Leafs hunt for lasting playoff impression
Panthers prime example of NHL highs and lows, Wings model of consistency
For the Maple Leafs in this 2013-14 NHL season, there are only two directions they can go: Forward or reverse.
To a player, they believe they have what it takes to build off last year’s modest one-round playoff appearance and go deeper. Fans believe it too. Management — highlighted by parade-starved CEO Tim Leiweke — demands it.
“You have to make sure you don’t get complacent,” said forward James van Riemsdyk. “It’s going to be hard to maintain what we’ve accomplished already. We have to deal with outside expectations now. The expectations have been raised for us and it’s going to go a lot higher this year.”
There are plenty of cautionary examples of teams that slid back after a successful season.
The Leafs only have to look at the Florida Panthers. The Panthers went 10 seasons without making the playoffs before finally getting in — comfortably in sixth — in 2012. Then they pushed the eventual Eastern Conference champions — in this case the New Jersey Devils — to seven games in an opening-round thriller.
Last year, with young players like Jonathan Huberdeau, Erik Gudbranson and Dmitry Kulikov emerging, the Panthers — led by veterans like Stephen Weiss, Kris Versteeg and Brian Campbell — expected much more of themselves.
“We were super excited,” said Weiss, now a Detroit Red Wing. “I can remember getting to camp and we were ready to go. Same group. We finally got the playoff monkey off our back and we were ready to kill.”
But injuries took their toll. It was made worse when ownership didn’t pony up the cash necessary to fill in those gaps. Leaf ownership has money but has salary cap issues.
“The buzz kill,” said Weiss. “A few injuries and next thing you know we’re behind off the start of the season. Next thing you know, the season is over. It’s a tough way to go out. That’s the nature of the beast sometimes.”
The NHL history of also-rans is littered with similar stories:
In 2009, The Blue Jackets, led by a young Rick Nash and the can’t-beat-him goaltending of Steve Mason, made the playoffs for the first time -nine years after their inception. They haven’t been back since.
In 2007, The Atlanta Thrashers, led by the likes of Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk, clinched their one and only playoff berth by winning the Southeast Division. Despite having home-ice advantage, they were swept in four games by the New York Rangers. Now the Thrashers play out of Winnipeg.
Then there’s the curious case of the New York Islanders, a franchise still looking for its first playoff series win since 1993. It suffers through long post-season droughts, but even when it gets there — raising all kinds of hope for the following season — it can’t manufacture four wins in seven games. While some might say those are basket-case franchises, let us not forget the Maple Leafs’ post-Stanley Cup era has been filled with more than a few head-scratching trades and dunderhead drafts. While today’s front office says it will model itself after the Detroit Red Wings (a team that hasn’t missed the playoffs in 22 years) previous regimes exhibited far less patience. Amore a propos comparison might be to the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that is in the playoffs one year, out the next. When they’re in, they tend to go deep, which is always more fun. Or maybe the St. Louis Blues, a team that ended a three-year playoff drought, fell back in 2010, and has made it the last two years. They look like they’ve got their act together. An intriguing comparison could be the Los Angeles Kings, who spent years being good enough to just miss the playoffs — three 11th overall picks in a row (Lauri Tukonen, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Bernier) — before finally bottoming out and climbing to Stanley Cup heights. If Morgan Rielly can do some of what Drew Doughty did, then maybe the Leafs are on their way. The Leafs have the talent to be a playoff team again. But they say they have to be mentally tough. “You have to remember how tough it was to get to the playoffs,” said Leafs centre Jay McClement. “Just because you made it last year, it doesn’t mean you’re going to cruise in. It’s probably going to be harder. “I think a lot of teams weren’t expecting much last year and we played hard. That’s something we’re going to have to live up to right at the start of the season.” Making the NHL playoffs used to be easier when 16 of 21, then 16 of 24 teams made it. These days it’s 16 of 30. In the East, it’s eight of 16 — only 50 per cent. And while the Leafs used to have six post-season spots open to them, they now have only five.
(It used to be a team could qualify as one of three division champions, and then the next best five in the conference. Now the top three from the Atlantic, three from the Metroplitan and the next best two in the Eastern Conference make the playoffs.) A team — any team — can spend a long time in the wilderness.
“I won’t argue with that one — 10 years go by pretty quickly and I’ve only played in the playoffs one time,” said Weiss. “It’s not easy. You have to earn it every step of the way.”