TORONTO — Right here, within the a part of Canada that likes to consider itself as the middle of the nation — and because the heart of ice hockey — the N.H.L. playoffs shortly and predictably withered. However hockey is raging like wild roses in Alberta, approach to the west.
The second spherical of the postseason begins Tuesday, and Canada, which had three groups within the discipline at first of the postseason, is down to 2.
In Toronto, the Maple Leafs misplaced a Recreation 7 to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, extending and setting a number of ignominious data. The Leafs, for instance, grew to become the first staff within the historical past of the N.H.L., N.B.A. and Main League Baseball to lose an elimination recreation within the opening spherical of the playoffs in 5 consecutive seasons.
In Alberta, the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames every gained Recreation 7s to advance, deliciously, and can meet within the playoffs for the primary time since 1991.
Oilers heart Connor McDavid, who’s extensively thought to be the most effective participant within the recreation, scored after a relentless effort Saturday as his staff eradicated the Los Angeles Kings. Then, on Sunday, Johnny Gaudreau, the left winger who led the Flames with 115 factors within the common season, scored to beat the Dallas Stars in time beyond regulation to e book the Battle of Alberta.
(The Battle of Alberta is just like the Subway Sequence between the Yankees and the Mets — solely as an alternative of driving the 7 and 4 trains you make a three-hour automotive journey operating north-south on Freeway 2 by the prairies. And generally you get a goalie battle.)
The most important stars have scored the most important objectives when it has mattered most in these playoffs. In New York, the Rangers eradicated the Pittsburgh Penguins after the star winger Artemi Panarin scored in time beyond regulation in Recreation 7.
However not in Toronto. In 9 consecutive makes an attempt to win a recreation that might have eradicated their opponent in a first-round playoff sequence, courting to 2004, the Maple Leafs have misplaced. They haven’t gained a Stanley Cup because the 1966-67 season, and on Saturday evening, they eclipsed the Rangers’ 54-year championship drought from 1940 to 1994. They’ve been within the playoffs for six consecutive seasons, and did not advance every time.
In a information convention after Toronto’s Recreation 7 loss to the Lightning, the Toronto gamers, low-voiced and red-eyed, have been unhappy.
“It’s exhausting to elucidate,” the staff’s captain, John Tavares, a former star of the Islanders who was born in suburban Toronto and who signed a $77 million, seven-year contract with the membership he famously adored as a baby in 2018, mentioned of the loss. “It hurts. It’s disappointing. We’re attempting to go all the best way, and we haven’t been in a position to get previous this hurdle.”
Auston Matthews, the American heart who scored a league-best 60 objectives within the common season, cap pulled low over his eyes, mentioned, “We’re very dissatisfied.”
Mitch Marner, a winger who grew up in suburban Toronto, mentioned, “We’re sick and uninterested in feeling this manner.”
Just a few hours later in Edmonton, McDavid, enjoying in as possessed a fashion as he ever has, was placing his staff on his again. He leads all skaters within the playoffs with 14 factors.
In distinction to the low-talking Leafs, Leon Draisaitl was ebullient speaking about his teammate McDavid. “He’s the most effective participant on the earth,” mentioned Draisaitl, whose 55 objectives have been second to Matthews. “He confirmed that within the final two video games. It’s not talent. I imply, there’s plenty of talent clearly with him, that’s a given. It’s the desire. You’ll be able to see it in his eyes. You’ll be able to really feel it each shift that he’s on the market. He’s decided. There was simply no means that he, or us, have been going to be denied. He led the best way. He was wonderful.”
The Leafs did not get a efficiency worthy of the Recreation 7 stage from Matthews or any of their different stars Saturday. Over the previous 18 years, failing early within the playoffs or lacking them altogether has grow to be predictable.
The collapses are quite a few, and it’s tough to select the worst, however two storm to thoughts. In 2013, the Leafs led the Bruins, 4-1, within the third interval of Recreation 7 earlier than surrendering three regulation objectives — two within the final minute — and conceding a Patrice Bergeron purpose in time beyond regulation. Final season, the Leafs coughed up their three-games-to-one lead over the Montreal Canadiens and misplaced a Recreation 7 on house ice, and the Canadiens went on to the Stanley Cup finals.
Shedding this 12 months to the Lightning, winners of the final two championships, softened the result for Leafs Coach Sheldon Keefe.
“This one is hard as a result of I actually really feel we’re lots nearer than it seems,” Keefe mentioned.
As years go by, the bands on the Stanley Cup that every listing a dozen groups are eliminated for show within the Hockey Corridor of Fame in Toronto to make room for brand spanking new champions. The subsequent band will probably be eliminated in 2031, sending the winners from the 1965-66 to 1977-78 seasons completely to the Corridor. If the Leafs don’t win by then, they are going to be gone.
Don’t really feel too unhealthy for Toronto. Hockey has all the time been its coronary heart, however the metropolis’s multicultural soul has felt intermittent pleasure since 1967 from different sports activities. The Toronto Raptors gained an N.B.A. title in 2019. Toronto F.C. gained an M.L.S. championship in 2017 (and made the finals in 2016 and 2019). It was some time in the past, however the Blue Jays gained World Sequence titles in 1992 and 1993, and postseason hopes are legitimately excessive this season. Toronto will probably be high-quality even when the Maple Leafs won’t.
There are calls to explode the staff and its close-knit cadre of well-paid stars. There are calls to “run it again.” Pay no thoughts. Look west, the place playoff hockey will probably be wild, guaranteeing that Canada has a staff among the many last 4. And two for not less than the subsequent week, and maybe longer. A Canadian staff has not gained the Stanley Cup since Montreal did so in 1993. The Battle of Alberta begins in Calgary on Wednesday.
Darryl Sutter, the Flames’ coach and one in all six brothers to play within the N.H.L. and 4 to educate within the league, grew up in Viking, Alberta, inhabitants 1,083, and 85 miles southeast of Edmonton.
“Fairly fortunate that two Canadian groups are nonetheless enjoying, being from Alberta,” Sutter mentioned in his postgame information convention. “Fairly distinctive.”
