The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs made the playoffs...

(Photo via Sportsnet)
No greater NHL playoff drought was longer than the Leafs'. But the wait to see them in the post-season is finally over.

No, seriously. The Toronto Maple Leafs have a shot to compete for the Stanley Cup. Trust me, this has been cross-referenced, verified, and triple checked, and I'm probably just as amazed at everyone else right now. And never mind the 46-year Cup drought. Leafs Nation is just happy to be contending for a playoff spot

To put it into perspective, consider the following list of either far-fetched or excruciating facts that will give you a sigh of relief.

The last playoff game featuring the blue and white took place on May 4, 2004 at the Air Canada Centre and ended in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of the second round. Interesting to note, 38-year-old, (now 47), Ed Belfour got the start for the Leafs. He played his last NHL game six years ago and is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

It was impossible to see a photo of Belfour making a save during the playoff run posted on Instagram, because it was still six years away from being invented. In fact, Instagram started as an iPhone app, and the first-generation iPhone was still three years away from even being mentioned.

No one has ever tweeted about a Leafs playoff game. Twitter was still almost two years away from launch when the Leafs were eliminated by the Flyers.

The last Maple Leaf to score a playoff goal was Mats Sundin, who's been retired long enough to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, (which he was in November). He netted a third-period goal to tie Game 6 against the Flyers, with assists by Gary Roberts and Alexander Mogilny, both of whom have long since retired.

You wouldn't have read about that goal on Facebook unless you were enrolled at Harvard, where the social network launched three months - to the day - earlier. Unless you were one of the early attendees at Columbia, Yale or Stanford, where Facebook expanded two months earlier. And it was still called The Facebook back then.

Be-Leafers have been around longer than Beliebers. Justin Bieber may not have even been allowed to stay up to see the end of a hockey game on a school night. He was only 10-years-old and didn't even have a fan base as he does today.

When Pat Quinn still coached with the Leafs and lead them to the post-season, Rapper 50 Cent was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, and ‘Hey Ya’ by Outkast was the top song of the year.

More unlikely, but possible, viewers included the now deceased Ronald Reagan, Marlon Brando and
Christopher Reeve. All were still alive that night when Jeremy Roenick drove the overtime nail into the Leafs’ playoff coffin.

But today, I am proud to say that seeing the Leafs in the playoffs will bring pride to the great crowd of Toronto. They were calling this and cheering every game - ever since they first saw the team fight with great odds to do the unimaginable in 1967. Could we do the unthinkable this year? The odds just got even greater.

We've come a long way since the last playoff run, but this year, the Leafs have a shot at the Stanley Cup. Better yet, you can follow their post-season run on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And you can do it all on your iPhone. Belieb it.

Your move, Oilers.

-Drew

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