Cinderella Ride For Leafs?
The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Making A Run For The Playoffs
If you live in Toronto and are a self proclaimed hardcore Leafs fan, there is only one place to be after each and every Leafs game – Leafs Talk on AM640 Toronto Radio.
Air Canada Centre PA announcer Andy Frost takes calls from “Leafs Nation” as part of the station’s post game show. Each show there are good callers, bad callers and down right idiotic callers. Frost does a tremendous job of dealing with each individual caller on their level, relating to his listeners as being a very highly respected and trusted voice of reason.
If you don’t live in Toronto, you would be unaware that the average Leafs fan is unknowledgeable and very emotional. This is a fan base that floods the downtown core waving flags and honking car horns after the Leafs win a pre-season game. Needless to say, fans in Toronto have way too much, seemingly unwarranted faith in their hockey club.
As part of the fun on Leafs Talk on this particular night, a night that saw newly acquired goalie Martin Gerber stop 37 of 38 shots on route to beating Washington 2-1, was a fan named Tony who guaranteed Leafs Nation that the playoffs were in the Leafs near future – this season to be exact. Frost brushed him off rather quickly suggesting that the needed 14-3 record down the stretch to give the Leafs 93 points to finish the season is out of the question.
Why? Is it completely out of the realm of possibility that the Toronto Maple Leafs are this years version of the 2007/2008 Washington Capitals? Take a second and consider these similarities:
**Note that ALL mentions of Washington are stats from the 2007/2008 season. All mentions of Toronto are stats from the 2008/2009 season**
- Through October: Washington 10 points - Toronto 11 points
- Through 41 games: Washington 37 points - Toronto 38 points
- At the trade deadline: Washington 64 points - Toronto 63 points
- On the trade deadline, Washington traded for 33-year old goalie Cristobal Huet who lost his starting job in Montreal to 20-year old Carey Price.
- On the trade deadline, Toronto picked up 34-year old goalie Martin Gerber who lost his starting job in Ottawa to 23-year old Brian Elliot.
- The most eerie fact: Both Huet and Gerber were born on September 3rd in European countries.
- Washington went 13-4 to end the regular season and finished with 94 points.
- Toronto has to go 14-3 to end the season (finishing with 93 points)
No hockey observer with a functioning brain in their head would suggest that Toronto has a chance to repeat Washington’s unbelievable run to the playoffs last year. Toronto doesn’t have the skill set that Washington possessed last year, nor do they have the support from fans to even make the playoffs. But if this Toronto team gets on a roll, and plays cohesively as most great teams do – who’s to say that they can’t squeak their way into the playoffs? A good mixture of timely goaltending, solid defending and clutch scoring can do wonders for a team that currently sits 7 points out of 8th spot in a less than strong Eastern Conference.
A long shot for sure, but stranger things have happened.
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