Brophy on Leafs, Devils: Playoff aspirations
Posted February 25, 2011 1:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
What the heck is going on?
It wasn’t so long ago the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils were on life support and the prognosis was gloomy.
Toronto appeared set to hand the Boston Bruins another lottery pick for this June’s NHL Entry Draft and one of the big reasons was the fact the player they acquired from the Bruins, Phil Kessel, had gone colder than a December Edmonton morning.
The Devils, meanwhile, had gone as long as they could with rookie head coach John MacLean before coaxing Jacques Lemaire to leave the tanning booth and return behind the bench — though it was the last thing on Earth he wanted. If the Devils fall short, they may regret taking so long to make the move.
Although the Maple Leafs currently stand 10th in the Eastern Conference and the Devils are 13th, they have suddenly became very real playoff threats. I joked a week or so ago about Toronto making it’s annual run at just falling short of the playoffs which, based on their history, seemed appropriate at the time. This year, though, their late-season run has a different feel to it.
The Leafs have not traded for a bunch of washed-up veterans hoping to squeeze one last great performance out of them in an effort to get to the dance. Instead, it is youngsters — Kessel, goaltender James Reimer, Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin — and Clarke MacArthur, whose sensational season continues, leading the charge. These are the players the Maple Leafs hope will be leaders for years to come.
Not only that, GM Brian Burke has managed to rid the team of some unwanted veterans, open up cap space and stock the cupboards with highly-regarded prospects while not jeopardizing the team’s unlikely charge toward the post-season.
Reimer, in particular, has been a godsend for the Maple Leafs. With a 10-4-2 record, 2.24 goals-against average and .931 save percentage, you really have to wonder if he had played with Toronto all season, would the Leafs already be in a playoff position? Certainly if he had played in the NHL for the entire season and put up similar numbers, he’d be a leading candidate for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
The Devils, who haven’t missed the playoffs since 1996, also have a hot goaltender and strangely, it’s not Martin Brodeur. The future Hall of Famer has taken a back seat to Johan Hedberg, a career backup, who is suddenly one of the hottest stoppers in the NHL. The old Lemaire probably would have stuck with Brodeur and hoped he worked his way through his struggles, but the new Lemaire does what he feels.
As long as Hedberg continues to play well — he has been in goal for the Devils’ past nine games and won eight of them — he’ll continue to own the crease.
The Devils were 9-22-2 when they changed coaches and Lemaire lost his first game 5-1 to the lowly New York Islanders. Since taking over from MacLean, New Jersey has gone 17-8-2 under Lemaire and is currently riding an eight-game winning streak.
Having put all their eggs in one basket with the ridiculous signing of soloist Ilya Kovalchuk, it looked like the Devils would take years to recover. An organization that had long prided itself on downplaying the exploits of individuals, the Devils were putting their faith in a player who has only been to the post-season twice and didn’t play particularly well on either occasion.
Kovalchuk’s numbers — 21 goals and 42 points in 59 games to go with a chilly minus-20 — are not good by any standard. Under Lemaire, Koivalchuk has 13 goals and 24 points in 27 games and has been more of a team player.
Lemaire has made life fun again in New Jersey. At one point, the Devils were 29 points out of a playoff position, but with 22 games remaining, they look like they just might pull off the impossible.
Of course a lot depends on how teams ahead of them play. The teams currently holding down the final three playoff spots in the Eastern Conference are all in slumps. The Montreal Canadiens are 3-5-2 in their last 10 and dropped a 5-4 decision to the charging Maple Leafs Thursday night. The New York Rangers are 3-6-1 in their last 10 and are without their best player, Marian Gaborik, who has a concussion. The Carolina Hurricanes, meanwhile, are 3-4-3 in their last 10 and despite reacquiring veteran forward Cory Stillman, don’t look like they are about to catch lightning in a bottle.
Despite their great play of late, there is no guarantee either the Maple Leafs or Devils will make the playoffs. But given where they stood not so long ago, both deserve credit for not folding their tents.
