A great memory from ’93, Kadri's rebound, Morgan Rielly and much more on “Leaf Matters” Episode 7

For many modern-era Maple Leaf supporters, the playoff run in the spring of 1993 has been the highlight of their Toronto hockey “fandom”.  (I'm a fan of 2002 as well, but we can discuss that another day...)  Those of you who were around at the time understand why.  That was the year of the Doug Gilmour coming-out party.  He became, for many Leafers, "Dougie"--forever.  

A relatively healthy Wendel Clark took center stage as well with some dominant individual performances in each of the three series the Leafs were part of that magical spring—against the Red Wings, Blues and of course, Wayne Gretzky’s LA Kings.

A lot of us felt (the missed Gretzky high-stick on Gilmour aside, but we Leaf fans don’t hold on to things, eh?) that the blue and white deserved to be in the finals that year, but it wasn’t to be.  Wouldn’t it have been amazing to be able to play the hated Habs in the finals, in what would have been a rematch of sorts of the legendary ’67 Canadian Centennial year series.

Sadly, the classic head-to-head match of two historic franchises never happened.

Nonetheless, that was a fun team to follow—in part because of the emergence of the “kid” in goal, Felix Potvin (right), and that superb Pat Burns no-name defense of Gill, Lefebvre, Mironov, Macoun, Rouse  and Ellett.

Winger Mike Foligno was part of that team, and he of the famous Game 5 overtime winner against the Red Wings is one of the names discussed in the latest "Leaf Matters" podcast –Episode 7.

In this episode we talk a bit about that memorable Leaf squad but we also focus on the present.  In particular, Matteo Codispoti from We Want a Cup and I discuss Nazem Kadri's point production surge since his "healthy scratch" a couple of weeks ago (now 12 points in six games after Thursday's Marlie loss in Binghamton), and whether Morgan Rielly should even be considered as part of the Leaf training camp roster—if and when we ever have an NHL season. (Leaf GM Brian Burke recently stated that the 18 year-old Rielly would be invited to camp, and if he played well enough, could earn a spot on the team...)

As I’ve mentioned here before, Leaf Matters is what it is:  just two long-time Leaf fans, from somewhat different generations (I’m older than Matteo by close to 20 years) batting around the topics of the day.  We don’t pretend to be broadcasters or journalists or any of that.  We’re not trying to compete with the mainstream media or any other broadcasts out there.  We are simply two old-time Leaf observers who want to do a show by fans for the great Leaf supporters all around the world.

We have already done some interviews on the show (ex-Leaf goaltender Allan Bester was great when he joined us recently) and plan to do more.  We will also be chatting with fellow bloggers, writers and Leaf fans in the weeks ahead.

Of course, Matteo and I hope there will soon be NHL hockey, but surprisingly, there has still been plenty to talk about even without the Leafs in action.

For those interested, here is the link to the iTunes podcast link of “Leaf Matters”:

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/leaf-matters/id577173646

For those who don’t use or subscribe to iTunes, here is the link to the Podalmighty broadcast site (Leaf Matters is part of the “Podalmighty” network)

‪http://podalmighty.com/wp-content/uploads/Leaf-Matters-7.mp3 …

We invite anyone who enjoys the show to spread the word, if they can.  By all means encourage people to check us out and send their comments on the show via iTunes, or leave a comment here at VLM or at We Want a Cup as well.

Any show ideas, just send them our way.

With American Thanksgiving weekend in full swing, best wishes to the wonderful U.S.-based friends I’ve been able to connect with here and on Twitter since VLM was launched more than three years ago.

And thanks for visiting and staying with VLM during the lockout!