Toronto Maple Leafs doing exactly the thing you thought they would in playoffs

Not to be dramatic, but the Toronto Maple Leafs might actually be cursed.

The Buds were blanked in another blown opportunity to close out a playoff series on Tuesday night, bringing the Battle of Ontario to a nail-biting 3-2 lead for the Leafs after what seemed like an unbreakable 3-0 series advantage.

The team has now posted an unthinkably terrible 2-14 record in series-clinching playoff games since 2004, following a 4-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators before a stunned crowd at Scotiabank Arena.

Tuesday's loss proved just the latest chapter in what has become a saga of the Leafs' long-term struggles in close-out games.

Like the years-long choke fest it contributed to, the game was replete with missed opportunities, frustrations, and the team's stars seemingly vanishing off the surface of the ice when it counted the most.

Game 6 will bring the series back to Ottawa on Thursday, where the Leafs will have a third consecutive opportunity to close out the first round.

Should the Senators manage to stave off elimination once again, the Leafs will be in familiar territory with the series returning to Toronto for yet another Game 7. 

Even with a home ice advantage, a Game 7 already seems like a disaster scenario for a battered fanbase that has gone down this road again and again and again and again.

It's such a hurdle that the team's inability to win a Stanley Cup since 1967 seems to take a backseat in the typical sportscaster narratives to near-constant talk about the Leafs' perpetual failures in getting past that first round.

In fact, in the only case in recent memory where the Leafs actually managed to win a series, the release of built-up tension was so dramatic that one could have thought they were witnessing a city celebrate a Stanley Cup win.

Leafs fans experienced no such jubilation on Tuesday night, and are once again facing the creeping possibility that a team which seemed destined for contention just a few days earlier could collapse before their very eyes.

Again.