Stanley Cup playoffs 2023 - the world when Toronto Maple Leafs last won a series - ESPN

The Toronto Maple Leafs have finally won a series.

With their 2-1 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Leafs won a postseason series for the first time since 2004. Toronto won the series 4-2.

The win also ends the second-longest streak of losses in playoff series-clinching games in NHL, MLB and NBA history. The Leafs had lost 10 consecutive series clinchers from 2013 to 2021. That was behind the 1990-2012 Winnipeg Jets/Arizona Coyotes, who lost 13 straight playoff series-clinching games.

In 2004, Toronto defeated the Ottawa Senators in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals before losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in the following round. While 2004 doesn't seem that long ago, the world has changed quite a bit. Back then, Tobey Maguire was Spider-Man, Facebook was still only at Harvard and «Friends» was ending. Here's what the world was like 19 years ago.

Today these two are, arguably, the dominant sports figures of the past 20 years. In 2004, however, neither was close to claiming GOAT status. Brady, then with the New England Patriots, had a measly two Super Bowl wins at this time, having won his second by defeating the Carolina Panthers in February 2004. James was an NBA rookie in 2004. He averaged 20.9 points that season and won the NBA Rookie of the Year award.

Put in other terms, it has been five Brady Super Bowl wins and 36,998 career regular-season points for James since Toronto won a series.

It was a big year for Boston sports. The first of many. The Boston Red Sox, months after the Patriots won the Super Bowl and 86 years after the baseball team's 1918 title, ended the Curse of the Bambino by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004