Toronto Maple Leafs Tickets

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. The 1998-1999 Season was called the miracle season by many. It was the Leafs first season in the Eastern Conference. Many changes were made including bringing in players such as Sergei Berezin and Igor Korolev, the sudden appearance of rookie Tomas Kaberle, the inclusion of Ken Dryden as GM and the hiring of Pat Quinn as coach. Perhaps most important was the signing of goalie Curtis Joesph. The team was the top scoring team that year, and made the playoffs after missing the previous 2 years. The team was called the Miracle Team on Ice, in Canada. The city was crazy for this wheel-barrow barn burner hockey team that strived on offense and exciting attacking rushes. Famed author Gil Perrault called that team one of the most exciting hockey teams of the Maple Leafs era. They too made it to the Conference finals, losing to the Buffalo Sabres in 5 games. The Maple Leafs would reach the second round in both 2000 and 2001, losing both times to the New Jersey Devils. In 2002, they would dispatch the Islanders and Ottawa Senators in the first two rounds, but would lose to the cinderella Carolina Hurricanes in the Conference finals. The 2002 season was particularly impressive in that the Leafs had many of their better players sidelined by injuries against the Islanders and Senators, and managed to make it to the conference finals with thanks to the skills and determination of lesser-known players. 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.