The Leafs are finally getting what they were looking for out of captain Dion Phaneuf.
Welcome back, Dion. Where ya been?
The Toronto Maple Leafs remain long-shots to make the playoffs -- sorry Leafs Nation, but that's reality -- and yet their captain Dion Phaneuf is certainly doing everything in his power to get them to the dance.
Phaneuf has been one of his team's best players down the stretch with a goal and three assists in Toronto's last three games. Finally, a little of that offence he displayed with the Calgary Flames when he scored 54 goals in his first three NHL seasons.
Even more than that, Phaneuf has emerged late in the season as a player who can be counted upon. That was quite evident Tuesday night when he was entrusted with a critical 29:07 minutes of ice time during which he played 33 shifts, had four shots on goal, scored once and was plus-1 in a 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. That's three nights after he played 30:23, had an assist and was plus-2 in a 4-2 loss.
In a do-or-die game for his team, Phaneuf got things off on the right foot when he smoked a long slap shot past Buffalo's Ryan Miller before the ice was fully frozen from the pre-game flood. For a guy who often shoots puck 10 feet wide and nine feet high, this one was right on the mark. So was his shot midway through the third that hit Miller in the chest and definitely stung.
Overall, Phaneuf's numbers are not great this season. Eight goals and 30 points in 61 games doesn't have anybody chirping about him being a future Norris Trophy winner they way they did early in his career. But he has definitely tuned a corner.
Not only that, the Leafs were criticized when they named him captain last summer; accused of hammering a square peg into a round hole in an attempt to get him more engaged. Leadership, if you listen to those who slagged him on the way out of Calgary, was supposedly not one of his strengths.
Whatever the team's motivation, there is no denying Phaneuf is emerging as a leader on a team that, even if it doesn't make the playoffs this season, is moving in the right direction. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Edmonton native seems to be warming up to the notion of playing in the spotlight that is Toronto as much as the long-suffering fans of the Leafs are to having him as their leader.
When the Maple Leafs management named him captain, they talked about the immediate change of culture he brought to the dressing room upon his arrival from Calgary last season. He tried to brighten things up with his wry sense of humor. Now I don't claim to know Phaneuf well, but I recall one night this season during the time he was injured, standing in the press box at Air Canada Centre with Leafs PR guru Pat Park as the captain strolled past us with a couple (or more) overflowing bags of popcorn. He slipped into the team's private box, but before closing the door, he turned around with a guilty smile and said, "They're not all for me. They're for the other guys, too."
The fact he was the only one in the box made that funny to me.
Following Toronto's win over Buffalo, Phaneuf entertained the media -- as a good captain should -- and was asked why he thought he could beat Miller from so far out?
"Well, I did. So I guess I thought right."
I like that.
Toronto has made late-season surges before, only to fall short and while it gave their fans temporary comfort, it was never an indication of better things to come. This year might be different. James Reimer offers hope in net and it will be interesting if he can transform his heroics this season into something special next year. GM Brian Burke has stocked the once-empty cupboard shelves with decent prospects and at the same time has recovered some high draft picks.
Phil Kessel may not exactly be the money-in-the-bank goal-scorer the Leafs hoped they were getting from Boston when they mortgaged their future, but at least Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin have taken significant steps forward.
More than anything else, Toronto looks like it has a captain who can rally the troops. It's been a while since this franchise could make that claim.
