The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional
ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They play in the
National Hockey League. The organization is officially known as the
Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club. Anchored by team captain Mats Sundin, the
Leafs are an assembled team that come close many times to winning the
Stanley Cup but have not been successful since 1967, due to team
misfortunes and bad luck coupled with losses to arguably superior teams.
The 2005/2006 team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since
1998. Long time goaltending stalwart Ed Belfour also appears to be
nearing the end of a fine career.
Curtis Joseph left to go to the Red Wings in the 2002 off-season; the
team immediately found a replacement in veteran Ed Belfour, who had come
over from the Dallas Stars. Belfour could not help their playoff woes in
the 2003 playoffs, however, as they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in
seven games in the first round. The 2003-04 season started in an
uncommon way for the team, as they held their training camp in Sweden,
and playing in the NHL Challenge against teams from Sweden and Finland.
That year, the Leafs posted a franchise record number of points and
finished fourth in the Eastern Conference. They defeated the Senators in
the first round of the playoffs for the fourth time in five years, but
lost in the second round, this time against the Flyers in six games. The
Leafs did not make the playoffs in 2006.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the only Original Six franchise to have not
reached the Stanley Cup Finals since the 1967 NHL Expansion. The Chicago
Blackhawks, the only other Original Six team not to win a Stanley Cup
since 1967, have been to the Finals three times since then. Toronto's
great rival, the Montreal Canadiens, have won eleven Cups since the
Leafs' last win. Toronto have been swept in the playoffs at total of 6
times throughout the franchise history.
The team's management has been widely criticized for the trading away of
vital draft picks in exchange for veteran players throughout the 90's,
right up to the lost season of 2004-2005 due to the NHL lockout.