Let’s be honest for a minute as we settle in for the buildup to the NHL playoffs: the getting here was more difficult and at times confusing than we thought it would be but, really, would Toronto Maple Leafs fans feel any different if they’d finished ahead of the Boston Bruins and had home-ice advantage?
Given the weight of history? No. But that’s beside the point. The proof was always going to be in the post-season pudding; our best hope was that all the ingredients would be in place. In the very least, we wanted the chefs to be using the same recipe.
The over-riding concerns for me ahead of this series are three-fold:
Too many smart hockey people pin-pointed the Leafs blue-line as an Achilles heel before the start of training camp and none of them appear to have had their mind changed. As I’ve said on my radio show for the past two weeks, if at the start of the season I’d told you that calling up Calle Rosen would be seen as a life-and-death necessity and a clear improvement over a third of the defence corps, you’d have laughed.
Frederick Andersen posted a shocking .890 save percentage in March, and the question is whether that sample size supersedes everything else he did this year. After all, he posted a goals-against average of 2.77 that was 22 percentage points higher than his career average, and his save percentage matched his career high. The other question is how much to read into his public musing about getting worn down. Too many smart hockey people say the Leafs can’t max out unless Andersen is brilliant. He hasn’t been for much of the last two months.
Babcock was out-coached by the Bruins’ Bruce Cassidy in the first-round last season. There, I’ve said it. It’s been six years since he’s won a playoff series and while that’s not all on him… some of it must be, right?
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After the Leafs were eliminated last season, many smart hockey people were wondering whether he was comfortable or knew what he had in Auston Matthews. They were also wondering whether he’d ever move away from his constipating obsession with line matching or falling in love with the likes of Zach Hyman, Connor Brown and Nikita Zaitsev. Hyman has turned out to be worth it. The others? Disposable.
In the meantime, we’ve just finished a regular season replete with whining about a lack of right-handed defencemen, a lack of faith in Jake Muzzin until injuries forced his hand, and whispers that Babcock is using some of his willing media allies to instigate some discontent with general manager Kyle Dubas, who appears to have committed the grievous sins of being:
1. Young, and…
2. Smart.
Babcock’s too old to be playing these silly games, isn’t he? Maybe it’s just a way of deflecting attention from his team or a way of handling boredom, although I’d suggest the fact three coaches have already been fired and Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe seems to be flavour of the month might be enough to hold his interest.
As it is, right now all we have are brave words and assurances that the Leafs are ready and set to take on the Bruins. The Leafs’ post-season picture has been painfully clear for the past couple of months so they’ve spent practices and video sessions in the Brad Marchand Theatre, before going out and fiddling around against other teams for a couple of hours. It’s been all Bruins, all month.
The flip side is the Bruins have probably been doing the same. In effect, we’re being asked to trust Babcock and his players that they’ve got a handle on this thing, which absent recent playoff success would have been the same whether it was home ice or not or against the Bruins or Tampa Bay Lightning or whomever. I’m not sure that wasn’t always going to be the case this season but, yeah, it would be nice to feel a bit more comfortable waiting for the answer, wouldn’t it? I’ve got the Bruins in six games and I’m lighting some candles right now in the hopes that I’m wrong …
NOW TWEET THIS
In which we salute all three of you who thought the Flames would finish with the highest point total among Canadian teams… muse about Bo Bichette getting up here sooner as opposed to later… remember the player formerly known as Josh Donaldson… have a pithy comeback to those who wonder about where the NHL is headed…
• Does this constitute balance? With one game remaining in the regular season, the Raptors are the only NBA team with different leaders in total minutes (Siakam); points (Leonard); rebounds (Ibaka); and assists (Lowry) #options
• Hands up all of you who thought the Flames would be the Canadian team with the easiest first-round matchup this season. Uh-huh #thoughtso
• If Dallas Kuechel is still a free agent after the draft – when the compensatory draft pick expires – I’d offer a multi-year deal. If Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez is traded, innings will be needed next year. Adding a Scott Boras client might get an extension with Sanchez #counterintuitive
• Reds manager David Bell instigated Sunday’s dug-out clearing incident with the Pirates, running onto the field of play in front of Pirates pitcher Chris Archer to argue with home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg after a warning was issue to Archer. Bad form, skip #suspension
• I’ll say this right now: the NHL needs Connor McDavid to not be with the Oilers for the duration of his contract #freeconnor
• As per NHL.com there were 138 multi-goal comeback wins in the NHL this season, an all-time high and in 41 per-cent of all games teams came back from at least a one-goal deficit to win. I love this game the way it is now #kudos
• Just a gut feeling here: I’m not certain the Blue Jays have Bo Bichette on the same service time clock they did with Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. I wonder if we might really see Bichette this summer #advanced
• Sultan of Schadenfreude: Braves 3B Josh Donaldson, a career .275 hitter who averages eight extra-base hits in the first month of the season has started 2019 9–for-36 (.167) with one double and nine strikeouts #chopthis
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THE ENDGAME
Welcome to the rebuild; we’ve got no runs or names.
Oh man, it’s on, isn’t it?
Kevin Pillar gets traded to the San Francisco Giants after the Giants blink first in a stand-off and the Blue Jays get away without having to kick in any money. Randal Grichuk signs a five-year extension and hears some cat-calls from the Westjet Flight Deck in his first game in centre field post-Pillar. People take to social media outraged that Alen Hanson wears No. 19 – good lord, those Jose Bautista wounds ought to be closed by now, no? It’s not like he did anything after he left here – but seem OK when he puts on No. 1, worn by Tony Fernandez.
Fred McGriff wore No, 19, folks, and although he finished his final year of Hall of Fame eligibility well short of Cooperstown, I’m not sure Jose Bautista will get much closer. Talk about a caca-phony (see what I did there?)
In other words … this is going to be a long, hard slog without picking dumb-ass battles.
Jeff Blair hosts The Jeff Blair Show from 9 a.m.-11 a.m. and Baseball Central from 11-Noon ET on Sportsnet 590 The Fan.
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