NEWS OF MAPLE LEAFS
Last Update:
Monday February 28, 2000 8:29PM EST
Monday February 28, 2000 An open-and-close case for Ley
For one brief moment, interim Maple Leafs coach Rick Ley pretended to be ambitious U.S. Gen. Alexander Haig.
"I'm changing everything," Ley said yesterday with Pat Quinn nowhere to be seen, but Ley couldn't keep the grin off his face.
Ley will run the practice today in Atlanta and he and fellow assistant Alpo Suhonen will be behind the bench for games tomorrow against the Thrashers and Wednesday against the Florida Panthers.
In a rare situation for the Leafs, general manager/coach Quinn will be away much of the week at the National Hockey League GMs meetings across the continent in Palm Beach, Calif. Ley is in charge of a team for the first time since he coached Quinn's Vancouver Canucks from 1994-96.
"I think we'll just basically be opening and closing the door of the bench," Ley said yesterday. "It's Pat's team, everything's status quo, and I wouldn't do anything drastic while he's away. Everything is running well right now, anyway."
DIFFERENT COACHES
Ley said his thinking wouldn't have changed if the Leafs had arrived in the Deep South yesterday still in the throes of their nasty February slump. Instead, a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday extended Toronto's winning streak to three games.
"Pat and I are sort of different coaches, but we share the same beliefs and (the length of the slump) wouldn't have mattered," Ley said. "I think our team would've come out of it eventually with the way we've gone the past two years."
As coach of the Canucks, Ley's record was 47-48-26. His trickiest decision this week could be how to work Dmitri Khristich back into the lineup. The forward missed five of the past six games with a groin pull. The Leafs finally are getting offensive output again, with 13 goals last week in wins over the Phoenix Coyotes, New Jersey Devils and Sabres.
Sergei Berezin remains at least two weeks away from getting past a hamstring injury that was serious enough to damage his pelvic bone.
Ley, who switches the Leafs defence during the game as part of his regular duties, could put Cory Cross, who dressed Saturday as a seventh defenceman, back on the shelf to make room for Khristich. Eighth defenceman Chris McAllister continues to collect dust in the press box.
Though Ley's chances of one day returning to the main coaching ranks in the National Hockey League are remote, Suhonen might one day be the first Finn to get a head-coaching job. Suhonen could get an interview in Chicago where old friend and former Leafs associate GM Mike Smith is expected to make changes during the summer.
Monday February 28, 2000 Joseph player of the week
Curtis Joseph is the NHL's player of the week.
The Toronto goaltender won all three games the Leafs played, allowing six goals while posting a .928 save percentage.
He began his week turning away 23 shots in a 5-3 home win over Phoenix, he stopped 30 in a 3-1 win Friday in New Jersey, and he made 24 saves in a 5-2 home victory Saturday over Buffalo.
Calgary's Jarome Iginla, Los Angeles's Luc Robitaille, St. Louis's Stephane Richer, and Washington's Olaf Kolzig also were considered.
Friday February 25, 2000 It's bad news for Berezin
Maple Leafs left winger Sergei Berezin's hamstring injury is worse than first believed.
�Though Berezin is on track for a return some time in March, it has been determined that a tendon pulled the pelvic bone askew after he strained the hamstring last month.
�Leafs general manager/coach Pat Quinn was not ruling out that Berezin could miss the rest of the season, a move that might alter Quinn's intention of keeping quiet when trade talks pop up at the National Hockey League meetings next week in Palm Springs, Calif.
�"I like the look of the team with Sergei and Dmitri Khristich (who is doubtful for tonight with a groin pull) in there, but if we're not getting Sergei back I have to do something," Quinn said yesterday.
�"It looks like it's mending, but you just don't know with that type of injury."
�Berezin pulled the hamstring a day after scoring his 17th goal in Game 43 of the season, Jan. 8 against the New York Rangers. After figuring five games rest was sufficient, Berezin came back for three games in four nights and aggravated the injury.
�Early this month, it was decided to go back to Square 1, stay off skates and get an MRI.
�Those results came back this week with the severity of the problem finally determined.
�"It's called an avulsion of the bone," Leafs therapist Chris Broadhurst said.
�"When he strained it, the tendon pulled away from the bone."
�Broadhurst indicated the recovery could be roughly two weeks.
�"You just don't want to speculate, but he has returned to (skating on his own) the past two days."
�An extended absence by Berezin relieves Quinn of the pressure to make a roster move with Wendel Clark, Alyn McCauley or defenceman Chris McAllister.
�After a long search for new lines with pep, Quinn found it easy to keep the troika of Darcy Tucker, McCauley and Igor Korolev at practice yesterday. Tucker had two goals against the Coyotes.
�On defence against Phoenix, Bryan Berard and new partner Gerald Diduck played well. As a result, Cory Cross likely will sit out again tonight. McAllister hasn't played since Jan. 27.
Wednesday February 16, 2000 Leafs re-sign centre Kevyn Adams
Centre Kevyn Adams, who would have become an unrestricted free agent at season's end, re-signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
"I wanted to stay here," Adams said. "I'm excited about it.
"Since, I've come up (from the AHL) I've had a great opportunity to play and re-signing is very rewarding."
Adams' salary will be $487,000 US next year and $785,000 the following season.
The 25-year-old has four goals and three assists in 27 games with Toronto this season at an NHL pay rate at $467,500.
"Kevyn has made a lot of improvement since I first saw him," said GM-coach Pat Quinn. "He should be part of our future."
The native of Washington, D.C., was a first-round selection of the Boston Bruins in 1993 but never suited up for the NHL club. Adams signed with Toronto as a free agent Aug. 7, 1997.
Tuesday February 15, 2000 Lack of confidence the problem: Quinn
Just beyond the two-thirds mark of the season, Pat Quinn feels he has a rebuilding job on his hands.
After another lacklustre loss last night -- 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes -- Quinn believes the Maple Leafs have lost their confidence and the only way they are going to climb out of this funk is to get it back one small piece at a time.
"You always wonder, how can athletes who have trained all their lives and showed such confidence lose it quickly?" the Maple Leafs general manager/coach said after the team's fourth consecutive loss.
"Well it happens and it is one of the most fleeting things there is. Once you lose it, it is tough to get it back.
In Quinn's mind, that confidence won't return until the Leafs simplify the game to its basic elements and work their way back to the highly creative machine they once were but no longer resemble.
"Right now we are not doing the little things right. We have guys cheating and we have some guys getting a little scared," Quinn said.
He wasn't talking about his players being afraid of the opposition but afraid of making a bad play.
"We have guys out there who don't want the puck because they're afraid of (messing up). There is some doubt creeping in and we have to work to get rid of that."
Quinn tried getting through to his team in a meeting Sunday but that clearly didn't work so its back to hammering home the message in practice.
Before last night's game, Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice talked about the perils of catching a team when it is down.
He talked about "weathering the early storm" he was expecting from the Leafs and hopefully taking control after that.
As it turned out, the early storm was a couple of decent shifts by Toronto before the Hurricanes pumped two goals past Curtis Joseph. A spark of a comeback got the Leafs back on even footing, but 43 seconds later the Hurricanes regained the lead for good.
"We have to persevere, to fight through this thing," Quinn said.
At least someone still has some confidence.
Monday February 14, 2000 Khristich has oral surgery
Dmitri Khristich, so far a man of few points, will be a man of few words for awhile.
The Maple Leafs winger underwent oral surgery yesterday after taking a puck in the mouth during a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
"Just about everything is wiped out on one side of his mouth," Maple Leafs general manager/coach Pat Quinn said yesterday. "He had a (fixed) bridge in his mouth already and it looks like all the posts were sheared off."
Khristich accidentally was struck by linemate Igor Korolev's rising shot in the first period. Blood and at least three teeth littered the ice.
Quinn said Khristich was "very doubtful" for the game against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, while it appears winger Sergei Berezin will miss his sixth consecutive game and 11th in the past 14 with a pulled hamstring. Berezin clearly was dissatisfied with his progress yesterday after he and Danny Markov, who was scratched Saturday, worked out by themselves at the Air Canada Centre.
When healthy and going at full speed, Berezin gives the Leafs an intimidation factor as good as a Tie Domi haymaker.
"We need to find a way to get through the injuries like we did last year," Korolev said. "We have to get back to the simple things."
Quinn had a plan to put the feisty Darcy Tucker with Korolev and Khristich, but that was torn up on Saturday. Centre Alyn McCauley is an extra forward at the moment, but Quinn could dress Markov or Chris McAllister as a seventh defenceman.
Thursday February 10, 2000 Leafs, Lighting make a deal
Rugged centre Darcy Tucker was acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for speedy winger Mike Johnson and defence prospect Marek Posmyk on Wednesday as the Toronto Maple Leafs made another move to add grit to their NHL lineup.
The Lightning also received Toronto's fifth- and sixth-round picks in this June's draft. The Leafs also got Tampa's fourth-round pick in this June's entry draft and the option to exchange conditional mid-round draft picks with the Lightning in the 2001 draft.
Tucker had 34 points including 14 goals, and 108 minutes in penalties, with the Lightning this season. He's a pugnacious, two-way player. In 282 career games, the former Montreal Canadiens draft pick has 117 points including 49 goals, and 540 PIM.
With its playoff chances hopeless, Tampa Bay (12-34-6-5) has to turn its thoughts to the future. Tucker, 24, has good years ahead of him, but getting two players for one appealed to Lightning GM Rick Dudley.
"He doesn't have the speed of a Mike Johnson, nor the goal-scoring ability of a Mike Johnson, but he adds something in the sandpaper department," explained Bill Watters, assistant to Leafs president Ken Dryden.
Johnson, 25, had 25 points including 11 goals, and 23 penalty minutes this season. In 226 career games, he has 120 points including 48 goals, and 86 PIM.
Posmyk, 21, is in his second season with the AHL's St. John's Maple Leafs. The six-foot-five Czech is the wild card in the trade. He was Toronto's first pick in the 1996 entry draft, and he might develop into a good NHL defenceman.
"The part of the deal that was probably the toughest part was giving up a good young player in Posmyk," said Watters.
Leafs GM-coach Pat Quinn added muscle when he signed free-agent defenceman Gerald Diduck 10 days ago.
Toronto and Tampa Bay have been partners in several trades this season, with the Leafs sending Fredrik Modin south for Cory Cross, then trading Todd Warriner to the Lightning for a third-round pick.
"Excited is an understatement," Watters said of Tucker's response to news of the trade. "He's totally thrilled."
Friday February 5, 2000 Former Leafs gather for last skate at Gardens
As the Heroes of Hockey old-timers gathered for laughs and a skate at Maple Leaf Gardens on Friday afternoon, it dawned on a number of former Toronto Maple Leafs that they were stepping on the ice in this hallowed rink for probably the last time in their lives.
"This is the only home rink I've ever known," said former great Ron Ellis, who played junior hockey with the Toronto Marlboros and over 1,000 NHL games with the Leafs from 1963-81. "I've played my whole career here. This is my home. It means a lot to me."
The Gardens officially hosted its last NHL game on Feb. 13, 1999, but for all of the former Leafs gathered on Friday this was their chance to really say goodbye.
"I was the second star of the first game I ever played here and the first star the last game I ever played here," recalled Paul Henderson, whose famous goal for Team Canada in 1972 overshadowed his seven-year career with the Leafs. "There's a lot of good memories here."
A Gardens employee said Friday that June 30 is when the hockey shrine will officially cease operations. The building is still up for sale.
"It will be interesting to see whether it's sold or whether they can come up with a way to keep it going," Ellis said. "I really hope they do because it deserves to remain an arena. A lot of people in Canada haven't been here yet."
"For me this is a shrine, playing here my whole career," said former Leafs centre Dan Daoust. "It's going to be a sad day when they finally tear it down."
The reality of Friday's skate at the Gardens wasn't lost on former goalie Allan Bester.
"I walked in and all the emotions came back," he said. "You look up at the rafters . . . it's just a dream come true to come back."
The beauty of Friday's gathering was that for all the legendary names like Sittler, Ellis, McDonald and Mahovlich there were also the Besters, Daousts and Leemans on hand.
There was no effort to try and hide the dark decade of the 1980s, when the Leafs where the laughing-stock of the NHL.
"Things have changed a lot since I've been here," said former Leafs captain Rick Vaive, easily Toronto's best player during that decade. "It brings back memories, for sure. It's kind of a double-edged sword, though -- you're glad you played in the era you did and you got a chance to play here, but on the other hand, you kind of wish you could be part of the success that's going on now because you weren't able to have that when you played here."
Vaive and the rest of the former Leafs will play a team of NHL old-timers tonight (7 p.m. EST, CBC).
Bester, looking even shorter than he did in the 1980s, walked into the old Leafs locker-room and shook his head.
"I can't believe this room was that small," said the pint-size Bester, who faced a barrage of shots as Leafs goalie from 1983-1991.
Bester, now living in Orlando, Fla., says he felt like a kid in a candy store on Friday.
"I'm just so thrilled that I was invited," he said. "It's like being 19 again walking into this dressing room and seeing all the guys."
Bester is also thrilled to see the Leafs turn things around.
"It's great to see the team being run with a winning attitude," he said. "With (Leafs president) Ken Dryden being here, a great hockey man, willing to put the money on the table to bring the right players in to be a contender."
Thursday February 4, 2000 Leafs officially dump Kris King
The Maple Leafs officially removed forward Kris King from their active roster on Thursday, although they weren't sure where he would end up.
The Leafs say they assigned King, who cleared waivers, to a minor-league club not yet decided.
King, 33, had one goal, four assists and 53 penalty minutes in 33 games this season.
Wednesday February 2, 2000 Clark drives bolt through Lightning in return to Tampa
The hair is thinner, the knees a bit creakier and, at age 33, he is a step slower -- if that's possible.
But one thing that hasn't changed about No. 17 is the Wendelmania magic that has provided a hockey-mad city with so many thrills over the years.
Ever since Wendel Clark re-signed with Toronto nine games ago, Maple Leafs fans have longed for a glimpse of the Clark of old. Last night, he complied.
In a game the Leafs truly deserved to lose, Clark scored twice in the third period as part of a furious five-goal Toronto comeback that resulted in a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in front of 10,073 stunned fans at the Ice Palace.
The Leafs trailed 3-0 late in the second period and 3-1 entering the third.
Steve Thomas, Mats Sundin and Igor Korolev, with an empty-netter, also scored for Toronto.
Mike Sillinger, Pavel Kubina and Chris Gratton had the Lightning goals.
Clark's goals -- his first since returning to the Leafs for his third go-round -- lifted a weight off his shoulders.
"It's really fun being able to contribute like that again," Clark said. "I really enjoyed it.
"But the biggest thing is the win. I mean, to be able to come back like that was huge. (Falling behind) is just not a habit we really want to get in to."
Clark was playing at the Ice Palace for the first time since he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings by the Lightning late last season. For much of the game, neither he nor the rest of the Leafs gave the large Canadian contingent on hand much to cheer about.
"That's Wendel," Leafs general manager/coach Pat Quinn said. "It might look like he's not doing much out there and then, bang, suddenly he has put it in the net."
Clark's heroics aside, Quinn is losing patience with his team's penchant of cruising during the early part of games before shifting into high gear.
Last Saturday at home, Toronto trailed the Los Angeles Kings 2-0 heading into the final 20 minutes only to respond with three goals to win the game.
"It's kind of disconcerting," Quinn said. "This very well could have been quite the embarrassing night for us.
"I'm happy to get the win, sure, but we really have to break this pattern. Once you get into the post-season, playoff teams won't let you come back like this."
The Leafs looked to be nothing more than Florida road kill when Gratton zipped a perfect shot past Curtis Joseph at 14:13 of the second period to put Tampa Bay up 3-0.
Enter Thomas, who authored the turning point by getting the Leafs on the board just 23 seconds after Gratton's goal. Thomas is Toronto's hottest player of late, scoring six times in the past four games.
After killing off a four-minute double-minor to Cory Cross for high sticking early in the third, the Leafs narrowed the gap to 3-2. Clark, on a three-on-one with Yanic Perreault and Mike Johnson, broke down the left side and ripped his patented wrist shot past Lightning goalie Dan Cloutier at 9:23.
Sundin, on a backhand, and Clark, on a deflection, scored 29 seconds apart to put the Leafs ahead.
"We had a bad start in the first," Sundin said. "We played pretty good in the second and third.
"Really, though, we were lucky to get back and win."
Tuesday February 1, 2000 Kris King remains with Leafs
Veteran forward Kris King was still the property of the Toronto Maple Leafs after no other NHL team claimed him off waivers by the noon deadline Tuesday.
King, who turns 34 in two weeks, had one goal and four assists in 33 games this season. In 830 career games, he has 64 goals and 85 assists, and more than 2,000 minutes in penalties.
GM-coach Pat Quinn dropped King from the roster to make room for Gerald Diduck after signing the free-agent defenceman last week. Quinn now can assign King to the St. John's AHL farm club, loan him to an IHL team, arrange a buy-out of his contract, or keep him around if needed as an injury fill-in.