Category: Toronto Maple Leafs

2002 Playoffs

Round 1 Leafs beat Islanders 4 games to 3.

Round 2 Leafs beat Ottawa also 4 games to 3.

Round 3 Leafs vs. Carolina

We all knew that the winner of this series would lose to Detroit, but that it is beside the point. Leafs really should have won this series. They lost 4 2 with three games going to OT. Leafs lost all three OT games. Carolina had the home game advantage.

Games 1 and 2

The first two games in Carolina were split. Each team won 2-1. The second game won by Carolina was in OT.

Games 3 and 4

Oddly enough, Carolina won both games in TO, 2-1 in OT and 3-0 in game 4. That made the series 3 1 for the bad guys.

Game 5

Leafs won this one 1 0 to make the series 3 2.

Game 6

I know that you know what happened. Leafs lost in OT 2-1 to end their season. Carolina got blown out by the Red Wings 4 1 as likely would have happened to the Leafs.

Tomas Kaberle, usually an excellent player, gives the puck away to O’Neill for goal one at the mid-point of period 3. (1:32) ughh

Miraculously, Leafs tie the game as Matts Sundin scores with 20 seconds left ! (1:53) Looks like Leafs are ordained by a higher power.

Regrettably, the devil was in charge. (2:09) It hurts much more when it is so close.

As unbelievable as this may sound, this was the last time Leafs were even close to advancing to the Stanley Cup finals. This was 2002. Make that, well, you do the math.

 

 

1992-1993 Playoffs

This was the team of Doug Gilmour, Wendell Clark, Glen Anderson, Dave Andreychuk and Potvin.

In Round 1, Leafs beat Red Wings 4 games to 3. Leafs came back after losing the first two games.

In Round 2, Leafs beat St. Louis also 4 games to 3.

Round 3 vs LA Kings

The winner of this series was to play Montreal in the Stanley Cup finals. Toronto had the home game advantage.

You must watch the video below, just to see the hockey hair of Barry Melrose, the LA coach. What a horror show !

Game 1 in Toronto Leafs win 4 1

Game 2 in Toronto LA wins 3 2

Game 3 in LA  LA wins 4 2

Game 4 in LA Leafs win 4 2

Game 5 in Toronto Leafs win 3 2 in OT

This puts Leafs up 3 games to 2 with the series headed back to LA for game 6

Game 6 in LA LA wins 5 4 in OT

The big issue in game 6, in OT yet, was the failure of the one referee to call a high sticking penalty on Gretzky, which if called, would have resulted in Gretzky being tossed from the game.  A minute later, Gretzky scores and the game is over. Huge miss.

Kerry Fraser, the referee, did later admit that he blew the call:

After the game, the NHL’s director of officiating Brian Lewis came into the referee’s room and said, “Good job tonight, guys.” We really thought we got it right. There weren’t all the slow-motion cameras like they have today. It wasn’t until the next day that I saw another angle of the play on television. You could clearly see Gretzky high-sticking Gilmour.

That was quite big of him, actually, to admit it. Gretzky never did own up.

Game 7

Hence game 7 in Toronto for the series winner. Apart from the usual sell out crowd at MLG, there were 40,000 people watching the game at the Skydome. (as it then was) Harry Neal and Bob Cole announcing the game were simply fabulous. This was one of the most exciting games in recent, well, in the last 30 years or so.

Early in the third period, the score was tied 3-3.

With less than 4 minutes left, Kings’ journeyman Mike Donnelly scored on a rebound to make it 4 3.

This is at 1:43 of the clip below.

Shortly after this goal, Gretzky, coming around from behind the net, banked a shot off the skate of defenceman Dave Ellett, to make it 5 3. This one was, as admitted by Gretzky, a total fluke. (1:44 below)

Leafs scored to make it 5 4 with one minute left. (1:47). A great game but, alas, in vain. It could have, should have, been a Montreal Leafs final. Hard to imagine.

 

In the winter of 2022, while visiting New York, we happened onto a Canadian bar in the city. What better way to spend an evening watching the Leafs plays the Habs, so we thought. Montreal was a last place team, so this should be a push over, so we thought. We left after two periods when Leafs were losing 4 0.

 

The Rotten Leafs, James in the summer of 2016.

 

In 1967, the Prime Minister of Canada was Lester Pearson, the President was Lyndon Johnson. The best movie was a Man for All Seasons. There were no cell phones and the internet was roughly another 20 years away. All hard to imagine. This was the last year for the Original Six teams.

It has definitely been a while, hmmm…50 something…you do the math, its too scary for me.

 

 

 

 

 

1967 – a long time between wins !