The most crushing Leaf playoff defeats in my lifetime….

Today I want to get away from the contract soap opera stuff hanging over the Leafs and talk about something a little different.  And I don't mean former Maple Leaf General Manager Brian Burke, who as we all now know has become President of Hockey Operations for the recently floundering Flames.  

So with training camp (well almost; rookie camp, at least) here, it seems like a safe  time of the year to raise today's old-time memory, when we Leaf supporters are not in the midst of that right-on-the-surface emotion of NHL playoff hockey.  Let me explain.

When we cheer for a particular team, there are certain games that, when we look back, really stand out in our memory.  They just do.  It can be for good reasons, or it can be because we were so disappointed and heartbroken that the team we have a deep rooting interest in lost.

Now when it comes to the Maple Leafs, well, we all know that the Leafs have lost plenty over the years.  They certainly have since I became a follower of this franchise back in the late 1950s- most notably, of course, since 1967. (But hey, the early '60s were pretty sweet for Leaf followers- at least those of us who were around at the time!)  But what I’m talking about today are those games, especially at playoff time, that hurt more than others—games that, if I stop and think about them, still sting to this very day.

For today, I’ll focus on five games throughout my history following the club that stick out in a singularly painful way.  (This is more chronological order than necessarily which game was most upsetting…)

1965 semi-finals, Game 6 versus Montreal

In the early spring of 1965, the Leafs were gunning for their four consecutive Stanley Cup.  (If you’re a young Leaf fan, you may not be able to quite imagine that.)  They were life and death to beat the Red Wings the season before for their third Cup in a row but fortunately, they won.

They added ex-Hab great Dickie Moore (left) before the 1964-'65 season. Moore was making a comeback after a serious off-ice knee injury and a year away from the game. The Leafs also brought in netminder Terry Sawchuk (a future Hall-of-Famer), so they seemed good to go for yet another Cup run.  In fact, Johnny Bower and Sawchuk, if I remember correctly, teamed up to win the Vezina Trophy that season (in those days, that went to the goalie with the best goals-against average.  They shared it though Sawchuk played a bit more than Bower.  He actually insisted the league change the rule so Bower’s name would be on the trophy, too.)

In their semi-final series that spring against Montreal, the Leafs were trailing the Habs going into Game 6 in Toronto.  I was listening on the radio in my bedroom, because my Dad, a steadfast and highly emotional Montreal supporter was watching in the nearby den. When the game went into overtime, I slid into bed while still listening to the game.  I was so nervous.  I’ll never forget (since it was the radio, I believe it was Foster Hewitt’s voice) that sinking feeling the moment I heard Montreal had scored.  (I always get confused as to whether it was Claude Provost or Gilles Tremblay who scored, but I’m sure it was one of them.)  I was almost 12 at the time and it was such a lousy feeling.  I hated the Habs but more importantly, the Leafs were no longer champions.  That one stands out.

1971 quarter-finals against the Rangers, Game 4

I’ve written extensively here about the 1970-’71 Maple Leaf team.  It had a tremendous blend of young, eager kids and old guys with experience.  Jacques Plante and young Bernie Parent shared the net.  Bobby Baun was the godfather of an otherwise “kiddie corps” defense (Ley, Selwood, Glennie, McKenny, Pelyk, Dorey).  (That's Baun, below right, with a young Rick Ley in a great early '70s Dan Baliotti photo.)  Dave Keon and Norm Ullman (and the ageless George Armstrong) were the oldsters on a team that had up and coming players like Jim Harrison, Darryl Sittler and Brian Spencer.

After three games in the series the Leafs were, shockingly, leading the Rangers (who were a great team in those days—Park, Giacomin, Hadfield, Ratelle, Neilson, Gilbert and ex-Leafs Bob Nevin, Pete Stemkowski and Tim Horton) two games to one.  But after a big win on Saturday night at Maple Leaf Gardens in Game 3, Toronto had to play right away the next night at home.  They never played on Sundays at the Gardens back then and they stunk out the joint.  I’ve always felt they would have benefited from an off-day between games.  It was 4-0 before you knew it and that was pretty much the game.  The Leafs never recovered, though they later took Game 6 to overtime.

I loved that particular Leaf squad and really thought an upset was in the making.  But Game 4 let the air out of my balloon- and theirs.

1977 quarter-finals against Philadelphia Game 3

That spring in the playoffs, we were playing a still rough and tumble (and talented) Flyer side that had won the Cup twice just a few years earlier.  The Leafs beat the Flyers right at the Spectrum in the first two games of the series.  We had tough guys like Kurt Walker and Scott Garland on that team, along with our stars like Sittler, Salming,  Palmateer, Turnbull, McDonald and Tiger Williams, etc..

Right after Game 2 in Philadelphia was when Tiger uttered the famous phrase (on national television) that the Flyers were “done like dinner”.

Apparently not.

In Game three (I was at that game), the Leafs jumped out to a 2-0 lead at home. The Flyers were totally out of sorts.  But Philly eventually chipped away to tie the score.  Just when the Leafs looked like they were out of gas mid-way through the third period, Errol Thompson scored on a quick backhander, somewhat against the run of play, as they say in soccer.  It looked like his goal would stand up, but a Borje Salming clearing attempt did not get out of the zone in the last minute, and Bobby Clarke was relentless until the Flyers tied the game.  They won in OT and then the same thing happened in Game 4 at the Gardens. The Leafs were, well, done like dinner.

1993 semi-finals against the Kings Game 6 (and 7)

Do I really need to say much?  Those of you who were around at the time well remember what happened.  Leading the series three games to two, the Leafs were trailing the Kings in Game 6 at the old LA Forum.  But Wendel Clark played one of the games of his life and triggered a Leaf comeback.  Then the ref missed the Gretzky high stick on Gilmour.  Instead of being tossed from the game, Gretzky ended up scoring the winner in overtime.

Game 7 was like climbing a hill you were never going to get up.  The Leafs played their hearts out but the Kings won that one, too.  (Bob Mackenzie, then with the Toronto Star, wrote before Game 6 that Gretzky had been playing like he had a piano on his back.  He sure didn't after that...)  Depression is too serious a word to throw around lightly, but strictly in the fan/hockey sense, the outcome of that series was depressing.  Numbing, in fact.  It felt like the everyone in the city of Toronto was walking around in a daze the next day. It still feels like we were somehow cheated.

It would have been a Montreal-Toronto final.  Oh well.  It's good that I don't hang on to things, eh?

2002 semi-finals against Carolina, Game 6

If ever there was a year I thought we would get to the finals, it was in the spring of 2002.  We had a very strong team (imagine, as I noted the other day, if we had still had a healthy Bryan Berard) and bulled our way into round three, with Cujo in net.  And lucky for us, we drew the Carolina Hurricanes—the Carolina Hurricanes.  I mean, they had some nice players and everything but c’mon.

Lo and behold the Canes were somehow leading the series three games to two before Game 6 in Toronto.  (They had home ice advantage because they finished first in the “Little Sisters of the Poor” division or whatever it was called back then, though the Leafs had more points in the regular season.)  Just when we looked like toast, Mats Sundin (left) scored with second left in regulation time to send the game into extra time.

Then, in overtime, the uber-talented but ever frustrating Alex Mogilny, rather than clearing the zone when he had the puck on his stick near the side boards in his own end, inexplicably threw it back behind his own net, whereupon the Hurricanes pounced on it. The puck was in the net before I could yell at Sir Alex from my chair.

As Mogilny said (this may not be an exact quote, but pretty darn close) after the game, when asked why he passed the puck to nowhere in particular: “I had to put it somewhere”. OK.  Now we understand.

Five games.  Five losses.  Five excruciatingly painful memories.  Five playoffs series I felt (hoped?) would end differently.  And I haven’t even included the Game 7 loss against the Bruins this past May.  I know from chatting with people here at VLM that that loss has stayed with a lot of Leaf fans a long time.

Part of this exercise for me is sharing the pain—so by all means share your own memories of painful playoff Leaf losses…