The unfortunate turn of events for the 2014-2015 Toronto Maple Leafs has those searching for a comparable time as bad in recent club history.
The 1984-85 season is an obvious one. In a decade with a few candidates, the 1984-85 produced the the worst record (20-52-8) as the Leafs finished dead last (21st overall) for the first and only time in the post-Original Six era.
Unlike this season, from the beginning of the 1984-85 season everyone knew it was going to be a rebuilding year. Dan Maloney was in his first season as the Leafs head coach after having served as Mike Nykoluk’s assistant for the previous two seasons. A new assistant coach was on the scene as well in the form of John Brophy. He would later become one of the more colourful personalities in Leaf history.
The Leafs top line seemed to be in their prime with John Anderson (27), Bill Derlago (26) and Rick Vaive (25). The second line seemed decent enough with Czech defectors Peter Ihnacak and Miroslav Frycer along with Walt Poddubny. Future Hall of Famer Borje Salming would anchor a very young defence that consisted of Bob McGill (22), Jim Benning (21), Gary Nylund (21) and Al Iafrate (18).
Youth was the theme in goal as well as youngsters Ken Wregget (20) and Allan Bester (20) would grow with veteran (and current Leaf goaltending coach) Rick St. Croix providing experience on and off the ice.
Other young players like Steve Thomas (21), Gary Leeman (20), Russ Courtnall (19) and Todd Gill (19) would also see action in the Leaf lineup as they hoped to become full-time NHL players.
There were a brief few days of delusional hope as the Leafs opened the season with a 1-0 win in Minnesota (Bester with the shutout) and then two days later won their home opener 4-3 in OT over the Buffalo Sabres, with current Canucks GM Jim Benning scoring the OT winner. It was their last back-to-back victory until 31 games later on Jan. 16th, 1985.
The remaining 78 games proved to be a case of not so much the “18 wheeler driving off the road,” but, the 18 wheeler never got properly started and hit the road in the first place. The two wins were followed by just one victory in their next 15 games (1-11-3). After a 6-4 win in Montreal, they went on another slump of futility, not winning a game in their next 10 games (0-8-2). By Dec. 9th, 1984, they would sit dead last in the NHL with a 4-19-5 record.
Playing out the string in the spring of ’85 was an ordeal and it seemed like an eternity. I remember Maloney looking up at me as he laced up his skates for a practice with about 10 games left and saying, “Don’t you wish the season could end today!”
The Leafs would eventually end their misery on a beautiful Easter Sunday in Boston with a 5-1 loss. They lost their last five games of the season giving up a total of 35 goals.
Each member of the first line would score at least 30 goals, but it was time to break up the gang. Anderson scored 14 of his 32 goals in the final 11 games of the season. It remains a record for the most consecutive games with at least one goal by a Leaf. Over the summer, he would move to Quebec in exchange for Brad Maxwell. At the start of the next season, the Leafs traded Bill Derlago to Boston in exchange for Tom Fergus.
Walt Poddubny moved on to the New York Rangers where he would later have three 30+ goals seasons with other NHL teams.
The baptism under fire for the young Leaf defence corps saw Benning post the worst +/- in Leaf history at –39 with Nylund not too far behind him at –37. Meanwhile, Iafrate proved to be yet another Leaf first-round pick rushed to the NHL. In hindsight, he should have spent the season with his OHL team, the Belleville Bulls.
An unexpected asset proved to be goaltender Tim Bernhardt. Acquired from Calgary as a needed veteran body for the Leafs AHL team in St. Catharines, Bernhardt signed an NHL contract with the Leafs on Dec. 4th. He played in 37 games and was the Leafs best goaltender that season. He also provided a much needed break to the shell-shocked Wregget and Bester tandem, who were each able to spend some time in St. Catharines to maintain their sanity.
Rick St. Croix played 11 games with the Leafs, the last games of his NHL career. That experience helps him in his work with current Leafs goaltenders Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer as they deal with the ordeal of playing goal in front of what has become a horrible Leaf team the second half of this season.
The most encouraging news back in ’84-85 was that Thomas, Leeman, Courtnall and Gill all benefitted from the experience as they evolved into front-line NHL players. Maloney would later serve as the bench boss of a Leafs team that made the playoffs and upset (via a sweep) the heavily favoured Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs.
The ordeal and memory of that season would evaporate with two moves on a warm, June Saturday at the NHL Entry Draft at the Toronto Convention Center. The roar from the small, but very loud pro-Leaf crowd when we selected Wendel Clark first overall would be matched by the roar Clark provided to the Leaf lineup the following season.
Off the ice, there was a quieter addition.
Stan Obodiac, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ long time publicity director, died in early November 1984 after a long bout with cancer. He had been my neighbour and it was he who first hired me in 1975 to work as a member of the press box staff on game nights when I was still in high school.
The personal loss of losing a friend was now twinned with the additional duties that came with the role of public relations director, in addition to the many other things I was doing in the Leafs front office. It was the best learning experience of my career, including the experience of going through a season one would rather forget.
At some point during the season, Harold Ballard asked me if my younger brother Bob would be interested in becoming the next public relations director. The whole notion came out of the blue without any discussion. Ballard had met Bob a couple of times and I guess just liked him. Bob was working with Jim Gregory at the NHL Central Scouting Bureau that season, so he wouldn’t be free to take on a new job until he finished his commitment there, which would end with the NHL Draft.
As Ballard prepared to leave the Leaf draft table and head up to his cottage, he told me to send Bob over to get a deal settled. Bob left his post at the NHL Central Scouting desk and sat down beside Ballard at the Leaf table. With Clark and second-round pick Ken Spangler looking on, Ballard cut a deal with Bob in about two minutes and so he began his front-office career with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
There were better times ahead for the 1985-86 Toronto Maple Leafs and one has to hope that will be the case looking ahead to next year for the 2015-16 edition.
