Blue And White Beat: Leafs have a pulse
You know those medical dramas in which the patient flatlines, the monitor beeps a continuous high-pitched tone, the doctor yells “Clear!”, applies the shock paddles, and miraculously hears the faint but distinct ‘blip-blip-blip’ of a heartbeat?
That’s what came to mind when watching Saturday’s thrilling comeback by the Leafs over the Boston Bruins.
Face it; the team in blue and white was given up for dead just 48 hours earlier, after an embarrassing, effortless showing against the lowly Edmonton Oilers. Critics had assumed that the players had stopped playing for Toronto coach Ron Wilson. I was one of them. We couldn’t wait to log in to Twitter to pronounce the time of death on the Leafs season, Wilson’s job, Burke’s job, or any combination of the three.
Last night’s matchup at Air Canada Centre certainly didn’t favour the home side, with the league’s second-worst offence facing the NHL’s stingiest defence.
Throughout much of the game, Boston backstop Tim Thomas looked impenetrable. it was the same clichéd refrain. “The Leafs are making the opposing goalie look like a damn Vezina Trophy winner!” (hey wait a minute, that guy IS a Vezina Trophy winner, ok it’s not just them that have trouble scoring!)
But the unexpected happened. The Leafs found a pulse.
Despite Thomas’ continued heroics, Toronto never quit.
Phil Kessel and Kris Versteeg continued to fire pucks on net – finishing the night with six shots on goal each. Versteeg was rewarded for his efforts with the game-tying goal with just 43 ticks left in the third period.
Colby Armstrong continued to get into the face of Zdeno Chara, dutifully playing the role of antagonist as he has done his whole career. Armstrong’s absence was certainly felt during the 16 games that he missed – 17 if you don’t count the fifty-two seconds that he played on October 26 before injuring his finger in a game against Florida.
And few would have been surprised to see a collective Leafs collapse after Thomas’ larcenous save off Francois Beauchemin in overtime.
Fewer still would have batted an eye had Kessel, goal-less in eight games against his former team, missed on a shootout attempt, knowing that his counterpart in the oft-criticized trade Tyler Seguin had been successful, giving 19,483 skeptics in the stands another reason to call for Burke’s head.
Yet Kessel managed to take advantage of a rare miscue by Thomas, who played the shot from far too deep in his crease as the winger-converted-centre squeaked the puck underneath him.
The goal moved Kessel into second place on the all-time NHL shootout winning goal list with 12, trailing Sidney Crosby by one.
This single victory doesn’t move the Leafs any higher than the 13th position that they occupied prior to the game, let alone a playoff spot. Fans astute enough to recollect the month of October know that even a four-game winning-streak does not dictate a season that is twenty times as long.
But as the Leafs face a tough week with visits to Washington and Pittsburgh before returning home to host Philadelphia and Montreal, Saturday’s win can only bolster the club’s otherwise fragile psyche.
***
Why does Don Cherry insist on playing the “I told you so” card every time Nazem Kadri shows a flash of brilliance? Yes Kadri’s sweet backhand shootout goal over Thomas’ shoulder was instrumental win. Yet, the ‘bad habits’ that Wilson continues to try and correct are the ones that Cherry keeps overlooking. Or did Grapes not see the turnover on the Leafs power-play that allowed the Bruins to clear the zone, just prior to Versteeg’s goal?
Rob Del Mundo is the author of Blue And White Beat, and is a regular columnist at TMLfans.ca
Follow TMLfans.ca on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmlfansrob
