TORONTO — These are strange times in the centre of the hockey universe.
Strange times, indeed.
It was during an idle conversation with a veteran player earlier this week where the muddy slog the Toronto Maple Leafs are crawling through really came into focus. After doing some quick math, the player shook his head and said: “We would need 24 wins to get in the playoffs.”
They have 27 games left to try and get them.
You see, no one around here can even hold out faint hope about some kind of miracle run. Reality has sunk in. So it’s really no big surprise to see a good team like the New York Rangers arrive at Air Canada Centre and skate circles around the Leafs.
“We got totally outplayed for the first two periods,” interim coach Peter Horachek said after Tuesday’s 5-4 loss. “They dominated, I think, every situation and I’m pretty upset with that. … We didn’t deserve tonight.”
Horachek’s task is an unenviable one.
He is not only trying to get a beaten and broken group to play like it still matters, but he’s doing so while knowing that two of his hardest-working players will soon be gone. It was telling that Mike Santorelli and Daniel Winnik were two of the biggest beneficiaries when Horachek decided to break up and bench members of the team’s beleaguered top line against New York.
Both low-budget forwards are pending unrestricted free agents who are virtually assured to be moved ahead of the March 2 trade deadline. There are a number of others in the dressing room wondering if they’ll be joining them.
Management is already getting used to the idea that more losses than wins down the stretch is probably a good thing.
If it’s up to Horachek, that won’t happen.
What’s clear is that the 55-year-old won’t go quietly into the night while possibly holding down his last NHL head coaching gig — a notion reinforced by the decision to again scratch David Clarkson on Tuesday before giving Phil Kessel the second-lowest ice time he’s received in 419 games as a member of the Leafs.
Toronto has played better since Horachek took over for Randy Carlyle even though it hasn’t been reflected by a 2-12-1 record during that time.
The loss to the Rangers was one of the few exceptions — at least through 40 minutes. Third-period goals by Morgan Rielly, who seems to be taking it upon himself to reverse the team’s fortunes, and Winnik miraculously tied the game.
But then Rick Nash made a nice individual play to set up Mats Zuccarello with six minutes to play and New York sealed the victory. Kessel was on the ice for that goal as part of a new fourth line with Trevor Smith and David Booth, and wound up minus-4 overall.
“We were awful,” said Horachek. “We’ve got to expect more out of (Kessel’s) line, out of him, out of the rest of the players.”
“It’s just effort,” he added. “It was lethargic, it was no effort. … The whole give-a-(crap) metre has to be higher.”
Horachek was so angry afterwards that he didn’t even address his players. They surely knew how he felt.
With 27 games to play — and not much to play for — there’s plenty of time to find out if it makes any difference.