TORONTO (Mar. 26) – As it pertains to the future of the Maple Leafs, a Pollyannaish viewpoint loudly suggests that Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf are the building blocks of a legitimate playoff contender. Of course, given the track record of Pollyannaish whims among Leaf supporters in the post-lockout NHL, this one could fizzle in the company of countless others… albeit with more of a thud. Kessel and Phaneuf are the remnants of a belated, pitiless housecleaning by Brian Burke, and it’s imperative that both players live up to the general manager’s advance-billing. If not, the perennial “Monsters of March” could stagger along for a decade between playoff engagements.
Kessel has been the subject of intense study and conjecture. All we know, for certain, is that he can score goals. What we don’t know is whether he has the fiber and disposition to come through for the Leafs when it matters. He failed, significantly, in that pursuit earlier this season, tallying twice in a 21-game span from mid-December to late-January. Should that drought prove indicative of Kessel’s future, the Leafs will have largely wasted a pair of first-round draft picks. If it was an aberration, Burke will encounter ravenous applause in these parts for pulling off a stupendous deal. Only time will tell.
Phaneuf is more of an enigma. Almost nothing about him seems the way it should be. In appearance and mannerism, he comes across as a person 10 years his senior. Such was the early progression of his NHL career – a 17-goal, 60-point campaign in Calgary placing him, as a sophomore, among three finalists for the 2008 Norris Trophy [awarded to Nick Lidstrom]. But, a startling decline in southern Alberta availed Phaneuf to the Maple Leafs at the end of January for a trio of soft-handed veterans [Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman and Ian White], prompting Burke to claim that goal-starved Calgary was playoff bound (the GM could be 0-for-2 in that category this season). At just 24 years of age, Phaneuf was seen as a remarkable acquisition for the Leafs, who were blundering, rather enormously, with the nucleus of players they served up in the deal.
Almost two months later, however, questions are beginning to mount here. After putting up impressive numbers in Calgary [75 goals in just more than 4 ½ seasons], Phaneuf has been alarmingly unproductive with the Leafs. He made an alert play at the Atlanta blue line to set up Mikhail Grabovski for an overtime winner Thursday night but he hasn’t scored a goal in 17 games since the trade, contributing only six assists – well off his career pace. There’s been no evidence of his commanding shot from the point, a weapon Phaneuf utilized with regularity as a Flame.
The convenient argument that Dion’s totals are immaterial as long as the Leafs are winning is one that could have been made in previous years with White, Pavel Kubina, Bryan McCabe and others. Fact is, the Leafs always look good right about now, when nothing more is expected of them. But, if Phaneuf carries this slump through the first month of next season, the club could be in dire straits once again.
Phaneuf’s lack of production is bewildering, particularly while the Leafs are skating with the man advantage. The Toronto power play has been a joke since the NHL started up again after the Olympics, despite the rare presence on this team of a dynamic scoring line. Perhaps the best move Ron Wilson has made in his coaching tenure in Toronto is forming the unit of Kessel, Tyler Bozak and Nikolai Kulemin. Not since Mats Sundin, Gary Roberts and Alexander Mogilny briefly combined late in their careers have the Maple Leafs iced such a potent, creative threesome. For more than two weeks now, the K-B-K line has been one of the best in the NHL, yet Phaneuf has been unable to capitalize on the power play. Once again, that has to change if the Leafs are to move forward next season.
On several occasions, I have written and said that Phaneuf has the potential to own this team and (by extension) this city. He appears an overwhelming favorite to be named the 17th captain in Maple Leafs history, following Sundin. Upon stating this opinion, I was twice contacted via e-mail by individuals that know Phaneuf much better than I do. Each person unequivocally declared that I should have my head examined. The gist of their arguments was the same… that Phaneuf will never be likeable enough to galvanize a dressing room in the way of a true captain. He is loud and intimidating right now, they suggest, because he’s been in the league longer than most of his new teammates. But, that “act” will soon grow old, especially if he isn’t producing goals and assists.
I’ve got no way to corroborate these suggestions, as I’m not sufficiently familiar with Dion. Our brief association has been rather pleasant, and I’ve found him quite accommodating with the media – something he reputedly wasn’t in Calgary
What I do know is that the Leafs need Phaneuf to become a significantly greater scoring threat on the blue line. No goals in almost a quarter of a season doesn’t come close to cutting it for a player that made his early mark in the NHL as a feared shooter and set-up man. He can get away with it right now, because nothing is on the line for the Maple Leafs. But, Dion must regain that capacity to help the club legitimately advance in the coming years.
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I have, in my office at home, every Leafs media guide dating to the 1962-63 NHL season, when the club was in the midst of its last Stanley Cup dynasty. Throughout the 1970s, management and player profiles in the annual publication were written by the late Stan Obodiac, a gentle man who operated the Leafs’ media relations department (and sanctioned my first press credential, at Maple Leaf Gardens, in 1982-83). As with all Leaf employees of that era, Obodiac was stringently beholden to Harold Ballard, the cantankerous owner of the hockey club.
A subject that was particularly off limits at the Gardens in the ‘70s was the rival World Hockey Association, which routinely pilfered talent from the NHL and escalated player salaries during its colorful reign between 1972-73 and 1978-79.
This topic veto was rather hilariously illustrated by Obodiac in the Leafs’ 1977-78 media guide, in a bio of current Washington Capitals’ coach Bruce Boudreau, a third-round draft choice of the Blue & White in 1975. Unimpressed by the Leafs’ initial overture, Boudreau signed his first pro contract with the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA (coached by future Leafs broadcaster Harry Neale). Upon coming back to the NHL two years later, it was imperative that Boudreau receive an entry in the Leafs ’77-78 media publication. But, Obodiac, for the sake of his job, had to skirt around the young forward’s tenure in Minnesota.
“After two very successful seasons with the [junior] Marlies in 1973-74 and 1974-75,” Obodiac wrote, “Bruce was a third-round draft choice of the Maple Leafs but, instead, he decided to go to another league. In that league, in 74 games, he scored 28 goals and added 41 assists.”
"Another league"… exactly the way Ballard would have tolerated any reference to the WHA.
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There is often some debate over which decade is the worst in Leaf annals – the current one (and its soon-to-be five-year playoff famine), or the 1980s, when the club was, perennially, a statistical abomination. For my money, I’ll take Door No. 2.
As bad as it’s been in these parts since 2004, the Leafs of the ‘80s were so blatantly pathetic in their end of the ice as to choke off any reasonable comparison. This is evident, once again, in the club’s annual media guide. On page 211 of the current edition, there is a listing of the team’s biggest margin of defeat in games of the past 30 years.
Between Mar. 19, 1981 and Dec. 26, 1991, the Leafs yielded 10 or more goals an astounding 14 times. Worst among these humiliations was a 14-4 loss in Buffalo [Mar. 19, 1981]; an 11-2 embarrassment in Washington [Dec. 11, 1981]; a 12-3 loss at home to Quebec [Oct. 20, 1984]; an 11-3 home pasting by Calgary [Jan. 25, 1988]; a 12-2 obliteration at Calgary [Feb. 22, 1990]; an 11-4 spanking in Pittsburgh [Feb. 21, 1991] and a 12-1 road loss to the Penguins on Dec. 26, 1991, which prompted GM Cliff Fletcher – exactly one week later – to make the record 10-player trade with Calgary that brought Doug Gilmour to the Maple Leafs.
Since that ridiculous night at Mellon Arena 18 years and three months ago, the Leafs have not once yielded double figures in a regular-season game… or even nine goals, for that matter. The club has allowed eight goals in a game on 10 occasions – the latest being an 8-2 romp by Dallas at the Air Canada Centre last season [Dec. 23, 2008].
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