This isn’t going to be a hockey game in Toronto on Sunday night, it is going to be the ultimate challenge of character. No, this is going to be the extreme test of manhood. Well, it is going to be Game 7 between the Maple Leafs and defending champion Panthers.

If we can exclude 2024-25, the Leafs’ story has tracked the Rangers’ narrative for most of the decade. Original Six team with marquee names that is a perennial disappointment in the playoffs, whether early in the tournament or late.

There is more derision heaped on the hierarchy and at the leadership core than at the upper management and lettermen of ne’er-do-wells. The Blueshirts once went 54 years and are on 32 again. The Maple Leafs have not won since 1967.

When Lou Lamoriello was in Toronto, he called the Maple Leafs the “Yankees of the NHL.” They are actually more the “Detroit Lions of the NHL.”