Wild Maple Leafs Stat Makes The Rounds After Game 5 Loss To Ottawa

The Toronto Maple Leafs failed to put away the Ottawa Senators for the second-straight game on Tuesday night after getting shutout in Game 5, 4-0. And that has led to a pretty wild stat about this era of the Leafs making the rounds.

Not being able to finish the job in a playoff series has been a big problem for the Leafs over the years. Remember, they went nearly 20 years without winning a playoff series, but it's worse than that.

SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.

In their current era, with a core made up of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander, the Leafs have had a serious problem in potential series-clinching games.

In this opening round series with the Senators, they've already lost two of them, with a third crack at winning the series coming Thursday night in Ottawa.

This is a persistent problem, and ever since 2018, the Leafs are a jaw-dropping 1-13 in potential series-clinching games.

That's one of those stats where you see it, chew on it, and then think about it some more and then you realize how crazy that is.

Obviously, that one-win series-clinching win came in Game 6 of their 2023 opening round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which was their first series win since 2004, and that series included a loss in a potential series-clinching Game 5.

It gets weirder. It's not like the Leafs are just getting an occasional bad bounce. Crucial parts of their game – including their power play, which was one of the better ones in the league during the regular season — have started laying eggs in the playoffs.

For whatever reason, the Leafs have a problem sealing the deal, and it won't be easy to do that on Thursday night on the road, but there is a silver lining to that, because Toronto has lost six-straight potential series-clinchers that took place on home ice.