Toronto’s march to playoffs slowed
Leaf Nation should be proud of its young team
Toronto’s hottest place to be, other than inside the arena right next door, for at least a few spring evenings next month will likely be Air Canada Square.
That’s the big-money cul-de-sac that sits at the east end of Bremner Boulevard, the sports corridor linking the home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors to the home of the Blue Jays and long-term injuries.
Here’s predicting that a large chunk of Leaf Nation crams in there to watch, gratis, the playoffs — yes, you read that correctly — on the giant outdoor screen, joyfully communing with other happy members of the tribe. And Leaf fans should be happy. Some time this week, their heroes will clinch their first playoff spot in nine years, but it’s not just the long-AWOL prospect of spring hockey that is unusual and satisfying.
It’s the manner in which the Leafs have reached it, and we don’t mean by fighting in the first four minutes of just about every game.
What should elate Leaf fans is that their team qualifies for the post-season without sacrificing the seasons to follow. No big-name purchases, like, oh say Roberto Luongo, that cost them oh, say, Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner. And, because Phil Kessel is so hot, we won’t mention that Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton are not in blue and white as they could have been.
So, it turns out you can make the playoffs without sacrificing your planned growth arc. In Toronto’s case, not only has that potential for growth not been compromised, it’s been enhanced.
Kadri, with the organizational handcuffs off, will be an even better player by the time the Leafs finish the playoffs (or the playoffs finish them).
So will Gardiner, James Reimer and Matt Frattin, all of whom are slotted as important contributors moving forward and none of whom has ever played an NHL post-season game. In terms of development, a playoff game is worth four or five regular- season games, if not more.
And, with Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, James van Riemsdyk, Dion Phaneuf, Carl Gunnarsson and Cody Franson all mostly well under 30, the Leafs have retained a promising young core that can either be built upon and polished, or partially bartered for bigger pieces.
Because GM Dave Nonis demonstrated at the deadline he’s not desperate (much to the Canucks’ and Flames’ goalie-based chagrin), and because the Leafs have made the playoffs with this bunch, he proba- bly won’t be tempted to overpay for those pieces, even on defence where the Leafs are less promising. When the playoffs are eventually lost, they will be lost back there.
There is no doubt the architect of all this was Brian Burke. With few exceptions — Reimer, Gunarsson, Ryan O’Byrne, Nikolai Kulemin and Leo Komorov — this playoffbound team comprises players he brought into the organization, one way or the other. Perhaps it’s just the extra year of development or the truncated schedule that’s made the difference, but all season we’ve felt that it was the absence of bombastic distractions, to which the likable Burke was overly prone, which has allowed the young Leafs to exhale a little.
And, with no other loud voice drowning his out, it’s only Randy Carlyle’s message being heard by the players. Given how perceptively and sternly he’s coached all year, you want that message heard clearly.
Burke did virtually promise the playoffs at the start of last season, then changed paddles midstream and reverted to his previous stand that he didn’t want to squeeze in by sacrificing some of the future, then get eliminated quickly.
Nonis mostly avoided that discussion, but it’s clear he believed his club could not only get to the postseason, but intensify their developmental process along the way. And his team has proven, or will imminently, that they could.