Kessel demoted to fourth line in loss,
Clarkson’s insane contract just one example of many things Leafs got wrong in recent years
David Clarkson stood there, the man with five years and $27.5 million (U.S.) left on an untradeable bear trap of a contract, that contract that clamps around your salary cap and digs in its jagged teeth and cannot let go barring an act of a lunatic god . . . and well, he seemed to be arguing with Toronto Maple Leafs interim head coach Peter Horachek about being scratched for the second straight game. It lasted for a full nine minutes in full view of the cameras. In the context of a morning skate, it seemed like forever.
Afterwards Clarkson said, “This is something where there was a message being sent, and I’m sure everyone got the message,” and took no blame whatsoever for his predicament. Horachek said they wanted Clarkson to do more, and that Clarkson was trying to do more. It wasn’t pretty.
The message was so well received that the Leafs were then roundly outplayed in a strangely close 5-4 loss to the New York Rangers, which was Toronto’s 12th straight loss to non-Edmonton Oilers competition. Among the offenders, Phil Kessel, in particular, looked like he was thinking about his dinner reservations, and was dropped to the fourth line with Trevor Smith and David Booth in the third period.
The all-star winger, who had played at least 18:31 in 11 of his 14 games under Horachek, played 12:57 — two minutes of which came in the final 3:11 with Toronto desperate for a tying goal. He had a close-up view of four Rangers goals at the other end. It turns out more than one message needed to be sent, it appears.
“The whole give-a-s--- meter has to be higher,” said Horachek. “Can I say that here? I just did, right?”
Horachek repurposed questions about Kessel’s ice time into answers about everyone; Kessel, who has been making an effort with the media for weeks, was a no-show in the dressing room after the game. Others were benched too: Joffrey Lupul played just 12:06.
Horachek pointed out that he was disappointed in his entire team, which allowed 25 shot attempts against to nine shot attempts for at even strength in the first period, and who by his count were out-chanced 23-10 through two periods. Kessel was, coincidentally or not, on the ice for four goals.
These are all reverberations of a team in a slow-motion crash. Their possession numbers have improved, but their spirit is showing cracks; Kessel and Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk are a disaster defensively, and have been for ages. Korbinian Holzer is not an NHL defenceman. There are flames everywhere.
Still, let’s not forget Clarkson as a critical marker, because he tells you how they got here. He’s not even two years into a seven-year deal that was rotten when he signed it and has descended into insanity now, with $27.5 million left. Because the deal is so deeply steeped in bonuses, buying him out gives you only a fraction of relief. He’s roundly ineffective, and such is the state of the Leafs that he remains fifth on the team in even-strength goals this season. The Clarkson experience, with five years left to run, is a problem without an evident solution.
The cratering has not been all David Clarkson’s fault, but he’s tied for the third-highest cap hit on this team, and he’s a black hole. There are more problems, sure.
But Clarkson is the example of the thinking that dragged the Leafs down into this ditch. In the last three years — and since the first lockout, really — the Leafs have always held onto some measure of hope that they could turn this thing around. They could add some pieces, makes some trades, accelerate the process, make the playoffs. I once asked Brian Burke why he wasn’t patient with his rebuild. He said maybe it was his age, and maybe it was because he didn’t have to wait in Anaheim. That’s why he traded for Kessel, as young as Kessel was.
Clarkson was signed the summer after the Leafs lost in seven games to Boston, which some senior members of the organization now openly call “the worst thing to happen to this franchise,” because the playoff loss perpetuated false hope. Now, there is no argument: this will be torn down to the foundation. One former member of the organization recently observed that in Toronto every administration comes in preaching patience, and then when the small successes come they get excited, see what it could be, start to dream, press the gas pedal, and then they crash. It used to be this kind of game, the comeback, would help fool management into thinking this thing might be sustainable. Not anymore.
So the long-term rebuild that Toronto has avoided for decades is here, and this is how it really starts. Team president Brendan Shanahan knows that he could make five trades and win every one and not create a contender, a real contender; he knows they’re going to have to build through the draft, too.
The Leafs are finally climbing down from false hope, and it took this season piled on top of last season to get here. The best thing you can say about Clarkson is that he is one of the signposts that have finally directed the Leafs from an accidental ruin to an intentional one.