BermudaBudsFan said:
I hear you ? don?t they ultimately need to be better than first round losses to be considered successful? This series particularly, up 3 - 1. Despite all the talk I can?t imagine it didn?t effect their performance.
Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not trying to say that the Leafs have been particularly(or at all) successful as a team the last few years. They should have won their first round series this year. They should have won it last year. Beyond that, at worst, they had decent performances in serieses that nobody could fairly say they "should" have won.
I just don't look at that record and say that the issue here is necessarily psychological or that all of those losses need to be addressed by personnel changes. I could be wrong about that but I just don't think the cumulative weight of what I've seen, playoffs and regular season, says that. Especially, and I don't want to use this as an excuse but just an acknowledgement, after two seasons where they were playing to empty buildings and the conditions were a far sight from normal.