33 Years Ago Today in Leafland; March 21, 1987

Spring of 1987. The Maple Leafs went on an improbable playoff run. They got to within a game of meeting the mighty Edmonton Oilers in the Campbell Conference Finals. I was a 15 year-old hockey mad kid enjoying the fortunes of my favourite team. What better time than now to look back at this memorable time of my youth and Leafs history.
                                    
The Toronto Maple Leafs of 1986/87 were a young, up-and-coming team. They had gone five straight years without even collecting 70 points in a season. The previous season they finished with only 57 points, 19th place out of 21 NHL teams. Lucky for them, Detroit had only 40 points which handed Toronto4th in the dreadful Norris Division. The Leafs amazingly upset 1st place Chicago in three straight, then took St.Louis to seven games before losing on a 3rd period goal. The Leafs were led in the playoffs by Tom Fergus, Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall and a rookies Steve Thomas and Wendel Clark, all aged from 19 to 23. Along with the fine playoff goaltending of 21-year old Ken Wregget, the future looked bright in Hogtown. 
In 1986/87, Toronto did indeed storm out of the gates to a 7-2-3 start and even maintained a .500 record into the New Year. On January 7, 1987 Toronto sat precariously on top of the Norris Division with a 17-17-5 mark, a mere 3 points ahead of 5th place Chicago. From that evening's game against the same Black Hawks through a March 18 game again versus Chicago, the Leafs tumbled to an 11-20-1 mark.
On March 21, Toronto woke up firmly in last place in the Norris Division, five points behind Minnesota and the fourth and final playoff spot. The Leafs had lost the night before in Quebec by a score of 5-4. Falling behind 3-0 seven minutes into the game, the Leafs battled back too little, too late. Rookie Vincent Damphousse said afterwards, "I don't know what happened, we had a good warm-up. Everyone was skating well and seemed ready." In the end, Mario Gosselin out-duelled Ken Wregget for the victory. Coach John Brophy was quoted, "Why we're flat when everything is at stake is a mystery to me. If we played the first period like we played the second and third we wouldn't have lost." Even Rick Vaive was bewildered at the team's effort saying, "You certainly would think that with games as important as these we'd be coming out flying. It's not happening."
With eight games remaining, Toronto would play in Montreal on Saturday, March 22 and hope to turn around their run for the playoffs.









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