TORONTO (Apr. 6) -- Please excuse me for having some difficulty with those who refer to the up-coming Montreal at Toronto regular-season finale in "classic" terms. Yes, as a potential winner-take-all battle for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, there will be a level of excitement and intrigue at the Air Canada Centre, but any person that equates this game with the fabled Maple Leafs-Canadiens rivalry of the 1940s and 1960s is going way overboard. In the hyped-up sports world in which we live, however, you can bet such comparisons will be flowing off the laptops and tongues of media poets until the moment the puck is dropped. We'll be inundated with stories of the great battles of yesteryear, and how this game ranks so significantly because the teams have not met in the Stanley Cup tournament since 1979. Don't let 'em fool you, folks.
Saturday night's "classic" is actually a convergence of two desperate teams that are stuck in the mud... neither of which has seemed at all capable of closing the deal. The Leafs' attack has fizzled this week in the scoring absence of Mats Sundin (no goals in the past 11 games) and if the Canadiens didn't have a powerplay this season, they'd be battling Florida and Boston for the No. 12 and 13 spots in the East. It's incredible how Montreal's standards have plummeted since 1993, when the club won its last Stanley Cup. Though I covered the Leafs' brutal effort on Long Island Thursday night, I kept one eye on a TV in the Nassau Coliseum pressbox showing the Canadiens-Rangers game from Madison Square Garden. And, all I could think of was how proud, former Habs like Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, John Ferguson, Ralph Backstrom, Serge Savard, Larry Robinson and others would cringe to see their team perform so aimlessly in such a critical circumstance. The only connection between this club and its wondrous predecessors is the logo on the front of the jersey.
So, the Leafs and Canadiens clash for the final post-season berth in the Conference. Maybe. Given the Islanders' ability to rebound in a timely and impressive fashion from losing their No. 1 goalie at the most inopportune point of the season, perhaps justice will be served by Ted Nolan's crew winning its final two games on the weekend, and knocking Toronto AND Montreal out of the playoffs. It's a long-shot, but it certainly wouldn't be unjust, given how weakly the pre-expansion legends have played with their seasons on the line. For anyone to even think that Saturday's game is a clash of titans is pure delusion. A fantasy in the absence of any meaningful reality. It is simply a convenient quirk in the schedule between a pair of staggering teams that have shown no willingness or ability to go for the kill. Choke may be too harsh a term, but not overly so.
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More than three-and-a-half weeks ago, when Sundin scored a goal (Mar. 13) against Tampa Bay at the Air Canada Centre, the mere notion of Darryl Sittler's all-time Leafs' goal-scoring record lasting into next season seemed absurd. Sundin notched his 388th marker in a Blue and White jersey against the Lightning, with 12 games left to shatter Sittler's quarter-century-old mark of 389. Well, guess what? Sittler may -- remarkably -- go into the summer with his standard intact. And it could be a prime factor if the Leafs do not make the playoffs.
Exactly why Sundin has fallen into this murderous and unexpected drought is not easily explained. What is certain, however, is that the captain is pressing on the ice, squeezing the proverbial sawdust out of his stick for one of the few times in his career. My sense is that Sittler's team record has virtually nothing to do with it, even though Sundin has been frequently reminded of the elusive milestone. The Big Swede just seems to be in a bit of a panic mode right now, perhaps wondering more than any of us why his hot stick has dried up at such a crucial time. Is it merely a coincidence, or is it a sign that the Leafs' horse of the past decade is beginning to hobble down the backstretch at 36 years of age? It is not inconceivable for a player of Sundin's vintage to lose a split-second off the hands -- a blink-of-the-eye difference between scoring and misfiring in the world's best hockey league.
Nor would it be at all unusual for Sundin to bust out with a big performance against the Canadiens, and carry the Leafs (with the Islanders' cooperation) into the playoffs.
Is there any chance, however, that if Sittler's record stays intact after Saturday, the No. 1 challenger may not be around to eclipse it in 2007-08? It's not something most Leaf fans want to hear, but it's a scenario the club must consider.
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