Maple Leafs looking to avoid another first-round flop

The Toronto Maple Leafs have ironic taste in goal songs.

When a Leaf lights the lamp at home, it’s celebrated to the dulcet tones of 1980s duo Hall & Oates crooning their classic “You Make My Dreams (Come True).”

Never mind that the tune was recorded before anyone on the roster was born. It also plays like a sarcastic nod to the fact that not since 1967 have the Maple Leafs fulfilled their fans’ long-held hopes of another Stanley Cup victory.

It’s a history Toronto is painfully, acutely aware of because — like another ’80s classic by Naked Eyes can attest — there’s always something (or someone) there to remind the Leafs of all the franchise hasn’t achieved since its true glory days.

That sting of unmet expectations has only heightened in recent years.

Is there reason to believe this time will be any different? Or is it the same old situation for Toronto?

A QUICK REFRESHER: The Maple Leafs organization has won 13 Cups since the Toronto Arenas hoisted the first one in 1917-18, and the Leafs picked up their most recent four titles over a seven-year span in the 1960s.

This was all before the NHL expanded past its Original Six era. That came the season after Toronto won its last Cup; the league added six teams and the Leafs embarked on what has become the NHL’s longest active streak without a championship (55 years — and counting).

Fast-forward to 2016. Toronto was supposed to start turning a corner. The Leafs drafted Auston Matthews after a bottom-dwelling 2015-16 campaign, Mitchell Marner and William Nylander were ready to join the NHL ranks, and beliefs were high once again that Toronto could regain contender status.

And they did, sort of. The Leafs have frequently finished high in the league standings and have made the playoffs every year with that core. But Toronto hasn’t won a single postseason round, not in five straight best-of-seven series. (They even…