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It's been hard not to notice the stunning similarities between the just-completed seasons of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. Consider the evidence.

Both teams enjoyed successful first halves to their recent seasons, albeit with the Raptors taking that to a higher level than the Leafs ever did. 

Now despite some revisionist history in this market suggesting the Maple Leafs were a lost cause from the start of this season onward, the Maple Leafs were sitting in playoff position at 21-16-3 the day they fired Randy Carlyle on Jan. 6.

On that day, the Raptors were 24-10.

The rest of the way, the Maple Leafs went 9-28-5 under interim head coach Peter Horacek, while the Raptors went 25-27 from the day Carlyle was fired, including an embarrassing four-game sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards to close the season.

In the 2014 portion of this past season, the Raptors and Maple Leafs had a combined record of 45-22-3 for a winning percentage of .643. After the calendar flipped to 2015, they went 34-59-5 for a winning percentage of .347.

It's like someone put something in the water of the Air Canada Centre back on New Year's Eve.

But the synchronicity between the Leafs and Raptors doesn't end there. 

Both teams this past season had players with a passion for the offensive side of the game - and not much appetite for committing to defence, despite the pleadings of their respective coaches.

This led to the upper brass of both teams becoming concerned that even when the Leafs and Raptors were winning games, they were setting themselves up for a fall. They failed to play the right way, lacking the gritty style of play that's necessary to win against good teams and in the post-season.

When each team began sliding, both the Raptors and Leafs suffered from a lack of veteran leadership in the room - players who could step up and tap their experience to help the group deepen its resolve to turn things around.

Then you have the comparisons between the Leafs most talented and highest-paid player - Phil Kessel - and the Raptors most-talented and highest-paid player in Kyle Lowry.

Both players tailed off horribly during the regular season - for no obvious reason - with each of them in the first year of their respective contracts.

The debate about both players right now is whether they've reached their respective peaks and whether they're the kinds of players around whom a team can build a winner.

And Lowry's season-ending qualified endorsement of coach Dwane Casey has already raised speculation that like his Maple Leaf counterpart, he's a potential coach killer.

Here's one other thing the Maple Leafs and Raptors have in common: a belief by their respective fan bases that things can't possibly be more disappointing next season.