33 Years Ago in Leafland; March 23, 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.
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 they had drafted the previous seven years. On the farm in Newmarket, the organization had the likes of Ted Fauss and Cliff Albrecht with Jack Capuano and Jeff Serowik still in the U.S. college ranks. As a point of reference, in 1987 I worked as the Video Technician for the AHL Newmarket Saints. Yep, I was paid to hook up two VCRs to a Camcorder and record each game from the press-box of the Newmarket Recreation Centre. At one point Gord Stellick was my immediate boss, as in addition to Assistant GM of Toronto, he was GM of the Saints. I had the "pleasure" to watch literally every home game of the Leaf farm-team for four seasons from 1986 to 1990. I watched defence prospects like Capuano, Fauss, Albrecht and later Darryl Shannon, Brian Blad, Derek Langille and Alex Godynyuk. None of these guys were "tens". Only Shannon went on to have an NHL career. It was definitely tough times in the history of Leaf prospect development.
After a 20 minute closed-door meeting at Maple Leaf Gardens on the off day, coach John Brophy was quoted, "I don't know what to believe any more. No one's going to win it for us. We have to do it ourselves. This is the first time this team's been in a stretch run for some time. It's a new experience. They don't seem to realize that you have to come every night to play." He continued, "They lack the experience of being there before, eyeball to eyeball with an opponent. The experience of having to play 60 full minutes. The experience of having to win when it counts." On the team his squad was trying to reel in, Brophy said, "Minnesota seems to want to play with one foot in the grave all the time." Continuing the funeral analogy, he added, "They didn't kick the dirt over us yet."
Regarding the upcoming game in Buffalo against the similarly struggling Sabres, Brophy said, "It'll be an old shootout. One team will still have a chance to make it and the other won't."
Brophy was correct, the Leafs had not been in any form of a playoff race for well over a decade. In reality, Toronto had been substantially either in or out of the playoff run since 1972. That year, they qualified by four points over Detroit. Therefore, this pseudo "playoff chase" of 1987 was the first one that I was invested in. It wasn't going well.

Toronto called up Right Winger Derek Laxdal from the farm team, Newmarket Saints. Brophy promised he would be given a regular shift after scoring 24 AHL goals since December. In addition, the Leafs announced the signing of their 1985 second round pick, Ken Spangler. He would have his injured shoulder examined by Leaf doctors and would either be kept in Toronto or sent to Newmarket. 

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