33 Years Ago in Leafland; April 8, 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.
"You can't take that many penalties against that team. We couldn't get into the game."This was Coach John Brophy's summation after the Leafs dropped game one of the Norris Division semi-final by a score of 3-1. Toronto spent 28 minutes in the penalty box, of which 13 resulted in a St.Louis power play. The Blues capitalized by scoring two power play goals to run up a 3-0 lead before the second period was there minutes old. Blues goals were from Rob Ramage and Gino Cavallini on the power play, and Doug Gilmour at even-strength.
Gary Leeman said, "There's no doubt we took some stupid penalties. Certainly the one I took was a dumb one. It was one I shouldn't have taken. I should have stood him (Nattress) up, but he got a step on me and I got my stick on him."Rick Vaive scored the lone Leaf marker on a 30-foot slapshot with less than five minutes remaining in the second, beating Greg Millen. Vaive figured, "I think we're going to win if tonight is any indiction. Other than when we were in the box we totally outplayed them." Vaive continued with some slight criticism of referee Terry Gregson, "There were some infractions and we thought they should have been called. But they weren't and there isn't much we can do about it."
Blues Bernie Federko is a player requiring special attention from the Leafs as the first two St. Louis goals were set up by him from behind the Leaf net. Leeman stated, "To stop him is to get him before he gets behind the net and we've got to stop that." Federko admitted, "Dougie and I use that play a lot, if the other team watches him I'm usually wide open or vice versa. Everyone gets in the middle but that time Leafs keyed on it. Damage made a great play coming in and I had lots of time to get the puck to him. And I had lots of time again for the second goal. They were all looking at me behind the net. I was a little lucky on that one. The puck bounced over Wregget's stick. All Dougie had to do was knock it in."
The teams are right back at it with Game 2 tomorrow in St. Louis

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,...
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un...
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal ...
Read more