LAST TIME THE LEAFS LOST 1O IN A ROW . . .
The Leafs’ playoff hopes were dismal in ’67, but they turned it around. How did they pull it off?
There is a cruel twist of fate when you measure the Maple Leafs’ 10-game losing streak against the lousy blemishes — and great turnarounds — of the past.
The Maple Leafs of 1966-67 also suffered through a 10-game skid, but they bounced back that spring with a Stanley Cup storybook ending. History, however, is unlikely to repeat itself. Karma has left the building, and so has the ghost of coach Punch Imlach.
But there are some stunning coincidences in how that 1967 streak played out.
The two losing streaks are 48 years apart yet came at almost the same time in the season. In addition, each massive unraveling coincided with a coaching change that altered the direction of the team.
The trauma of the collapse in1967 weighed so heavily on Imlach that he went to hospital with a stress- related illness. As a result, the softer King Clancy took over and stabilized the team.
With Imlach, the Leafs managed to end their losing streak and took their first, tentative steps toward a 10-game unbeaten streak (including ties.)
And under Clancy, the Leafs finished the job. When Imlach returned behind the bench on March 12, the Leafs were a more confident club and their troubles were in their rearview mirror.
Overall, the key to the Leafs’ 10-game turnaround was two-fold: The Leafs got healthy as players like Jim Pappin, Frank Mahovlich, Dave Keon and Bob Pulford rounded into form.
And the team responded to the soft touch of the 64-year-old Clancy, who offered a refreshing change to Imlach’s iron-fisted approach.
“Morale is one of my duties,” Clancy said at the time.
George Armstrong, now 84 and the captain of that team, remembers Clancy bringing a “refreshing” approach that loosened the players up.
“Hockey players are like kids,” Armstrong said over the phone. “At home, your father tells you to put the garbage out and he gives you hell, and you go, ‘yeah, yeah,’ and 10 minutes later, you do it. “When someone new comes in and tells you to put the garbage out, you put it out right away,” he said, laughing. “Hockey players treat their coaches like fathers. They know how far they can go.”
When Imlach returned, Armstrong felt he made for a refreshing change, too. He doesn’t remember Imlach’s tough approach wearing thin on him.
“That was his way,” Armstrong said. “He tried to motivate people.”
Brian Conacher, now 73, was a rookie on that team, and he recalls a players only meeting amid the depths of the slump.
“We decided that instead of playing for Punch we would play for ourselves, and then King Clancy came in and just let us play,” Conacher said. “It was just a different mind-set.”
Armstrong’s Leafs began going off the rails on Jan. 15, 1967, and it took a 4-4 tie in Chicago on Feb. 11 to stop the hemorrhaging. They ended an 11-game winless streak by clipping Boston 2-1 the next night.
While labelled a ragtag outfit, these older Leafs weren’t without star power. Players like Mahovlich and Keon were as key as Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk are to the current roster.
Several current themes were prevalent back then too. Goaltending was unsteady, injuries to Red Kelly, Bobby Baun, Tim Horton and Terry Sawchuk were ripping holes in the roster, and Imlach was lashing out at his players, questioning their work ethic in his search for chemistry.
The fan frustration of today has some echoes of the past.
“Get rid of Mahovlich. He is not pulling his weight. He is lazy,” one fan told the Star back in 1967.
On Jan. 22, in a 3-1 loss to the Bruins, Imlach made centre Peter Stemkowski a healthy scratch so he could get a good look at Mike Walton, who had been recalled from Rochester.
The Leafs’ fortunes got worse on Jan. 25 when the Big M suffered a charley horse injury in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
On Jan. 28, in Toronto, the Chicago Black Hawks prevailed 5-2. The next night in Chicago, they overpowered the Leafs 5-1, sending Toronto to its seventh straight loss.
In that game, Imlach began experimenting, reuniting the line of Eddie Shack, Pulford and Kelly, without success.
In a refrain that calls out to the present, Imlach complained the Leaf forwards weren’t backchecking. He started thinking about calling up Pappin, who hadn’t played since a Jan. 14 loss.
Keon was now in Imlach’s doghouse and the coach began considering taking Armstrong off a regular line and using him only to kill penalties. That would open up a right wing position for Pappin.
Imlach complained that highpriced players like Shack, Pulford, Mahovlich and Keon weren’t carrying the team like they were paid to.
“This puts pressure on the defence and we have some older fellows back there who don’t get around so quickly,” Imlach said at the time.
Defenceman Allan Stanley, about to turn 41, was playing with a bad back, which had reduced his mobility. Meanwhile, Mahovlich had overcome his charley horse injury but received a setback with a severe cold.
The way the Leafs lost became an embarrassment on Feb. 1 in Montreal. The Habs rocked the Leafs 7-1 for Toronto’s eighth loss in a row, and the Leafs were now a laughingstock.
Imlach had left Shack at home and benched Pulford and Stemkowski; Keon played an atrocious game.
On Feb. 5 in New York, the Leafs lost their ninth straight, 4-1, to the Rangers, but the Leafs put up their most rousing effort that included a brawl that began after Shack tangled twice with Vic Hadfield.
Mahovlich did not play and Pulford tested his bad back on a couple of early shifts but could not continue.
The Leafs’ 10th straight loss came Feb. 8 against the Red Wings, who won 5-2 on Norm Ullman’s hat trick.
On Feb. 11, the shameful streak came to a tepid end with that tie against Chicago, and their Stanley Cup dreams appeared like a beacon in the sky. The Leafs were given no chance in the first round against the powerhouse Black Hawks.
Former Maple Leaf and then Boston Bruin forward Ron Stewart called for an upset after seeing the Leafs beat up his Bruins 5-2 in the final regular-season game.
“I give those guys a helluva chance of upsetting Chicago,” Stewart said, attributing his prediction to the playoff experience and savvy ways of old man Johnny Bower, who was 42.
“Of course the rest of them will have to work like hell,” Stewart added.
They did, Stewart was right, and the rest is history.