33 Years Ago in Leafland; April 4, 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.

 "They've done it," Rick Matsumoto of the Toronto Star put it simply, "The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the playoffs. It was only 10 days ago, after a pitiful performance in a 'must' game against the Minnesota North Stars, that the Leafs' playoff hopes appeared to be dead in the water." To that point, John Brophy exclaimed, "Where are all those guys who said we were dead?" It was Brophy however that called his team a 'disgrace' after the Minnesota game. "Give 'em hell Mr. Brophy, give 'em hell" shouted injured centre Ken Yaremchuk. 

 "How many chances can you be given to make the playoffs?" asked Greg Terrion, who scored the all-important first goal. "We'd screwed up in a few of our previous opportunities. The important thing was that we had to take it to them right away. We've had a tendency to start off in our end of the rink and after that it's an uphill battle. Tonight we wanted to start in their end."
Terrion made sure of the fast start by notching his 7th goal of the season 7:21 into the first period. Wendel Clark scored his 37th of the year with four minutes go in the opening period for a 2-0 lead that stood through two periods, thanks to Ken Wregget's net-minding. He said after, "The turning point was getting by the first two period with no goals against us and then getting that third one early in the third period, (Steve Thomas' 35th). If they'd got one after we went up 2-0, they'd have been right back in the game."
Marc Bergevin scored with almost 12 minutes remaining, but the Leafs tightened up the defence after that. Minnesota's game in St.Louis unfolded similarly to the Leafs game as they went down 3-0 until late in 2nd period, with the game ending 4-1 in the Blues favour. This loss combined with Toronto's victory was the recipe for the Leaf's playoff ticket to be punched.

At this point, Toronto could still play any other team in the Norris Division playoffs. Clark said, "We can beat any team in the division. The teams are so close in points it doesn't really matter who we meet." Brophy added, "Now that we've found out we can play like that, we'll do all right in the playoffs. He did confirm that his team should continue fighting for 3rd spot by beating Chicago on Sunday, and he would not rest any of his starters including Wregget. "There'll be no nights off. We're not going to be satisfied with fourth. We want third place."

Interestingly, Brophy and GM Gerry McNamara decided prior to the game that the Chicago/Minnesota game score would not be shown on the Gardens out-of-town scoreboard. Assistant GM Gord Stellick said, "It's a motivational thing. It's not that we're trying to hide it from the fans. We just wanted the players concentrating on this game. The worst scenario would have been if we were playing a good game and then Minnesota started winning. It might have taken the wind out of our sails." The score was displayed as 0-0 throughout the Leafs match, until there was less than three minutes remaining. Steve Thomas confirmed, "It helped a lot. Sometimes you tend to get a little lax if you know you're in front, but tonight we played hard right to the final buzzer."

On to Chicago for the season finale showdown to determine if Chicago can join the playoff picture, and who exactly Toronto will play in the First Round.