TORONTO (Nov. 21) – The prime dissimilarities between the post-expansion Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens will be in evidence once again on Saturday night, when both clubs conduct pre-game ceremonies to honour former players.
At the Air Canada Centre, prior to the Toronto-Chicago game, Wendel Clark’s familiar No. 17 will be raised to the rafters – but not retired – even though no Leafs player has donned the numeral since Clark hung up his blades in 2000 [the club continues the practice of circulating jersey numbers worn by franchise greats]. Among the most beloved Leafs of all time, Clark burst on the scene in 1985 as a rambunctious freshman out of Saskatoon and toiled, on and off, in a Toronto jersey for 15 years. As with hundreds of players, however, Clark’s tenure spanned a portion of the Leafs’ current Stanley Cup drought and he advanced, in a blue and white jersey, only as far as the Cup semifinals in 1993 and 1994. After being re-acquired by Cliff Fletcher from the New York Islanders, Clark skated on some truly bad Leaf teams during the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. But, he remains an immensely well-liked and popular individual with an impeccable reputation.
At the same time Clark’s banner is hoisted at the ACC, the Canadiens will be retiring, forever, the famed No. 33 jersey worn by Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy before their match against Boston. This celebration will be different in almost every way as the Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 10 times since 1967, when the Leafs last appeared in the title round. And, Roy was the deciding factor in the surprise Montreal championships of 1986 and 1993. But, “St. Patrick’s” following in the city, and the province of Quebec, is in need of rehabilitation after he essentially quit the Canadiens in December 1995 and forced a trade to the Colorado Avalanche [with whom he won two more Cups].
The varied circumstances, however will be forgotten when the ceremonies take place. And, Wendel Clark most certainly deserves his spot among the pantheon of storied Leafs.
One of my earliest career memories involves Clark, and the day he was chosen to play for the Blue & White. The 1985 NHL draft – held on June 15 – marked the first time the event had taken place outside of Montreal. Between 1963 and 1979, the draft was conducted either by conference call from the NHL offices in the Sun Life Building, or in a large meeting room at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. A contrast to the grandiose affair of today is the story of Darryl Sittler, who the Leafs chose eighth overall in 1970. Nowadays, first-round draft choices are paraded onto a stage in packed NHL arenas and feted before a national TV audience. When the Leafs took Sittler, 38 years ago, he was hard at work at a summer job building swimming pools near his home town of St. Jacobs, Ont. A telephone call briefly interrupted his duties, as Toronto GM Jim Gregory informed him of the selection.
In 1980, the draft moved to an arena setting for the first time and was held in the Montreal Forum for five consecutive years. For Clark’s draft year, the NHL began the current-day practice of alternating cities. The ’85 event took place at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre – a timely venue given that the Leafs had finished dead-last in the 21-team league during the 1984-85 campaign [20-52-8, 48 points] and, thus, owned the No. 1 selection. But, Toronto was far from the NHL market-of-choice for graduating juniors during the latter years of the Harold Ballard ownership era. In 1984, the agent for University of Denver prospect Craig Redmond had written to the Leafs, requesting the club avoid his client. One of the top prospects in ’85 – Michigan State winger Craig Simpson – had a similar aversion to the Blue & White.
As such, the ’85 event was something of a carnival. The Leafs, under GM Gerry McNamara, stopped short of promising they would retain their No. 1 draft privilege and a trade was very much in the air as the 21 teams gathered on the floor of the convention hall. The five top-rated prospects included Clark, Simpson, Kitchener defenseman Craig Wolanin, London winger Jim Sandlak and big Calgary defenseman Dana Murzyn. Rampant speculation moments before the draft indicated the Leafs would ignore Simpson’s admonishment and choose him in the No. 1 slot. A year after securing Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh held the No. 2 selection, and I’ll never forget McNamara and Penguins’ GM Eddie Johnston disappearing behind a black curtain just before the proceedings got underway.
As the two men emerged, tension filled the air, and NHL president John Zeigler requested that McNamara announce the top selection. Without a moment’s hesitation, the GM replied, “The Toronto Maple Leafs are proud to select Wendel Clark from Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League.” It prompted nothing more than polite applause from most of the three or four-thousand fans in attendance, as Clark was not considered the premier commodity in the draft pool. Almost everyone expected McNamara to choose either Simpson or Murzyn.
An analogy from last year’s draft would have seen Fletcher in position to secure one of the big six [Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, Zach Bogosian, Alex Pietrangelo, Luke Schenn and Nikita Filatov], only to take a player such as Cody Hodgson, who went 10th to Vancouver. There was a brief moment of disappointment in 1985, as it appeared the Leafs had botched up their No. 1 selection.
History, of course, proves otherwise.
Clark went on to score the most goals (330) of any player chosen in the first round that year, followed by New York Rangers’ pick Ulf Dahlen (301) and Simpson (247), who went second, overall, to the Penguins [and is currently an analyst on Hockey Night In Canada’s lead broadcast crew with Jim Hughson]. Clark finished runner-up in Calder Trophy balloting to Calgary defenseman Gary Suter, who Fletcher had stolen in the 180th spot the previous year from the University of Wisconsin. But, no Maple Leafs rookie in my time watching the team has made as immediate an impact as Clark did in the 1985-86 season. That includes club immortals such as Sittler, Lanny McDonald and Borje Salming – all of whom took a few years to round into Hall of Fame-type material.
The closest facsimile to Clark that I had witnessed was goalie Mike Palmateer, who came up to the Leafs early in the 1976-77 season and instantly solved an area that had been in flux for half-a-decade – since the defection of Bernie Parent to the World Hockey Association after the 1971-72 campaign.
Though Clark will never be chosen to the Hall of Fame, his place in Leafs history lies in the manner in which he brought physical prowess and respect to the organization. The Leafs of the mid-‘80s were neither competent nor physical. Clark came into the league and went on a rampage, scoring a club-record 34 goals as a rookie and taking on all of the toughest players in the NHL – most of who were bigger. He was an impressive fighter, with a quick flurry of punches that often subdued opponents in the first three or four seconds. And, his ability to deliver clean, open-ice body checks cast him the image of a throw-back, to a time 20 years earlier when Leaf Stanley Cup legends Bob Baun and Tim Horton similarly dealt with the opposition.
Clark’s impact on the playoffs spanned two different eras. As a young winger, he formed a solid alliance with Russ Courtnall and Gary Leeman on a pair of surprising Leaf playoff teams. In 1986 and 1987, the Leafs – backed by superb goaltending from Ken Wregget – far surpassed their regular-season efficiency. The ’86 squad took heavily-favoured St. Louis to seven games in the opening round before bowing out. And, the ’87 club upset the Blues in the first round, and then grabbed a 3-1 series lead on Detroit in the conference semifinal. The Wings roared back to win the final three matches and the series in seven, preventing the upstart Leafs from taking on Edmonton in the Cup semis.
But, Clark is much-better remembered for his role on the Pat Burns/Doug Gilmour/Dave Andreychuk Leafs of 1993 and 1994. In particular, a game during the surprise playoff run of ’93 that could have re-shaped Leafs’ history as we know it. Many people reading this blog undoubtedly recall Game 6 of the ’93 Campbell Conference championship between the Leafs and Los Angeles Kings. Today, it is mostly remembered in these parts for Wayne Gretzky accidentally slicing open Gilmour’s chin with a high stick early in overtime – getting away with it – and then scoring the game-winning goal seconds later. But, Clark played a leading role in that match, scoring three goals for the Maple Leafs, and digging the club out of a 4-2 deficit in the third period.
Try and remember the backdrop to that game, and how it could have altered the way most of us perceive the Blue & White. Two nights earlier – at Maple Leaf Gardens – Glenn Anderson had scored on the Kings’ Kelly Hrudey late in the first overtime to give Toronto a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Leafs flew to Los Angeles with a chance to eliminate the Kings and advance to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 26 years. Waiting for them was none other than the Montreal Canadiens, who had knocked off the New York Islanders in the Eastern championship.
Imagine for a moment the environment in this city today were the Leafs only one victory away from the big dance and a date with the rival Habs [not possible, of course, in the current NHL alignment]. That was the scene heading into the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. on Thursday, May 27th, 1993 – a game that remains the most compelling of any I’ve covered in my decade-and-a-half following the team.
During that riveting contest, the Leafs fell behind, 3-1 and 4-2. And, it was Clark who brought them back from the dead in the third period, scoring twice to send the match into overtime. I’ve mentioned this on the radio through the years… the sound that Clark engendered in the Forum that night by scoring the game-tying goal in the final minute of regulation is something I’ll never forget. Imagine, if you can, the noise produced by almost 16,000 delirious fans simultaneously letting out a groan and collapsing back into their seats. With Felix Potvin on the bench for an extra attacker, Clark took Gilmour’s centering feed from the corner and whipped a wrist-shot past Hrudey that no goaltender in NHL history would have stopped. The Forum was going nuts, with the Kings just seconds away from extending the series only to have Wendel’s goal eliminate the pandemonium like the “mute” button on your TV remote. It got so quiet, so quickly, that I can still hear the Toronto players whooping it up on the ice and the bench.
Of course, it wasn’t meant to be for the Leafs – that night or that spring. Referee Kerry Fraser is still a marked man in this city for claiming not to see Gretzky’s high-stick on Gilmour, even though it happened with the two centre-icemen crouched over a face-off circle to the left of Potvin. Leaf fans, to this day, can only imagine what might have transpired had the Great One been banished from the game with a five-minute major penalty in overtime. Instead, No. 99 scooped a rebound over Potvin seconds later, sending the series back to Toronto for a deciding seventh match. Gretzky would add three more goals in the Kings' Game 7 triumph and call it the finest hour of his NHL playoff career – quite a mouthful given his prior exploits in Edmonton.
So, instead of being remembered as the player whose hat trick lifted the Leafs into the 1993 Stanley Cup final, Clark is known as a warrior that overcame debilitating back issues to electrify Toronto fans with his combination of ruggedness and scoring skill. Wendel always came up big goals in the playoffs; always stood up for his teammates, and almost never lost a fight. He’s also renowned as the centre piece of a multi-player trade in June 1994 that brought Mats Sundin to Toronto from the Quebec Nordiques.
All in all, a Leaf legend most worthy of the recognition that will come his way on Saturday night.
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