The Maple Leafs got a chance to enjoy the sun and a round of golf in Florida on Sunday after their clinching 4-1 effort over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. After the compacted 48 game schedule necessitated playing a game every other night, players and coaches have the benefit of a three day respite before embarking on the final three games of the regular season; against Tampa Bay on Wednesday, Florida on Thursday and at home for the season finale against Montreal on Saturday.
The only thing yet to be determined for the Blue and White is where they will end up in the Eastern Conference standings and who their opponent will be in the first round of the playoffs, slated to start next Tuesday.
Boston and Montreal are currently tied for the Northeast Division lead with 59 points. The Bruins started an exhausting six game in nine day ordeal by splitting weekend games against Pittsburgh and Florida. They face Philadelphia and Washington on the road and rescheduled games against Tampa Bay and Ottawa. The Bleu, Blanc et Rouge have struggled since clinching a post-season berth last week and hope to rediscover their early season form on the road against the Devils and Jets, otherwise the game in Toronto on Saturday night might be for home ice advantage against the Leafs.
The Islanders trail Toronto by two points and have three road games remaining, but face three non-playoff teams playing out the string; Carolina, Philadelphia and Buffalo. Ottawa is three points behind the Leafs and play the conference leading Penguins and Flyers at Scotiabank Place, but have difficult road matches against Washington and in Boston on Sunday, the game that was cancelled due to last week’s tragic events at the Boston Marathon.
Ex-Toronto GM Brian Burke acknowledged the accomplishment of his former club for ending their nine year playoff drought via Twitter Monday morning offering “congratulations to Dave Nonis, Randy Carlyle, Dion Phaneuf and the rest of the Leafs on reaching the playoffs.”
In spite of the media sideshow that the Leafs were at times during Burke’s four year tenure in Toronto, it has to be acknowledged that the he was primarily responsible for the restructuring of the organization, the trades for Phaneuf, Joffrey Lupul, James van Riemsdyk, Cody Franson and Phil Kessel, the signing of free agents Jay McClement and Clarke MacArthur and the drafting of leading goal scorer Nazem Kadri.
Nonis restored calm and stability to the club, made decisions that Burke may not have made, like the waiving of Tim Connolly and the demotion of Mike Komisarek, added depth on the blueline with the deadline acquisition of Ryan O’Byrne and deserves credit for not making a costly deal for Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo.
Even much maligned former GM John Ferguson Jr should get some recognition, as Nikolai Kulemin, James Reimer, Korbinian Holzer, Leo Komarov, Matt Frattin, Carl Gunnarsson, as well as former Leafs Jiri Tlusty and Viktor Stalberg were products of his drafting in 2006 and 2007.
Does the lion’s share of the credit for ending their streak of futility lie with the coaching of Randy Carlyle, the trades of Burke, the drafting of Ferguson, the stability of Nonis, the performance of the players or a combination of them all?
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The Toronto Marlies also have playoffs games to look forward to, as the winner of the AHL’s North Division begins the pursuit of second straight Western Conference title with a first round match against the Rochester Americans.
The Marlies swept the Buffalo Sabres affiliate in the first round of last season’s playoffs and went 9-1-0 this season.
Here is the schedule for the best of five series, which begins at Ricoh Coliseum at 3pm this Saturday:
Sat 4/27/2013 Rochester at Toronto 3PM
Sun 4/28/2013 Rochester at Toronto 3PM
Wed 5/1/2013 Toronto at Rochester 7PM
Thu 5/2/2013 Toronto at Rochester 7PM(if necessary)
Sat 5/4/2013 Rochester at Toronto 3PM(if necessary)
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