Near the end of January, the Toronto Maple Leafs were 14 points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference of the NHL. A combination of Toronto winning much more often- they are 6-2-2 in their past ten games- and a drastic fall off in the play of the Atlanta Thrashers,along with the up and down trends of the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres, have created the perfect storm for Ron Wilson’s team, in spite of the recent trades of veterans Tomas Kaberle, Kris Versteeg, and Francois Beauchemin.
Entering Friday evening, the gap between the Maple Leafs and the eighth place Hurricanes, had been narrowed to just four points, with around 19 or 20 games remaining for most of the teams before the end of the season.
Like most fans right around the world, the focus of their faithful has shifted from chanting “fire Wilson”, referring to the Toronto coach, to post season fever and how excited “Leafs Nation” ,about the dramatic upswing in the good fortune of the team, along with the inspiring goaltending from the recent call-up from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, James Reimer. ( “Nation” was borrowed from the NFL’s Oakland Raiders, and MLB’s Red Sox, where the “nation” description was present decades ago, and was constantly referred to in that way, especially in association with the Raiders, by outspoken and colorful broadcaster Howard Cossel, of ABC Monday Night Football fame, as opposed to the Toronto usage of the term, which came about in the last few years, and is totally unoriginal.)
Aside from the improved play, and much more positive outlook for the Maple Leafs along with their supporters, the other very noticeable difference that is a big part of this story, is the complete silencing of those fans and media, who were screaming for Ron Wilson’s dismissal for a majority of this season. Some in the hockey media, tend to dislike Wilson on a personal level, because of his sometimes sarcastic responses to their questions. For the fans, many felt that the former Sharks and Capitals coach, did not have the ability to motivate the players, or devise effective strategy.
It is always amazing to see, in almost any sport, how clutch performances by key players on any team, and resultant wins, along with the gaining of critical points in the standings, can make a coach go from bum to brilliant, in a relatively short period of time.
Considering that the Leafs have missed the playoffs every year since the lockout ended in 2005, and in that time, the head coaches included Pat Quinn, and Paul Maurice, you would think that some of these critics would realize what just about every NHL scout does, which is that the Maple Leafs don’t have an abundance of skill, and are primarily composed of third and fourth line players, to go along with a few second line talents, like Mikhail Grabovski, ( 24 G, 20 A, 60 GP ) and Nikolai Kulemin, (21 G, 21 A, 61 GP ),in association with first line, streaky sniper Phil Kessel, ( 25 G, 19 A, 61 GP) and the pleasant surprise performance all year from Clarke MacArthur (18 G, 28 A, 61 GP). When that is added to some clutch goalkeeping from James Reimer, ( 10 W, 4 L, 2 OTL, 2.24 GAA, .931 SV %,) then you have a team that gets much better results than was the case till the end of January.
I wrote here in my NHL season preview, that Toronto could finish anywhere between 6th and 13th in the Eastern Conference. Long before the Leafs called up James Reimer, I also separately penned, that even though the playoffs looked like a remote possibility early in January, that this was not totally out of the question, if the blue and white could get improved goalkeeping, and some drop off in effectiveness, of teams ahead of them in the standings. Right now, just about anything looks possible, in the very unpredictable NHL playoff races.