Fallen Leafs

theendofculture:

For as long as I have been a Leafs fan they have always been characterized by a bad defence. Since the early 90s the best defenceman patrolling the blueline was Dmitri Yushkevich. For a few years pre-lockout, when referees were hesitant to call the can-opener, Bryan McCabe flirted with being an actual defenceman. You may laugh, but his stats prove he wasn’t always the whipping boy Leafs’ Nation turned him into by the end of his tenure.

Despite having a perpetually weak defence, the Leafs managed to make four appearances in the conference finals and were a competitive team for the majority of this period of time. The reason for this was their goaltending. Felix Potvin, Curtis Joseph, and Ed Belfour all stole games for the Leafs. With confidence in a goalie that could bail them out when things went awry (and with Todd Gill or Aki Berg they certainly went awry), the Leafs could take the risks they needed to pace their offence. I can recall both Joseph and Belfour absolutely stealing games from the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs when the Leafs had no business beating the Sens.

Unfortunately, the Leafs resigned an aging Eagle for one more year too many and they have been plagued with goaltending problems ever since. They traded for Raycroft. That didn’t work. They traded for Toskala. That hasn’t worked (although I have yet to give up on the Finn). But it looks like that now, with the Monster, the Leafs finally have a goaltender that is capable of stealing some games.

At this stage, the Leafs don’t really have any business winning games. But with Gustavsson they have a chance. If they go down a goal or two he makes sure the game stays close. He gives them a chance to win. And that’s really all you can ask from your goaltender.

Jonas Gustavsson has been a salvo of hope for the Leafs. As for Vesa Toskala, there are many scribes that have described his demise and at this point, he would be lucky to maintain his stead as a backup goaltender.

As for the Leafs defence, not since Borje Salming has the team had a stalwart franchise defenceman. But Pat Burns brought a strong defensive system in the early 1990s that fell on the wayside with Pat Quinn’s run and gun offence. Curtis Joseph bailed out the team at many junctures, that is true. But do I miss the crazy Russians of Dmitry Yuskevich and Danny Markov patrolling the backline. They were fearless, physical, and straight up scary. Truculence is always being bandied about to describe this year’s team, but fearlessness is still a characteristic missing from the Leafs.

But those traits will come into place, especially when a team has an emerging stud in net to cover mistakes and steal games for a still rebuilding team.