Through the storm, finally
Gardiner no longer Leaf fans’ whipp ing boy
Good Jake, bad Jake, cheer Jake, boo Jake. The Toronto Maple Leafs, their coaches, managers and fans wrestled with all of that through Jake Gardiner’s eight seasons in Toronto that put the defenceman on a stage many Nhlers would crave. Yet a few times Gardiner must have felt like jumping in the orchestra pit.
“That’s just the way it is,” the sanguine Gardiner said of exiting Toronto. “If you’re winning, you’re the best player on Earth. If you’re losing, you suck. You just have to deal with it. Whether it’s fans ripping you or media, it’s part of pro sports. You’ve got to get through it.”
Gardiner is enjoying the lower- profile hockey life, though it will be quite emotional to return Monday afternoon to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto for the first time with the Carolina Hurricanes. Gardiner, who turns 30 next year, will likely get a video tribute during a timeout, when even those districts of Leafs Nation that for a time took to mocking him every time he touched the puck will recognize the 11th longest- serving blueliner in franchise history.
“I’ve been here a long time, through the ups and downs,” Gardiner said in what was his last locker- cleanout day in April. “When I first came, the team was not great. I’ll be pretty proud of what we’ve done here and the way we brought this organization to a team that we can be proud of.
“The playoffs didn’t go the way we wanted it to ( Gardiner’s minus-5 in a Game 7 loss in Boston in 2017 is seared in the memory of many fans, among him being in three such defeats to the Bruins), but this team has a real bright future ahead of them.”
A powerful skater who usually made up for any turnovers or blown coverage with a few quick strides to get back in the play, he had a career-best 52 points in 201718. When he missed a chunk of the second half last year with a worrisome back problem and Toronto struggled to get the puck out, suddenly people started to miss him. Then-coach Mike Babcock warned the boo-birds that simply dumping Gardiner on another team ran the risk of Toronto repeating its error with Larry Murphy, a fan whipping boy who ended up winning the Stanley Cup twice in Detroit.
Despite some of the harsher treatment, Gardiner hung in through almost 600 games and would not sign elsewhere last summer until he knew the Leafs had exhausted all financial resources, the last of their cap allocation finally going to holdout Mitch Marner after training camp opened.
Even Gardiner’s worst critics in Toronto might note he turned down rival Montreal’s higher bid, three years at US$15.75 million in early July, before joining Carolina, in part because joining the Leafs’ oldest rival just didn’t seem right to him. Gardiner, wife Lucy and young son Henry went to Raleigh, N.C., for four years and $16.2 million.
He has eight points in 36 games this far. He was a minus-2 Saturday against Florida — leaving him a team- worst minus-19. Yet he’s valued by coach Rod Brind’amour, who has chalked up Gardiner’s poor numbers to unfamiliarity with the Canes’ system, which encourages more touches than he’s used to.
Carolina remains four points ahead of Toronto, which has had its own issues on defence. One Leaf who benefitted from Gardiner’s roster spot opening up, along with that of Nikita Zaitsev and Ron Hainsey, is fellow Minnesotan Justin Holl.
“It will be a blast from the past,” Holl said of Monday’s game. “I’ll be on the same flight home with him ( for the Christmas holidays) afterwards and it will be great catching up.”
Marner and Auston Matthews were close to Gardiner, too, as they got comfortable in the league.
“He was a great teammate for three years and an awesome guy,” Matthews said. “We’re extremely happy for him that he’s in the position he is in Carolina and enjoying it.”
“I’ve talked to him a couple of times,” Marner added. “He’s loving it down there, he’s out of the condo and into a house.”
He’s still wearing No. 51 and it will be a while before anyone in Toronto identifies that with any other Leaf.
I’ve been here a long time, through the ups and
downs.