TROUBLE IS A BRUIN
Marchand nets Game 1 winner
There was little chance for the young Toronto Maple Leafs to beat the rather deep Washington Capitals in a playoff series before. There is less of a chance now.
The playoffs begin Thursday for the Leafs in Washington, D.C., and the euphoria of Saturday night has already been lost in time, trampled on by the reality of Sunday’s defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets and the injury suffered by stalwart rookie defenceman Nikita Zaitsev.
In a matter of a few days, the possibility of playing an equal in the Ottawa Senators disappeared, and in the Sunday loss to the Jackets, so did Zaitsev, who is such an important component on a team already thin on defence.
The point lost, whether it be against Columbus, in blown leads in the regular season or in shootout defeats, is something that can’t be changed now, but it certainly can be regretted. And instead of a flip-a-coin series against Ottawa, there is this mountain to climb now, a bestof-seven against the strongest, deepest team in the Eastern Conference and possibly the entire NHL.
The Leafs led 2-0 on Sunday, then mysteriously stopped playing, lost Zaitsev and lost the game. First they called it a lowerbody injury, in the quaint terminology invented by the late Pat Quinn, then altered the public diagnosis to upper-body injury.
The not-so-subtle whisper around is, of course, concussion.
On Tuesday, I was told by the kind of person you should always believe that Zaitsev would be all right and available to play in Game 1 against Washington. He was convinced of it. But on Wednesday, after practice, coach Mike Babcock began his daily meet-the-press session with the announcement that Zaitsev was not available to play.
He didn’t say what the injury was. He was just as forthcoming as he needed to be, under the circumstances. And he announced — gulp — that Martin Marincin, who occasionally looks like an NHL player, will take Zaitsev’s place on the Leafs blue-line. My guess, based on the conversation I had Tuesday, is that whatever head trauma Zaitsev suffered Sunday did not meet the baseline test standards on Wednesday. And much as the Leafs wanted him back — and he may have wanted back in himself — the medical people prevailed, as they should.
So Zaitsev is out and Marincin, who was deemed good enough to play two games in February and two games in March, is in.
This throws a lot of Babcock’s planning into disarray. Babcock is a stickler for how his defence pairings set up. He likes to play left-handed shots on the left side and right-handed shots on the right side. Zaitsev is a right-handed shot. Marincin is a left-handed shot. The Leafs will have to play someone on their wrong side — that someone happening to be lining up on the side Alexander Ovechkin sets up his office space.
As a third pairing, Roman Polak and Matt Hunwick have proven to be rather dependable this season, especially facing third and fourth lines. But odds are Polak will be moved up the lineup, which should increase his exposure against Washington.
It isn’t impossible for the Leafs to beat Washington, but it’s pretty darn close. Curtis Joseph’s Edmonton Oilers knocked off the Dallas Stars in the first round of the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs. There were 23 points between those teams back then, just as there are 23 points between the Leafs and Capitals now.
It happens sometimes. The last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup, in 1967, they matched up against the Chicago Blackhawks in Round 1. There were 21 points between Toronto and Chicago back then. The Leafs won in six games.
Years later, one Leafs team made the playoffs with only 57 points and knocked off a Chicago club that finished 29 points higher. They beat them three straight in a best-of-five Norris Division series. The Leafs were led in that playoff series by rookies Wendel Clark and Steve Thomas — just as they’re led by rookies today.
Anything may be possible. We’ve seen it enough times before. But without Zaitsev, who plays all situations and whose production is so dependable the Leafs are willing to invest seven more years in him, that window doesn’t just close, it slams shut.