The Curse of Harold Ballard

The Curse Of Harold Ballard

In the mid-1900s, the Toronto Maple Leafs were one of the most successful hockey franchises in the NHL. They had a strong core of talented players, including Frank Mahovlich, Tim Horton, and Dave Keon. Under the leadership of Conn Smythe, they won the Stanley Cup several times in the 1940s and 50s. Then, Harold Ballard took over as team president and general manager in 1969 and the downward spiral began.

Ballard, bully or boor
Harold Ballard was convicted of tax evasion in 1971 and spent nine months in jail. Despite this scandal, he kept his position with the Leafs. He was also fined $10,000 for using a racial slur in a press conference. The Leafs rocketed to the bottom of the NHL standings. Star players aged, new talent couldn’t be signed.

Management struggled, Ballard battled other Leaf executives. The Leaf rocket zoomed downward.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, the Leafs continued struggling, finishing in the bottom half of the standings season after season. Attendance dropped.

End of the Ballard era
Ballard died in 1989. The team was sold to a new owner. This marked the beginning of a new era.

The new owner immediately made some changes, hiring a new general manager, Pat Quinn who got to work rebuilding the team with new talent building a strong core of young players. The Leafs started to show signs of improvement in the early 90s.

They finished higher in the standings, even making the playoffs several times. In 1993, conference finals but were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens. Fans ever hopeful were rewarded with the Leafs making the finals in 1994 only to be defeated once again by the New York Rangers.

The belief was that the Leafs were on the right track.

In 1995, the team won the President’s Trophy, awarded to the team with the best regular season record. Again, hope springing up once more, was dashed at the rink of reality where again the Leafs suffered another playoff defeat.

The trend continued
Consistently one of the best teams in the league, perennially failing in the playoffs, the Leafs’ history repeated itself: 1998, another loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the finals.

More losses followed: 1999 to the Buffalo Sabres; 2000 to the New Jersey Devils. Still they were touted as being a strong team.

Always in the playoff mix for the Stanley Cup, the team just couldn’t seem to get over the finish line.

In 2001, the Leafs finally broke through, only to be crushed by the Colorado Avalanche, the defending champions. Ultimately, heartbreaking defeat again but starting to prove that they were a team to be reckoned with.

The next decade saw more disappointments: 2002, the Carolina Hurricanes; 2003, the New Jersey Devils; 2004, 2005, no playoffs; 2006 another defeat; 2007, repeat, the Buffalo Sabres; 2008, again out of the playoffs; 2009 back and busted, by the Philadelphia Flyers; 2010 no playoffs; 2011, beaten again by the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Finals; 2012, again in the playoffs, broken by the New York Rangers.

The next few seasons were rough for the Leafs. No playoff returns again until 2016 when they made it with a new phenom, Auston Matthews, to no avail, beaten by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

A few more playoff returns followed bringing more defeats: 2017, by the Boston Bruins; 2018, the Tampa Bay Lightning; 2019, the Carolina Hurricanes; 2020, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Enough already
Changes were made. Sheldon Keefe replaced Mike Babcock. The team made the playoffs only to be disappointed in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Finally, 2022-23 season, a roster bolstered by strong signees. They made it past round one, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now the Florida Panthers!

Will the Ballard curse continue?

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