Nitzy's Hockey Den

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. "We weren't busting the way we were in the other two games. We didn't get anything positive going at the start of the game," Leaf coach John Brophy is quoted after loss in Landover to the Washington Capitals. The Caps jumped out to a 3-0 lead halfway through the game and coasted home to a 4-2 win, a final score that flattered the Leafs. Two goals by Bobby Gould and two helpers from defenceman Scott Stevens paced the Capitals. Bob Mason bested Ken Wregget in the nets. Rick Vaive was questioned after the game whether the Leafs were guilty of looking ahead to the weekend games with Chicago, "I don't think so. If we'd w...

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. "We never lost it. We always felt we could make it. I think we're in now." This was Leaf defenceman Todd Gill speaking perhaps a slight bit prematurely prior to Toronto's 78th game of the season against Washington. The Leafs still sat out of the playoff picture, but Steve Thomas figured," With Chicago losing Sunday night and with two games against them, I think we've got a great chance of making it. We've had a pretty good record against Chicago. If we play like we played the last two games we can beat everybody." Leaf defender Rick Lanz, who joined the team from Vancouver in January (for Jim Benning and Dan Hod...

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. Leafs coach, John Brophy exclaimed after a big 6-2 win in Winnipeg, "When we get into the playoffs we'll know how to play because we've been under pressure since September. It doesn't matter where we've been, not as long as we're here now." Where the Leafs were was still one point OUT of a playoff spot, but Chicago and Minnesota did their part to aid the Leafs cause, each losing. The strenuous two-and-a-half hour practice inflicted by Brophy three days prior, certainly seemed to be achieving the desired results. Rick Vaive, who missed the practice with the cut tongue from the Buffalo game said, "It's definit...

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. "If we keep  playing like we did tonight, I can't see any team beating us." That was Leafs owner Harold Ballard excitedly saying after the Leafs surprising 4-2 home win over the Edmonton Oilers.  Th win left the Leafs three points behind both Minnesota and Chicago with four games remaining. Gretzky said after,"We made mistakes that cost us the game. Leafs didn't make any." The Great One was held without a point at Maple Leaf Gardens for the first time in his career. He was even on for two Leaf goals. It was his second straight game without a point and even his coach Glen Sather was worrying," He was totally non-e...

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. As with most young hockey fans in the early 1980's, Wayne Gretzky was my hero, still is really. So whenever Gretz and the Oilers came to Maple Leaf Gardens it was extra special, also it was usually on a Saturday night for the Hockey Night in Canada game. This Saturday night at the end of March 1987 seemed to be the last bit of joy a Leaf fan would get out of this difficult season. Making the playoffs seemed improbable, as did the prospects of defeating the first-place overall Oilers. Coach Brophy however, had appeared to calm down from the previous day's anger and theatrics and even seemed a tiny bit optimistic. James Christie of the Globe an...

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 Leafs paid the price for their terrible effort the night before in a 6-2 home loss to the team they are chasing for the playoffs. The punishing practice went as follows: 10:25am Practice begins, players "skated mercilessly" 10:50am Shooting practice on individual rink-length rushes 11:00am Ten more minutes of "hard skating" 11:10am Ice re-surfaced 11:50am Line rushes, two-on-ones, two-on-nones, three-on-ones with full contact, "You've got gear on. He's got gear on. You're allowed to touch him. I don't care if you don't like it. I hope you hit him good." yelled coach John Brophy. 12:30pm Pl...

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. "Its a disgrace the way we played tonight. The effort we gave was a disgrace and it was a disgrace for 15,000 fans to have to watch it," exclaimed Leaf coach John Brophy after an embarrassing 6-2 home-ice loss to the Minnesota North Stars. The loss dropped Toronto again to five points in arrears of the North Stars with five games remaining. Star reporter Rick Matsumoto wrote bluntly, "Next year arrived last night for the Toronto Maple Leafs...they will need nothing short of a miracle to prolong their season beyond a week from Sunday." Mark Pavelich opened the scoring for Minnesota with just over a minute left in the first period...

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.   "We're not dead!", Leaf coach John Brophy exclaimed after 6-5 victory in Buffalo on March 24. He added, "Our defence read that stuff in the paper this morning and they rose up."Referring to the article in the Toronto Star the previous day. On goals by Vaive, Damphousse and Courtnall before seven minutes had elapsed, the Leafs chased Sabres goalie Jacques Cloutier from the net. The teams alternated the next six goals after Tom Barrasso took over for the Sabres and two late goals by Buffalo made the ending tense. Sabre Dave Andreychuk (who had 2 goals, 2 assists) hit the post behind Ken Wregget with five seconds remaini...

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. Toronto Star reporter, Rick Matsumoto proposed the idea of Toronto looking to acquire a top veteran defender and put forward names like, Brad McCrimmon, Doug Crossman, Jamie Macoun, Dave Ellett, Craig Harstburg, Doug Lidster, Rob Ramage or Dave Babych. He suggested trading the Leafs 1st-round pick for one of these stabilizers. Leaf Assistant General Manager, Gord Stellick said, "When you trade away a 1st-round pick you've probably got a good chance of getting someone who's a seven on a scale of ten. But that first round pick could turn out to be a ten." Unfortunately the Leafs had not hit a ten out of ten of the 26 defencemen the...

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. Getting out to a fast start was certainly not the problem on March 21at the Montreal Forum. Toronto carried a 4-1 lead until almost the halfway point of the game. However, the Habs would reel off EIGHT consecutive goals for a 9-4 victory. All the while, the Minnesota North Stars were in the process of losing 5-1 in Hartford. The Leafs remained five points behind, with seven games remaining. Gary Leeman was quoted after, "I don't understand it. Each of these games is important. Why we don't  realize that I don't know. Maybe we saw that the North Stars were losing and felt we could ease up. As long as they keep losing, I suppose we h...

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 ...

Rick Vaive and his 54 goals in 1981/82 are STILL the most by a Maple Leafs player in a season. It will likely remain the high-water  mark for at least another season. When the NHL (and the world in general) was put on pause, Auston Matthews had potted 47 goals through 70 games. He was on pace for 55 goals to best Vaive's record by 1 goal. I wondered how many goals Vaive had produced after 70 team games in his record-setting campaign. Also, how would Matthew's 47 goals in 70 games rank amongst the top Leaf scorers ever? Below, are the numbers for the Leafs top single season goal scorers after the teams' 70th game of the season, in cases where the player had missed some games, their games total is shown. Auston Matthews 19/20 70gp 47 Goals Frank Mahovlich 60/61 70gp 48 Goals Rick Vaive 81/82 67gp 43 Goals Rick Vaive 82/83 68gp 47 Goals Rick Vaive 83/84 67gp 48 Goals Gary Leeman 89/90 70gp 46 Goals Dave Andreychuk 93/94 69gp 49 Goals There we have it...

Hockey really doesn't matter in the big picture. The Covid-19 Pandemic has canceled pretty much all sport (among many other things) worldwide. But this is a hockey blog, so let's talk about how this affects hockey. IF this indeed the end of the season and IF the NHL does have a post-season, how will they proceed? How exactly will the standings and therefore playoff match-ups be finalized? It's highly unlikely the standings are based on the points each team has accumulated to this point. Teams have played anywhere from 68 to 71 games, it would be unfair to simply rank them by Points. The likeliest scenario would be going to Points Percentage. STANDINGS BY POINT PCT. Atlantic 1. Boston        .714 2. Tampa Bay .657 3. Toronto       .579 Metropolitan 1.Washington   .652 2. Philadelphia .645 3. Pittsburgh     .623 WC1 Carolina        .596 WC2 NY Islanders .588 Central 1. St. Louis       ...