OTTAWA CONNECTION
Toffoli leads playoff pack
Over in Minsk, at the seemingly endless world championship tournament, Ottawa’s Kevin Lalande was putting on a goaltending show, falling just short of leading host Belarus to a colossal upset of Sweden Thursday.
Over here at the Memorial Cup in London Friday, Ottawa Senators prospect Curtis Lazar of the Edmonton Oil Kings was aiming for a semifinal victory over Val d’Or in order to take on good friend and fellow Senators hopeful Ben Harpur and the Guelph Storm in Sunday’s final.
Pick a tournament — any tournament — and you’re bound to find some sort of Ottawa/ Gatineau connection, cementing this area’s reputation as a hockey hotbed.
So, with that in mind, this week’s 5 Takes looks at some of the players with Ottawa roots still alive in the NHL’s Final Four, each of them sporting a unique story in pursuit of winning the Stanley Cup.
Thankfully, the NHL has re-discovered the tradition of Hockey Night in Canada — 8 p.m. starts Saturday and Sunday — meaning we don’t have to give our weekend afternoons to watch.
1. Tyler Toffoli, Los Angeles Kings
Some players need 10 chances to score. Some, like Toffoli, need one chance to deliver a crushing blow. He buried the Kings’ fourth goal past Chicago’s Corey Crawford in Game 2 Wednesday, a pivotal part of the Kings explosive comeback.
“Some guys just have a knack for scoring,” says Ottawa 67’s general manager Chris Byrne, who watched from the bench as Toffoli scored 186 goals in 293 regular season and playoff games in the OHL. “From the time he was a kid, to our league, to the NHL, well, you saw it again (Wednesday).”
The Kings, who selected Toffoli 47th overall in 2010, challenged him at the start of the season, sending him to Manchester of the AHL. Now solid in his own end, he has emerged as a constant scoring threat, with five goals and four assists in the playoffs.
2. Bryan Bickell, Chicago Blackhawks
The former 67’s winger is in the midst of another spring fling, after disappearing somewhere along Michigan Avenue or Rush Street during the regular season.
Bickell’s playoff numbers — 15 goals in 37 games this year and last — makes him the type of versatile power winger every team wants and coach Joel Quenneville has moved him up and down the lineup.
Quite the change from the regular season when he scored only 15 points and was the subject of much criticism after signing a four-year, $16 million contract last summer.
Unlike Toffoli, Bickell wasn’t a junior star, with 77 goals in 216 career regular season games with the 67’s and was drafted 41st overall by Chicago in 2004.
He received his NHL spot the old-fashioned way. He earned it, spending six years in the minors before finally getting a full-time position in 2010-11.
3. Benoit Pouliot, New York Rangers
Here’s a rarity in the modern era of multi-year contracts: Pou- liot, a native of Alfred, is playing on his fifth consecutive one-year contract.
Montreal, Boston, Tampa and now the Rangers were all hoping to find some of the magic that led Minnesota to select him fourth overall at the mini-draft in Ottawa, behind only Sidney Crosby, Bobby Ryan and Jack Johnson.
During the first eight years of his professional career, Pouliot played in 54 playoff games with six NHL and AHL teams, scoring a grand total of two goals.
But the Rangers have finally tapped into something. Pouliot has been a playoff presence for the Rangers, with three goals and five assists. For the record, Rick Nash has two goals and six assists.
4. Daniel Brière, Montreal Canadiens
Seemingly down and out, largely a non-factor on a fourth line, Brière was Danny-on-thespot Thursday, scoring late in the third period in Game 3 for Montreal.
It’s yet another indication that you can never, ever count out the 5-9, 181-pound, 36-year-old sparkplug from Gatineau. Especially in the playoffs.
Brière has 116 points in 121 post-season games and with his next point, he will pass Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg to move into fourth spot in playoff scoring among active players — behind Jaromir Jagr, Marian Hossa and Patrik Elias.
Brière has another year remaining on his contract with Montreal.
He has 299 regular season goals and is 84 games shy of hitting the 1,000 regular season game mark.
Great numbers for a player who was spinning his skates in the minors for several seasons after being drafted by Phoenix.
5. Derick Brassard, New York Rangers
For six years, the sixth overall draft selection in 2006 spent playoff time on the golf course.
After being selected sixth overall by Columbus in the 2006 entry draft, he didn’t play a single playoff game for the franchise.
Before the arrival of Kyle Turris in Ottawa, Brassard was high on the shopping list for Senators GM Bryan Murray.
But now, after being dealt to the Rangers — an April 2013 deal that also netted New York defenceman John Moore and checking forward Derek Dorsett for Marian Gaborik — the Gatineau native has become a vital offensive force for the Rangers.
He has six goals and 19 points in 27 playoff games for New York over the past two years and when he returns from his back injury — possibly for Game 4 against Montreal — linemates Pouliot and Mats Zuccarello should instantly become more dangerous.