Turning over new Leafs?
Toronto has pieces to end Cup drought
The Toronto Maple Leafs made the playoffs last season for just the second time in 12 years. For a franchise whose 13 Stanley Cup titles are the second only to only Montreal, the fallow period was a nightmare of failure and almost comical ineptitude for passionate Maple Leafs fans.
But under the NHL system, bad organizations can and should become very good. And the Leafs, who beat the battered Bruins twice last weekend — even without rising superstar center Auston Matthews — are on the verge of legitimate Cup contention.
The Leafs are loaded with talented youngsters including: Matthews, 20; fellow centers Mitch Marner, 20, and William Nylander, 21; defensemen Morgan Reilly, 23, and Nikita Zaitsev, 26.
The club is also led by veteran standouts in James VanRiemsdyk, a longtime B’s killer, the underrated Nazem Kadri and center Tyler Bozak.
Toronto may be one or two defensemen short, and some critics question whether goalie Freddie Andersen (3.04 goals-against average, .909 save percentage) is championship caliber.
There are plenty of skeptics who doubt the Leafs can come out of the Eastern Conference this season, not with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins standings in the way. But most league observers accept that a 14th Stanley Cup, the first since 1967, is coming to Toronto soon.
“It takes time to win,” said ex-NHL star Ray Ferraro, a Toronto-based broadcaster for TSN and NBC. “Just making the playoffs is hard. I mean, Tampa didn’t even make the playoffs last year. I know they had a lot of injury, but they had an incredible amount of talent. Look at what’s happening now with them.
“So much has to go right to even have a chance (at the Stanley Cup). You’ve got to be good enough, you’ve got to be healthy enough, your goalie’s got to be good enough, you need a couple of breakout performances. If your top 4-5 guys can’t carry the mail you’re in trouble; if you don’t get a couple of breakout performances, you’re probably in trouble; if you get banged up, you’re really in trouble.
“The league is too compressed, to just look at a team anymore and say, ‘They’re one of the best.’ ... Well, they could be. But then a whole bunch of stuff still goes wrong. I think all that is probably more prevalent now than it’s ever been in the NHL.”
To Ferraro’s list you could probably add the need for a smart, tough, experienced coach — and the Leafs certainly have that in Mike Babcock. The ex-Red Wings skipper understands better than most that it is not merely talent that wins in the postseason — but also intangibles like effort, dedication, focus and the ability and willingness to grind out 1-0 and 2-1 wins.
Insiders say that’s a lesson Babcock is trying to impart: For all their impressive young skill, the Leafs have to be stronger on both sides of the puck.
He is working to build the same sort of culture of effort and two-way team play that helped the Red Wings make the playoffs 25 consecutive years. Matthews, as the great Pavel Datsyuk did in Detroit, can lead the way.
Along with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, former No. 1 overall pick Matthews is one of the sport’s immense, gamechanging talents. The 20-year-old is 6-foot-3 and 216 pounds. But ask Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller for Matthews’ closest NHL comparable and he comes up with . . . Patrick Kane?
“Personally he reminds me a lot of Patrick Kane,” Miller said of the 5-11, 177-pound Chicago star.
“He finds the open spaces, he finds the lanes. And he’s really, really dangerous whenever you give him a lot of time or room. He’s one of those guys who just makes plays.
“Taking away his time and space away is huge. But you have to be careful with that, too, because sometimes if you get too close, he’ll go right by you. Trying to cover him is one of those delicate balances. He finds that open space the same way Patrick Kane does.”
And what makes Matthews unique among the great young talents who enter the league is his desire to be a complete, threezone player — with and without the puck.
“That’s rare, for sure,” Ferraro said. “But I do think it’s somewhat less rare now than it was in the past. There’s so much emphasis even at the younger levels for players to try and play a complete game.
“I credit that a lot to (Penguins star Sidney) Crosby. The stars who came before him, you wouldn’t really consider them as complete players — mainly because they had the puck all the time. Mario Lemieux was never considered anyone who could play defensively. (Wayne) Gretzky didn’t do it, either. But Crosby does. Matthews does. Connor McDavid does. I think that’s probably just the evolution of NHL players.”
But Ferraro, who potted 408 goals in his career, harbors no illusions about where true player value lies.
“It’s a hell of a lot easier,” he said, “to find a 200-foot player than it is to find a 100-foot player — the 100 feet being the most important 100 feet, where you’ve got to score.
“But, yes, it’s super helpful that he plays well all over the ice. He’s one of the 10 best all-round players in the league — and he’s 20 years old.
“There are very few players who can play up and down the ice with equal effectiveness. In Boston, you’ve been watching one for a decade with (Patrice) Bergeron. Go around the league and can you come up with 15 of those guys, who get 70 or 80 points and also kill penalties and play strong defense? Probably not. Matthews is one of those.”
So, now, can the Maple Leafs be a team that can score and defend, too? If so, the 50-year Cup drought could end.