On the last day of the 2013 regular season the Leafs found themselves in an unfamiliar position: they were about to make the playoffs for the first time since the season-long lockout in 2004-2005. Their first playoff series in 9 years found them squaring off against the Boston Bruins. The Leafs later became a part of history when the Bruins became the first team in NHL history to win a game 7 when trailing by three goals in the third period.
One of the key topics of discussion following the Leafs loss last Monday was the absence of top centre man Tyler Bozak to an upper body injury. Bozak missed the final two games of the regular season as well as the final two games of the playoff series with the Bruins. It was revealed after the loss that the centre had a torn oblique muscle at the end of the regular season and then tore a triceps muscle on his final draw of game 5. Bozak took almost every important draw for the Leafs and his absence was apparent in the final two games of the series with Boston seeming to gain possession after every faceoff.
The Eastern quarter final matchup saw the Leafs snap a 54-year winless drought at home against the Bruins in the playoffs. The last time they were victorious was a 3-2 overtime win March 31, 1959. It also gave Phil Kessel the chance to play his first post-season series against his former team, and he turned out to be one of the Leafs’ most effective forwards despite being matched up against 6’9” Zdeno Chara and being booed by the Boston fans each time he touched the puck on the road.
James VanRiemsdyk was the Leafs leading scorer in the post-season with 7 points (Phil Kessel and Cody Franson were close behind with 6 points each), and Mikhail Grabovski nearly became a Youtube sensation after attempting a lacrosse style goal from behind the Bruins net in Game 5.
One huge positive that came out of the playoffs returning to Toronto was the atmosphere in Maple Leafs Square outside the Air Canada Centre where each game could be viewed by the public for free on a large screen. Yonge street was flooded with blue and white for each game, even for last Sunday’s game in the pouring rain; Nick Kunzle (3A Mechanical) described watching the game on the big screen as“…easily one of the greatest sporting events I’ve ever been to”.
To put the Leafs’ season into perspective since the season was shortened to 48 games this year, their projected point total over a full 84 game season would have been 97 points, shattering their previous season total of 80 points. This year’s first round exit served as a valuable learning experience for the youngest team in the playoffs and is hopefully the start of consistent playoff hockey in Toronto (The Leafs have some work to do if they want to break the Detroit Red Wings’ record of 22 straight post-season appearances).
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