Auston needs a Dr. Evil
Complacency is a killer in sports.
That said, most of us can probably agree the Maple Leafs have settled into a solid position of competitiveness that should make them a playoff team and contender for the next five years.
This is not Edmonton, in other words. There is stability and quality in Toronto, an excellent coach, a cutting edge team philosophy, a strong farm system, lots of young talent and ownership willing to invest in areas not governed by the salary cap.
As we’ve seen with Lou Lamoriello’s departure, one person or player leaving the organization isn’t likely to upset the apple cart. The exception might be Babcock, and he’s signed through 2023.
Moreover, this is now also an organization capable of attracting outstanding individuals, like John Tavares.
The Leafs, then, barring some shocking development — both Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner quit to try professional baseball? — are going to be good for a while.
So what’s missing in this rosy picture? A rival. An enemy team truly capable of getting everyone’s blood boiling.
Look across the remaining 59 games on the schedule.
Is there one game in particular, or more specifically, one opponent in particular, you’re looking forward to seeing?
Doubt it. Obviously Sidney Crosby is an attraction, but that’s for every NHL team. Montreal, sure, but that’s built more on some sense of tradition, that we should celebrate hockey history when they meet.
It’s not a current rivalry built of competition, dislike and modern results, that’s for sure.
Winnipeg, the other top-shelf Canadian team these days, played the Leafs twice a few weeks ago. They were good games. But there wasn’t exactly electricity.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is undoubtedly a common complaint for many NHL teams. Having 31 teams spreads out the animosity and the competitive energy, and it’s worth arguing whether the current homogenous style of the NHL — lots of foot races, limited contact — dilutes even the possibility of teams developing a healthy dislike for one another. Calgary and Edmonton demonstrated last Saturday night there’s still some heat there. The Islanders and Rangers can still get at it pretty energetical- ly some nights, as can the Habs and Boston. The league, and NBC, loves to hype Pittsburgh and Washington whenever possible. But the Leafs? Nothing. Until now, perhaps. Until the rebirth — reorganization? revitalization? — of the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres, since the day Punch Imlach walked into Maple Leaf Gardens with an expansion team on Nov. 18, 1970 and walked out with a 7-2 victory, should have long ago become Toronto’s natural rival. At times it has been pretty good, and probably the best came in the 1999 playoffs when the two teams met in the Eastern Conference final, with Buffalo winning.
There have been many Friday nights, rowdy nights at the old Aud in Buffalo, when collections of Leaf fans among the Sabre faithful have created a noisy and sometimes nasty atmosphere. In the days when you could goon it up, both clubs could bring enough enforcers to the party to make it lively.
But as a general rule, these two teams haven’t ever come anywhere close to, say, Colorado-Detroit in the good old days. Over 48 years of playing each other, of existing 150 kilometres apart, you’d think they’d identify as each other’s rival more than they do.
Part of the problem was the Leafs being exiled to the Western Conference for a ridiculous period of time. The two clubs have only ever played that one time in the playoffs, and that only lasted five games. The Sabres have yet to win a Stanley Cup or make themselves a franchise to be envied. Or despised.
No matter. The reasons are the reasons. But the Leafs have been good for three seasons now, and after labouring outside of post-season play since 2011, the Sabres have made a strong statement in the first quarter of the 2018-19 season that they intend to be far more competitive team than they have been in recent years.
Jack Eichel is maturing, as are youngsters like Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen. The Ryan O’Reilly deal netted them three viable players to augment a thin roster. First overall selection Rasmus Dahlin arrived ready to play. Jeff Skinner has been superb. Newcomer Carter Hutton has solidified the goalie position.
Over a matter of months, GM Jason Botterill has turned the Buffalo situation from neardisaster to very promising, and this should naturally lead to a more competitive series of games this season with the high-flying Leafs.
They’ll meet for the first time in 10 days down the Queen Elizabeth Way and across the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, then not again until Feb. 25 at Scotiabank Arena, just hours after the NHL trade deadline. Another game four days later — strangely, also in Toronto — might see two teams vying for the playoffs with deadline additions.
But you can see the challenge with developing a rivalry in the regular season. Teams just don’t see one another that often. Happily, if the Sabres are a playoff team this season, there are scenarios in which they would lock horns with the Leafs. So there’s hope here for what should be a natural rivalry to develop naturally.
The Leafs don’t need the Sabres to sell tickets or merchandise or anything.
They could well use a true rivalry with Buffalo, however, to develop a heightened competitive atmosphere above and beyond the basic consistency good NHL teams need to have.
If every opponent feels the same, representing just another two points, it’s more difficult to summon the sense of urgency top teams need to have, the ability to dig a little deeper.
In the age of analytics, this is often discarded, as something traditional hockey folks like to talk about but doesn’t really translate into anything meaningful.
Maybe. Still, you’d like to imagine hockey as still a game that, at its best, includes emotion.
It’s easy to wonder if the NHL has enough of that these days.
Stirring up something between Toronto and Buffalo might demonstrate whether emotions and rivalries really mean something anymore.