Any way you slice it, an ex-Leaf is coming home to Toronto for NHL playoffs

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So many people have worked in the so-called “centre of the hockey universe,” it’s no surprise the Maple Leafs are certain to meet a coach with past ties to their organization in the first round of these playoffs.

Whether it’s the likely date with Travis Green’s Ottawa Senators or another against Paul Maurice’s Florida Panthers, both men certainly know their way around Hogtown and Scotiabank Arena.

The series set up could be determined Tuesday when Toronto is in Buffalo, needing one point to win the Atlantic Division and draw the Sens. Or, if Florida takes at least one point from Tampa Bay the same night, preventing the Bolts from catching the Leafs, it also preserves an all-Ontario match.

Green, a 200-game Leafs forward in the early 2000s, one of only three with a multiple playoff overtime-winning goal this century, has the pesky Sens back in the Stanley Cup hunt in his first year behind their bench. He had the Leafs’ number all this regular season, as the Sens were the only NHL team to sweep Toronto in at least three games.

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And Green’s team didn’t squeak into their wild-card berth, winning seven of their past 10.

“We want to go in on top of our game,” Green said after weekend wins against Montreal and Philadelphia. “It’s hard to mimic playoffs. You really have to push yourself to raise your urgency, your intensity level.

“But a lot of teams are in the same boat.”

Green previously coached the Vancouver Canucks, making the playoffs once, and mopped up late last season for the Devils before Sheldon Keefe departed the Leafs for New Jersey.

Maurice coached the Leafs in 2006-08, the difficult post-Pat Quinn era. He’d come back to the NHL after a long stint in Hartford/Carolina via the AHL Toronto Marlies.

The Leafs didn’t make the playoffs in either year, but a rejuvenated Maurice went on to 40 and 50 wins in Winnipeg and Florida, capturing the Cup last season.

The Panthers have been resting key personnel, at least ones that aren’t already hurt or suspended.

“The players (in the lineup) are taking the game seriously,” Maurice said after beating the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout on Saturday. “There’s not a lot of movement in the standings for us. We are winding up for playoffs. I like their professionalism.”

Both Green and Maurice would be buoyed to know history is on the side of former Leafs who come back as coaches at playoff time (though Craig Berube played here once, too, before winning a Cup in St. Louis).

Two years ago, there was no sentiment when Maurice’s Panthers bossed the Leafs around in their second-round victory, part of the reason Berube was hired and some skill sacrificed for more snarl. Before his Toronto tenure, Maurice’s Hurricanes also eliminated the Leafs in the 2002 Conference final.

Departed Leafs coaches and players resurfacing at playoff time goes way back to 1944. Dick Irvin Jr. had won the 1932 Stanley Cup, was fired by Conn Smythe and gained revenge in the 1944 semifinal, going on to the title itself.

Some other prominent playoff series involving opposing coaches who previously had a Maple Leafs connection:

2023

Giddy fans were chanting ‘We Want Florida’ in Maple Leaf Square after the Leafs finally won their first opening-round series since 2004. But the Panthers were too heavy, won the first three games and limited the high-flying Leafs to two goals per contest. The series ended in overtime with Radko Gudas roaring in Joseph Woll’s face.

1999

As the Leafs’ cerebral new coach with his first-generation VCR, Roger Neilson had led Toronto to its greatest playoff upset of the Ballard era in 1978, taking out the New York Islanders in seven games. Twenty years and six coaching assignments later, Neilson’s Philadelphia Flyers lost to Pat Quinn’s Leafs, with a team-record-low nine goals in the six opening-round games.

1994

Quinn, the former Leafs defenceman, was taking the Vancouver Canucks to the Cup final and the Leafs were a little worn down from two lengthy rounds. Getting a split in Toronto against Pat Burns’ Leafs. Quinn’s club took advantage of the cross-country format and won the next three at home.

1993

Barry Melrose accrued 420 penalty minutes for the Leafs in the early 1980s, but he and his Los Angeles Kings were bent on denying a Montreal-Toronto Cup final. That meant roughing up Doug Gilmour and Melrose’s cousin, Wendel Clark. Did we mention Wayne Gretzky’s ‘game of his life’ in the deciding match at the Gardens?

1981

This time, bespectacled former Leafs defenceman Al Arbour would not be denied. Three years after Lanny McDonald’s overtime goal eliminated the Isles, Arbour’s team crushed Toronto three straight by a 20-4 goal margin, part of their four straight Cups.

lhornby@postmedia.com

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