first place in the North Division for all but ten days this season. The Maple Leafs had seven players score 30+ points to the Canadiens three. The Maple Leafs had two players in the top ten in NHL scoring, and four in the top 50 this season while the Canadiens had zero.

The Maple Leafs lost twenty-one games this season and while some were disappointing, I wasn’t ready to give up after any of them.

The Maple Leafs all suffered in game one. They saw their captain, their teammate, their friend, their family be injured in one of the most devastating ways the Maple Leafs have seen in many years. They got through the first period, fought back and tied things up in the second, but the worry, shock, and trauma couldn’t get shaken off that quickly and they lost.

They lost.

One game.

It makes things harder, but they’ve had two days to recover, two days to talk things out, two days to refocus.

John Tavares has reached out, he’s thanked everyone for being there for him, for their kind words, and most assuredly told them to go out and win the series, win the next one, go get the cup.

The Maple Leafs will do this.

They’ll win it for their captain.

They’ll win it for JT.

Now, here’s a bit of news to distract you before the game.

Are these new lines for tonight?

Nick Foligno centres second line at Leafs practice

Seriously, just fix the power play.

Maple Leafs running out of time, options to fix dreadful power play

#1: Score more than one goal

5 things the Leafs must do to overcome the Tavares injury | Offside

There were also games last night, and I’m sure some people won, however I wrote this at 6PM and I’m not psychic so I don’t know who won.

Enjoy your day, and don’t let the sad sacks bring you down.

From The Branches