The Maple Leafs are a perennial disappointment for their great fans

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since before the moon landing, and it’s becoming an impossible nightmare for their fans.

Spring brings heartbreak in Toronto.

At Maple Leaf Gardens for a few decades, then the Air Canada Centre. The venue hasn’t changed the result of loss come April and May.

It was 1967 the last time the Maple Leafs hoisted Lord Stanley. They beat the hated Montreal Canadiens four games to two. They haven’t been back to the Final since.

These past few seasons were supposed to see progress, maybe even a championship.

Nothing.

Mike Babock was hired as head coach of the Maple Leafs in 2015, attempting to deliver Toronto’s first playoff series win since 2004. This seemed a slam dunk.

Babcock was an experienced hand who unexpectedly guided the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to the Final in 2003, losing to the heavily-favored New Jersey Devils in seven games. Babcock also ran the bench when the Detroit Red Wings won a Cup in 2008 before losing in the following Final to Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

With a cadre of young talent and ownership’s willingness to spend to the cap, this was an relatively easy assignment.

Babcock was fired 23 games into this season. He reached the playoffs three straight years. He was bounced without a series win each time.

With the current NHL season postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, the Leafs are in limbo for their current fate. If the playoffs begin when the season resumes — assuming it does — they would be the third seed in there Atlantic Division, drawing the Tampa Bay Lightning in the quarterfinals. Not an ideal matchup.

Some teams spend decades without winning a title, but they come painstakingly close to glory. At least the Maple Leafs haven’t put their fan base through any such pain. In the 53 years since winning the Stanley Cup, Toronto has won a meager 18 playoff series. It has advanced to the conference finals (both Western and then Eastern) on five occasions, nary once with success.

For a team in the Mecca of hockey, it’s the height of embarrassment. Meanwhile, the other six Canadian teams have all either reached the Final since 1993, save for the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets have an excuse, though, having been relocated after the 1996 season before coming back to the city as the rebranded Atlanta Thrashers in 2011.

In fact, no NHL team has a longer Final drought than the Maple Leafs. The next-longest? The Arizona Coyotes — via Winnipeg — dating back to 1979.

In Toronto, the Hockey Hall of Fame houses the Stanley Cup. It’s polished, waiting for its rightful owners. Somehow, it’s never the hometown team.