MONTREAL – Just because the Toronto Maple Leafs limped, scuffled and fumbled their way to the regular-season finish line doesn’t mean they intend to cash in their underdog card once the hockey gets real, fast.
“I dunno. I think I checked the standings today. Looks like we’re a pretty good team,” head coach Mike Babcock said Saturday, shredding your David-and-Goliath narratives.
“You can say whatever you want. The biggest thing for me is, we know who we’re playing, we know where the meal is the night before, we’re set up, we’ll be ready to go.”
Legend Bob Cole’s poetic farewell and call-up Ryan Poehling’s debut hat trick injected great meaning to Saturday’s otherwise inconsequential finale, a 6-5 shootout win for the home side off the blade of Poehling at a rocking Bell Centre, rammed with enough fan support from both sides that all of those goals, no matter the net, tremored with celebration.
Funny thing is, on an eve when the 2018-19 Maple Leafs (46-28-8) reached the 100-point barrier for just the fifth time and tied a bow on one of their best 82-game campaigns ever, there still lingers much anxiety in the fanbase over their mighty Round 1 opponent.
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“The big, bad Bruins—it kinda gets pushed that way, just with how well they’re doing this year, especially compared to us lately,” said Travis Dermott, one of four regular defencemen for the Leafs who sat this one out to rest up for Thursday.
Dermott considers the swelling notion that the second-seeded Bruins, Toronto’s ousters in two of the city’s past three trips to the dance, are the favourites again.
“I don’t think so,” Dermott said. “Everyone in here trusts what we can do, so hopefully Leaf Nation will be behind us as well.”
“Different team,” Kasperi Kapanen asserts. “We’re going to come in with a lot of energy, and we’re gonna stay positive.”
The consternation, however, is justified by looking at how the two rivals performed during the last quarter of 2018-19.
Whereas Boston went 13-7 in its final 20, the Leafs flailed through a defensively porous 8-8-4 finish that included consecutive losses to 31st-place Ottawa, lineup juggling almost nightly, and a sudden backup goalie exchange following Game 81.
That Saturday marked the 20th straight outing the Leafs have failed to dress their best six defencemen could be viewed as a sign that stingier days must be ahead.
They better be. Including Saturday, the Leafs surrendered four or more in 10 of their last 20.
Yikes.
“You look through history and it’s the teams that went through some adversity through the year that end up coming together at this time. We’re trying to jump on that train and accept the adversity we’ve faced here and go forward as a team and really come together,” said Dermott, juiced by the assumption that Toronto’s full complement of defenceman will be healthy for Thursday.
“That it’s all coming together right at the start of playoffs is exciting.”
Taken as a whole, signs to support Babcock’s belief that his group is better set to do post-season damage than it was last spring abound.
Toronto finishes with the NHL’s most even-strength goals (235) and its fourth-rated offence despite drawing the fewest power-play opportunities.
Disciplined, the Leafs also committed the fewest penalties league-wide and wield the best face-off percentage of all 16 playoff teams.
Resilient, they rallied for the second-most comeback wins overall (21) and only once lost three consecutive games in regulation.
Free-agent prize John Tavares delivered his most productive season in his decade-long run, and wingmen Mitchell Marner and Zach Hyman thrived with career bests on his flanks.
“Certainly, we’re not satisfied,” leading goal-getter Tavares said. “We really kinda got away from ourselves with the way we were playing—and playing in our own end and being organized in our own end.”
Rookie Andreas Johnsson’s 20-goal, 43-point campaign could squeeze his name onto a few Calder ballots. And Kapanen leapt from the fringes of the lineup to a bona fide top-six NHLer and became the club’s seventh 20-goal man Saturday, after repeatedly asking Matthews to set him up.
“A big elephant off my back,” said Kapanen, who’d gone goal-free for 15 games. “Seven guys scoring 20 goals, that’s big. That’s a big thing.”
The acquisition of Jake Muzzin and the nice step forward by Dermott make for a blue line that, on paper, will be better equipped for the cauldron that is TD Garden.
Each time he hops the boards, Auston Matthews is a high-danger chance waiting to explode; Patrick Marleau managed another healthy 82 without running out of Reebok Pumps; and Morgan Rielly is coming soon to a Norris ballot near you.
Nazem Kadri and William Nylander, who connected for a beauty wraparound in Saturday’s shinny, will have a clean canvas to write the conclusion to their disappointing winters and make GM Kyle Dubas look wise for stocking up on centres.
“You’ve gotta decide where you’re gonna spend your money. I really like what John Tavares has brought to our hockey club. I think he’s made us a better team with a better opportunity at this time of year than we were in the past,” Babcock said.
“Marner and Matthews have done an exceptional job that way of growing their game. So we like our opportunity and the development of our team way better at this time than we did last year.”
Stunting the Bruins’ attack has been of emphasis during practice and video sessions of late, as the coaching staff tries to drill into this talented bunch how diligent own-zone play can translate to more frequent and higher-quality offensive chances.
Babcock & Co. have tried to isolate Bruins similarities in this week’s opponents, such as Montreal’s forecheck scheme, as a means of rehearsal.
And then there’s the mental task of squelching those Game 7 demons and out-skilling an experienced, well-led opponent secure in its identity. One that out-performed the Leafs down the stretch while Toronto has been deprived of the health or the motivation to reveal its best self.
“We feel confident,” Rielly said. “Another year behind us, I think guys just feel good about where we are at with our game. Guys are more comfortable with what’s to come, and I think that’s a good sign.”
The Bell Centre game, with its 98 shots and 10 goals and lack of hits and hatred, more closely resembled an exhibition game than a playoff one.
Thank goodness the complacency is over and real hockey is on deck.
“It’s time to move on to something that we all deem is real important,” Babcock said. “We haven’t had as much to play for here this past little bit, and it’s been evident in our play.”
Now it’s up to the real Maple Leafs to show up.
“Everyone wants to get it going. Get in that playoff mode where you’re playing every other day,” Dermott said. “It’s the most fun time of year.”
With the playoff format sapping the past two months of suspense in Leafland, it’s finally switch-flipping time.
“Just hungry,” Matthews said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but I think everyone in the locker room is hungry. We want to go in and be ready from the very first game and send a message early.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for.”
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